JOAN FONTAINE DIES AT AGE 96

Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine has died in Carmel, California at age 96. She won the Oscar (at age 24) in 1942 for Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion and received Oscar nominations for her performances in three other films. She had risen to stardom two years earlier in another Hitchcock film, Rebecca. She and her sister, Olivia de Havilland were estranged throughout most of their lives, a condition that Fontaine attributed to their personal and professional rivalry. The weekend was marked by word of the deaths of two other prominent Hollywood personalities. Actor-writer-director Tom Loughlin, best known for his Billy Jack movies, died at the age of 82. And Audrey Totter, who starred in such 1940s films as Lady in the Lake, The Set-Up, and High Wall, died in West Hills, CA at age 95. In the 1940s and early ’50s, Totter’s distinctive sultry, breathy voice made her one of the most frequent guest stars on network radio dramas.