GWTW Actors Fred Crane and Evelyn Keyes Pass Away

The actor who spoke the very first lines in Gone With the Wind, Fred Crane, and the lovely actress who played Scarlett's weak-willed younger sister Suellen, Evelyn Keys, have both died in recent weeks.

Crane played one of the Tarleton twins (the other was played by George Reeves, later the first TV Superman) seeking the attentions of Scarlett O'Hara. His opening lines about the coming Civil War sparked Scarlett's classic response: "Fiddle-de-dee! War, war, war."

Keyes played many other movie roles, but was better known for her off-screen relationships with several of Hollywood's most flamboyant men, including directors John Huston and Charles Vidor, producer Mike Todd and bandleader Artie Shaw. She died of cancer at age 91 in Montecito in July.

Crane, with his good looks and southern accent, continued to act in movies and television until 1960, but was best known as a classical radio announcer at KFAC in Los Angeles. He died earlier this month in a hospital near Atlanta of diabetes complications. He was 90.