Sunday, January 5, 2014

Gone With the Wind Actress Alicia Rhett Dead at 98


Alicia Rhett, Gone with the Wind


The oldest surviving cast member of 1939's Gone With the Wind has died.
Alicia Rhett, whose only movie role was in the Oscar-winning drama, passed away at the age of 98 from natural causes around 5 p.m. Friday, a spokesperson for he Bishop Gadsden Episcopal Retirement Community in Charleston, S.C., where Rhett was living, told People.
George Cukor, the original director of Gone With the Wind, discovered the Savannah, Ga. native while she was performing in a theater production in Charleston, S.C..
He later cast Rhett as India, Ashley Wilkes' (Leslie Howard) sister in the film, after considering her for the role of Melanie Hamilton, which later went to Olivia De Havilland.
Rhett reportedly was a budding artist, who sketched her costars during production of the film.
Some of her art work can still be seen in the South Carolina State Library and children's books like South Carolina and the Indians, according to the mag.
Only three other major Gone With the Wind cast members are still alive in the wake of Rhett's passing—93-year-old Mary Anderson, who played Maybelle Merriweather, 81-year-old Mickey Kuhn, who played Beau Wilkes and 97-year-old Olivia De Havilland.

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