Alicia Rhett is an American portrait

Portrait

thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...

 painter and actress who is best remembered for her role as India Wilkes

India Wilkes

India Wilkes is the sister of Ashley Wilkes and the rival of Scarlett O'Hara in the novel and film Gone with the Wind. She's a jealous character who despises Scarlett because Scarlett stole the attention of Stuart Tarleton, who courted India previously. India also resents Scarlett for marrying...

 in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind (film)

Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

. She is the oldest surviving cast member of the movie. Also surviving is Olivia de Havilland

Olivia de Havilland

Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...

 (born July 1, 1916), who played India's sister-in-law Melanie Wilkes

Melanie Wilkes

Melanie Hamilton Wilkes is a fictional character first appearing in the novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. In the 1939 film she was portrayed by Olivia de Havilland...

, Mary Anderson (born April 3, 1920), who played Maybelle Merriweather, and Ann Rutherford

Ann Rutherford

Ann Rutherford is a Canadian-American actress in film, radio, and television. She has had a long career starring and co-starring in films, playing Polly Benedict on the big screen of the 1930s and 1940s in the Andy Hardy series, and on The Bob Newhart Show as Newhart's character's...

 (born November 2, 1920), who played Scarlett O'Hara's younger sister Carreen O'Hara.

Early years

Rhett was born in Savannah, Georgia

Savannah, Georgia

Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...

. Her mother was Isabelle Murdoch, an immigrant from Liverpool, England, and her father was Edmund M. Rhett, an army officer and engineer based in Savannah. After her father's death during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Alicia and her mother moved to Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

. Rhett became a theatre actress in Charleston.

Gone with the Wind

During a performance of Lady Windermere's Fan

Lady Windermere's Fan

Lady Windermere's Fan, A Play About a Good Woman is a four act comedy by Oscar Wilde, first produced 22 February 1892 at the St James's Theatre in London. The play was first published in 1893...

in 1936, Rhett was spotted by Hollywood director George Cukor

George Cukor

George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...

, who was impressed by her charm and beauty. The director was scouting for an actress to play the role of Scarlett O'Hara

Scarlett O'Hara

Scarlett O' Hara is the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and in the later film of the same name...

 after producer David Selznick purchased the film rights to the Margaret Mitchell

Margaret Mitchell

Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was an American author and journalist. Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937 for her epic American Civil War era novel, Gone with the Wind, which was the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime.-Family:Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta,...

 novel. Previously, Rhett had been suggested by talent scout Kay Brown as a possible Southern belle for that film. Rhett auditioned for the part of Melanie Hamilton, but the role went instead to Olivia de Havilland

Olivia de Havilland

Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...

. In March 1937, Cukor offered Rhett the role of India Wilkes, sister of Ashley Wilkes.

After the success of Gone with the Wind, Rhett left Hollywood and returned to South Carolina and retired from filmmaking in 1941, citing a lack of suitable roles. Rhett later became an accent coach for aspiring actors and a radio announcer at station WTMA in Charleston.

Portrait painter

Prior to appearing in Gone with the Wind, Rhett showed talent as a sketch artist and portrait painter. Between takes on Gone with the Wind, she made sketches and drawings of her fellow actors. Some of her later works included portraits of Admiral Louis Emil Denfeld, and librarian Estellene P. Walker, the latter of which is on display in the South Carolina State Library. Rhett also illustrated a number of books, including South Carolina Indians (1965) written by Beth Causey and Leila Darby. She also painted a prominent Atlanta family's four boys in the 1970s. Of particular note, Charlotte Brown Lide commissioned Ms. Rhett to paint a portrait of her late husband, Claudius Murray Lide, Sr., and the same year painted a reproduction of William Harrison Scarborough's "The Miller Sisters". These two portraits are housed in the home of Claudius Murray Lide, Jr. in Columbia, South Carolina.

External links

• New York Times biography