Clark Gable was so distressed over the requirement that he cry on film (during the scene where Melanie is comforting Rhett after Scarlett's miscarriage) that he almost quit. Olivia de Havilland convinced him to stay.
Billie Burke (best remembered today as Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz) was considered for Aunt Pittypat Hamilton, but the producers thought she was too young (she was 54).
Vivien Leigh wasn't happy with Victor Fleming's brusque style after the careful nurturing she had enjoyed with George Cukor. When she asked him for direction in one scene, he told her "Ham it up". On another occasion when she asked for his constructive advice, he told her to "take the script and stick it up her royal British ass". After Cukor's departure, Leigh had to fight hard to keep the movie's Scarlett true to her view. Fleming's interpretation of her was that she was an out-and-out bitch as in the novel and that he had no desire to create any sympathy or insight for her.
Vivien Leigh worked for 125 days and received about $25,000. Clark Gable worked for 71 days and received over $120,000.
Vivien Leigh worked for 125 days and received about $25,000. Clark Gable worked for 71 days and received over $120,000.
Vivien Leigh's daughter was attending private school in Vancouver, BC when the movie premiered there on February 16, 1940. She was at the Vancouver premiere, though unannounced, at her mother's insistence.
Vivien Leigh's daughter was attending private school in Vancouver, BC when the movie premiered there on February 16, 1940. She was at the Vancouver premiere, though unannounced, at her mother's insistence.
Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to be nominated for, and win, an Academy Award.
Hattie McDaniel met with David O. Selznick in full costume in a successful effort to beat her main rival Louise Beavers to the part.
Hattie McDaniel was cast as Mammy after Louise Beavers, Etta McDaniel, Ruby Dandridge, and Hattie Noel were briefly considered.
Mickey Kuhn, who played Vivien Leigh's nephew Beau Wilkes, also played the young sailor who helps her onto the streetcar in A Streetcar Named Desire. When Kuhn mentioned to someone else on the set that he had acted with Leigh as a child, word got back to her and she called him into her dressing room for a half-hour chat. In an interview in his seventies, Kuhn stated that Leigh was extremely kind to him and "one of the loveliest ladies he had ever met."
Fred Crane's first filmed acting role. He spoke the first line in the movie.
Melvyn Douglas, Robert Young, 'Douglas Fairbanks Jr', Lew Ayres and Ray Milland all auditioned for the part of Ashley Wilkes.
Leslie Howard privately felt that he was much too old to play Ashley Wilkes (the character was supposed to be about 21 at the start of the film). He wore extra make-up and a hairpiece to make him appear younger. Selznick was only able to persuade him to take the part by offering him a producer credit on Intermezzo: A Love Story.
Leslie Howard was one of the few cast members not to attend the premiere in Atlanta.
Margaret Mitchell was dismayed at the scale of the Tara and Twelve Oaks sets, writing to her friend, technical advisor Susan Myrick, "I grieve to hear that Tara has columns. Of course, it didn't and looked nice and ugly like Alex Stephens' Liberty Hall in Crawfordville, Georgia." And, "I had feared, of course that Twelve Oaks would end up looking like the Grand Central Station, and your description confirms my worst apprehensions. I did not know whether to laugh or to throw up at the TWO staircases.... God help me when the reporters get me after I've seen the picture. I will have to tell the truth, and if Tara has columns and Twelve Oaks is such an elegant affair I will have to say that nothing like that was ever seen in Clayton County, or, for that matter, on land or sea.... When I think of the healthy, hardy, country and somewhat crude civilization I depicted and then of the elegance that is to be presented, I cannot help yelping with laughter... "
Margaret Mitchell wrote her novel between 1926 and 1929. In her early drafts, the main character was named "Pansy O'Hara" and the O'Hara plantation we know as Tara was called "Fountenoy Hall."