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Vivian Leigh Biography
- Born: 5 November 1913
- Birthplace: Darjeeling, India
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Died: 7 July 1967
(Tuberculosis)
- Best Known As: Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind
Name at birth: Vivian Mary Hartley Vivien Leigh didn't make many films, but she made movie history with her portrayal of Scarlett in Gone With the Wind (1939, opposite Clark Gable), winning her first Oscar. Leigh's affair and marriage to actor Laurence Olivier
was just as famous as her ambitious effort to play the lead in what was
then -- and maybe still is -- Hollywood's biggest event. Her
appearances in film were few and far between, but she won another Oscar
in 1951 for A Streetcar Named Desire (with Marlon Brando). Her marriage to Olivier ended in 196O, and Leigh's final years were spent battling manic-depression and tuberculosis To legions of movie fans, Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) will
best be remembered as the defiant and beautiful Scarlett O'Hara, heroine
of the 1939 movie classic "Gone With the Wind". Leigh
had only a brief career on the British stage and screen when she was
plucked out of relative obscurity for the female lead in what would
become one of the greatest movies ever made. Playing opposite the
charismatic Clark Gable, Leigh became an instant celebrity after her
role as Scarlett O'Hara, and remained so for the rest of her relatively
short, yet sometimes turbulent life. An International Upbringing Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley in India, in the cool mountain region of Darjeeling
in 1913. Her stockbroker father, Ernest Richard, and her mother,
Gertrude, spent half the year in England and half in India, which was
then under British control. Enrolled in a convent boarding school
outside of London at the age of five, Leigh first appeared on stage
three years later in A Midsummer's Night's Dream. She recalled
after that experience that she couldn't remember when she didn't want to
be an actress. The stage would have to wait, however, as she finished
her education. She attended a finishing school in Paris, studied
languages in Italy, and attended a girls' seminary in Bavaria. When she
was 18, her parents sent her to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. The Early Career In
1932, Leigh decided to get serious about her stage career. Married that
year to a London barrister, Herbert Leigh Holman, she took his middle
name, slightly changed the spelling of her first name. She gave birth to
a daughter, Suzanne, in 1933, and got a part in a British film called Things Are Looking
Upin 1934. For Leigh, they were looking up. She landed small parts in
several movies and then won her first stage role in 1935 for a
production of The Green Sash. Although the play never got to
London's famed theater district, her performance caught the attention of
Sydney Carroll, a West End producer. She opened later that year in his The Mask of Virtue.
The critics were smitten; some said as much by her astounding beauty as
her acting ability. However, this role led to her "big break" and she
was signed to a five-year film contract. Although she worked
steadily over the next several years, Leigh's career never brought her
top status. From 1936 to 1939, Leigh appeared in a number of British
stage and screen productions. She was the Queen in Richard II, an
Oxford University student drama production directed by John Gielgud,
who would become one of England's greatest stage performers. She played Anne Boleyn in Henry VIII and Jessica Morton in Bats in the Belfry.
In 1937, she was invited by the Danish government to play Ophelia to
Laurence Olivier's Hamlet. She also appeared on the London stage in the
title role of Serena Blandish. Leigh was busy on the
British silver screen as well. Cast again with Laurence Olivier, she
played a lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth in Fire Over England, in 1937, followed by Dark Journey and Storm in a Teacup. In 1938, she played opposite American screen idol Robert Taylor in A Yank at Oxford, a film that really only boosted Taylor's career. She also appeared with Charles Laughton that year in St. Martin's Lane, which was released in the United States in 1940 as The Sidewalks of London. This role was a bit of a change for Leigh, as she was cast to play a mean and unscrupulous heroine. The Scarlett Legend Begins Leigh came to the United States in 1938, where she visited Olivier on the set of Wuthering Heights.
Sir Laurence Olivier (who was knighted in 1947) was regarded as one of
England's greatest stage actors, noted especially for his Shakespearean roles. Leigh and Olivier had become attracted to each other during the filming of Fire Over England, and their well-publicized romance became a main topic of gossip, especially since they were both already married. While
Leigh and Olivier were spending time together, waiting for their
divorces so they could marry, David O. Selznick was looking for a star.
