Celebrity Biographies
Alice Rhett
Alicia Rhett, one of the last members of the cast of “Gone with the Wind”, who was still alive, died on January 3, 2014, at the age of 98, in Charleston, South Carolina, her hometown.
Turned into a stage actress in the 1930s, Alicia Rhett was discovered during one of her performances by Hollywood director George Cukor , who was going to be commissioned to adapt Margaret Mitchell ‘s novel Gone with the Wind , for the cinema. The young Ella auditioned, initially to play Melanie Hamilton, but the role famously went to Olivia de Havilland . Eventually, Cukor recruited her to play India Wilkes, Ashley’s ( Leslie Howard ) sister, a role she retained when Victor Fleming became the film’s final director.
Despite the fact that the southern epic made history after its premiere, Rhett left Hollywood, claiming that they did not offer her interesting roles, and returned to South Carolina in 1941. Since then she has worked as a voiceover teacher, and resumed her artistic facet as a cartoonist and painter. .
Gone with the Wind stars Mary Anderson (Maybelle Merriwether) and Mickey Kuhn (Beau Wilkes) are still alive .