By Peter Mikelbank
Accomplished and alluring, Olivia de Havilland dated her share of Hollywood's most dashing power players at the height of her career.
Now, the Gone with the Wind actress, who turned 100 last Friday, reflects on the high-profile romances that intrigued a nation, speaking to PEOPLE about her deep feelings for Errol Flynn, dalliances with John Huston and Howard Hughes - and passing on the role of George Bailey's wife in It's a Wonderful Life because she felt uncomfortable working alongside former love Jimmy Stewart.
"It would have meant playing opposite Jimmy Stewart, home from the wars. I knew it would be awkward to work with him because of our many months together in a sort of high school pre-war romance, which came to an end," she tells PEOPLE in the magazine's new issue.
Stewart and de Havilland shared "many months" together as a couple and at least one historic date when he accompanied her to the New York premiere of Gone With The Wind in 1939.
The couple's budding romance filled gossip columns with rumors of imminent elopement until their relationship ended around the time of Stewart's enlistment in March 1941, nine months before Pearl Harbor.
Five years later, having flown combat missions over Europe, the actor who had previously won an Oscar for Mr. Smith Goes To Washington returned to Hollywood a seemingly changed man. A Princeton graduate (he studied architecture before acting), Stewart's choice for his first post-war role was as George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life - a take on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Before production began, de Havilland was offered the part of Mary Bailey, but turned it down, as did other stars including Ginger Rogers, Jean Arthur, Laraine Day, Martha Scott and Ann Dvorak. Donna Reed ultimately accepted the role.
Curiously, the film, which was rushed into theaters for Christmas 1946, failed at the box-office before earning its place in film history.
Nonetheless, Stewart's performance as George Bailey was recognized that year with an Oscar nomination - as was de Havilland (for her role in To Each His Own).
He lost. She won.