Frankly My Dear... Gone With The Wind Turns 80!

It was the epic that blew the world away

It’s considered one of the best films ever made – a sweeping love story set in Civil War-era Georgia, telling the tale of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara as they navigate love, loss and the battle between Unionists and Confederates.

Gone with the Wind, the movie adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s Story of the Old South, made history from its very beginnings. It was one of the most expensive and ambitious movies ever made – $3.9 million in US currency of the time – went through three directors, and was delayed for two and a half years when producers couldn’t find their “perfect” Scarlett.

But the eventual pairing of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh remains iconic to this day, and the actors took their roles very seriously, says Mickey Kuhn, who played Beau Wilkes.

“The whole world had a very definite idea of Rhett,” he recalls. “[Clark] was terrified of not fulfilling the notion of the character. Vivien seemed anxious too. It was her American debut and she wanted to do an excellent job. You could see it when they were rehearsing – there was a spark.”

Mickey (87) and Dame Olivia de Havilland, who played his on-screen mother Melanie, are the only two cast members still alive – Olivia at an impressive 103 – and he remembers his time on the set with fondness.

“I have very good memories of it,” he says, adding he’s only seen the four-hour film once. “That’s enough!”