De Havilland's former lawyer Suzelle M. Smith said, `Last night, the world lost an international treasure, and I lost a dear friend and beloved client. She died peacefully in Paris.`
Numerous Hollywood figures paid tribute to de Havilland upon the news of her death. SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris extended her sympathies, saying, `Olivia de Havilland was not only beautiful and talented, she was a courageous visionary and an inspiration to generations. She was a marvel and a legend. Rest in peace.`
After winning an Oscar nomination in the supporting category for the role (she lost to co-star Hattie McDaniel), de Havilland began to demand, and occasionally receive, better assignments from Warners, where the most challenging parts usually went to the more demanding Bette Davis, a friend of de Havilland's. She walked away with the 1941 `Strawberry Blonde,` a period comedy with Rita Hayworth and James Cagney, and received her first best-actress Oscar nomination for the 1941 `Hold Back the Dawn,` as a trusting teacher.
She was a presenter at the 2003 Academy Awards, in the documentaries `Melanie Remembers: Reflections by Olivia de Havilland` (2004) and `The Adventures of Errol Flynn` (2005) and the 2011 Cesar Awards in Paris. When looking back over her long career, de Havilland told the Independent she felt she had lived a full life.
`I feel not happy, not contented, but something else. Just grateful for having lived and having done so many things that I wanted to do and have also had so much meaning for other people,` de Havilland said.
She divorced Galante in 1979 but they remained friends till his death from lung cancer in 1998, and lost her son Benjamin, from her marriage with novelist Goodrich, to lymphoma in 1991.
She is survived by her daughter Gisele Galante Chulak, an attorney.