It was January 1939, and he was still without an actress to play the
most publicized, sought-after role in movie history-Scarlett O'Hara, the
extraordinary southern belle who is the main character in Gone With The Wind. Even
without Scarlett, the movie was already in production. Selznick had
cast the other important roles: Clark Gable as Rhett Butler, who proves
to be more than a match for Scarlett; Leslie Howard as the quiet,
gentlemanly Ashley Wilkes, whom Scarlett believes she loves; Olivia de Havilland as the gentle Melanie Hamilton, whom Wilkes marries; and Hattie McDaniel as the black servant who runs Tara with a blustery
but devoted sense of duty. Even though many actresses, including Joan
Crawford and Lucille Ball, tested for the part, Selznick still had not
found the right person. As noted in the "Pre-Production" section of the Gone With the Wind Homepage, Selznick's brother Myron,
a talent agent, showed up on the set as they were filming the scene of
the burning of Atlanta. He told his brother, "I want you to meet
Scarlett O'Hara." According to the website, "The shadowy figure stepped
forward, green eyes glinting in the half-light. Selznick always
maintained that from the moment he first saw Vivien Leigh,
the flames of Atlanta playing across her face, he had known she was
Scarlett. She was later given a screen test, but it was only a
formality. The part was hers-a storybook
ending to a legendary search." As noted in the website, Leigh later
commented, "There were dozens of girls testing and I did not seriously
consider that I might actually play the part." The filming of Gone With the Wind was officially completed about five months later. According to the "Post-Production" section of the Gone With the Wind Homepage, Leigh had worked almost non-stop for five months and was totally exhausted. However, she would soon reap the benefits of her dedication to the project. Critics called Leigh's performance flawless
and brilliant, and she went on to win the Academy Award for Best
Actress. The film won several other Academy Awards, including Best
Picture, and over the years its fame has hardly diminished. From
relative obscurity, the name of Vivien Leigh became known worldwide. Life After Scarlett In 1940, Leigh and Olivier starred in Romeo and Juliet
in New York, but they did not get good reviews. The disappointment was
forgotten a few months later when the couple finally wed in August. That
December they sailed for wartorn England where Olivier served in the
Royal Navy and Leigh worked for the equivalent of the American USO. The
couple made the film That Hamilton Woman in 1941. According to the Times, Leigh had "hoped to join the Old Vic Company (a highly respected repertory
company) on her return to England…. the director was of the opinion
that her new celebrity would make it impossible for her to fit in." Leigh continued to bask in the adoration
of her fans for her memorable portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara, but she
received praise for other work as well. In 1945, she played a
16-year-old Cleopatra in Caesar and Cleopatra and then appeared in the London production of The Skin of Our Teeth, directed by her husband. Soon after the play opened, Leigh's illness forced its closing for a time while she recuperated. According to her biography on a Gone With the Wind website, "Always frail, Leigh saved her limited stamina
for her frequent stage appearances. Bouts of physical illness and
mental breakdowns also cast a tragic shadow over the brightness of her
many achievements. Leigh once again found success when she
portrayed Blanche Du Bois, the female lead in Pulitzer Prize winning
play by Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire. In the
London stage production, she was directed by Olivier. In the film
version, she was directed by Elia Kazan, and in 1951, Leigh won her
second Academy Award for the role. Also in 1951, Leigh and Olivier
appeared at the St. James in London, during the Festival of Britain.
According to the Times, "when this theatre was about to be demolished
six years later, she led a vigorous if unsuccessful movement to save it, interrupting a debate in the House of Lords in order to protest." Leigh and Olivier divorced in 1960, but she continued to work in the theatre. In 1963, she made her Broadway musical debut in Tovarich. She made her last film, Ship of Fools, in 1965, and died on July 8, 1967, in London. According to the Times, "on the night of her death all theaters in the West End extinguished their exterior lights for an hour as a sign of mourning." As noted by her biography on a Gone With the Wind
website, Leigh will be best remembered for her portrayals of Scarlett
O'Hara and Blanche Du Bois. Her biography states, "Although she was
British, she played the part of the Southern belle to perfection…. Those
two sterling performances alone would qualify her for immortality, and
she won Academy Awards for Best Actress in both of them." Further Reading Bridges, Herb, 'Frankly, My Dear …': Gone With the Wind Memorabilia (Motion Pictures), Mercer University Press, 1995. Bridges, Herb, and Terryl C. Boodman, Gone With the Wind: The Definitive Illustrated History of the Book, the Movie and the Legend, Fireside, 1989. Katz, Ephraim, The Film Encyclopedia, Harper, 1990. Walker, Alexander, Vivien: The Life of Vivien Leigh, Grove Press, 1989. Times (London), July 10, 1967. |
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