Evelyn Keyes, 91; actress, author best known for a bit part in 'Gone With the Wind'
In the oeuvre of actress Evelyn Keyes, the role of Suellen O'Hara was a "bit part," nothing like the leading roles she played in later films, or her real-life role as wife of directors John Huston and Charles Vidor and jazz musician Artie Shaw.
But by playing Suellen, Scarlett O'Hara's jilted younger sister in the 1939 film classic "Gone With The Wind," Keyes earned a place in Hollywood history that no other film could have given her.
"I got to star in my own movies," Keyes once said, reflecting on her career. "I even had my name above the title in some cases. But what am I known for? My bit part. It's very funny."
Keyes, who in later years became a screenwriter and author, died of cancer July 4 at an assisted-living home in Montecito, said Allan Glaser, a producer and executor of Keyes' estate. She was 91.
"She lived five lives in one," said Glaser. Well into her 80s, she continued running and writing.
Shortly after she arrived in Los Angeles in 1936, Keyes was discovered in true Hollywood fashion: Someone saw her eating at a restaurant, which ultimately led to her meeting director Cecil B. DeMille, Glaser said. DeMille placed Keyes under personal contract. Producer David O. Selznick cast her as Suellen.
"Gone With the Wind" was only Keyes' second film, but "she was a good workman; she knew what he was doing," actress Ann Rutherford, who in the film played another sister, Careen, told The Times. "We met on the set. . . . We did almost all of our scenes together. We picked cotton together."
Neither of them imagined that the film would become a classic. Critic Leonard Maltin in his "2008 Movie Guide" described the move as "if not the greatest movie ever made, certainly one of the greatest examples of storytelling on film."
The titles of Keyes' autobiography and its sequel make references to the movie: "Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister: My Lively Life In and Out of Hollywood" was published in 1977, and "I'll Think About That Tomorrow" appeared in 1991.
"I wasn't writing a book about the movies," Keyes said of her literary work. "I was writing about survival."
Keyes was born in Port Arthur, Texas, on Nov. 20, 1916, though some sources list later dates. She was raised in Atlanta and worked as a dancer before moving to California.
