Oscar-winner Joan Fontaine, 96, dies OSCAR-WINNING actress Joan Fontaine has died at the age of 96. Long-time friend Noel Beutel says she died in her sleep in her Carmel home Sunday morning. Fontaine won an Academy Award as a naive wife in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Suspicion and also starred in Hitchcock's Rebecca. Her other films included The Women, Jane Eyre and Born to be Bad. Fontaine was the sister of fellow actress Olivia de Havilland.