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Jul 31, 2019 · 21K. 1.1M views 4 years ago. 80 years ago, Gone With The Wind took America by storm...with Vivien Leigh leading the charge. Her performance is considered one of the greatest in film history,...
- 1913–1934: Early Life and Acting Debut
- 1935–1939: Early Career and Laurence Olivier
- Gone with The Wind
- 1940–1949: Marriage and Early Collaborations with Olivier
- 1949–1951: Play and Film Roles in A Streetcar Named Desire
- 1951–1960: Struggle with Mental Illness
- 1961–1967: Final Years and Death
Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley on 5 November 1913 in British India on the campus of St. Paul's School in Darjeeling, Bengal Presidency. She was the only child of Ernest Richard Hartley, a British broker, and his wife, Gertrude Mary Frances (née Yackjee; she also used her mother's maiden name of Robinson). Her father was born in Scotland in 1882...
Leigh's friends suggested she take a minor role as a schoolgirl in the film Things Are Looking Up, which was her film debut, albeit uncredited as an extra. She engaged an agent, John Gliddon, who believed that "Vivian Holman" was not a suitable name for an actress. After rejecting his many suggestions, she took "Vivian Leigh" as her professional na...
Hollywood was in the midst of a widely publicised search to find an actress to portray Scarlett O'Hara in David O. Selznick's production of Gone with the Wind (1939). At the time, Myron Selznick—David's brother and Leigh's American theatrical agent—was the London representative of the Myron Selznick Agency. In February 1938, Leigh asked Myron that ...
In February 1940, Jill Esmond agreed to divorce Laurence Olivier, and Leigh Holman agreed to divorce Vivien, although they maintained a strong friendship for the rest of Leigh's life. Esmond was granted custody of Tarquin, her son with Olivier. Holman was granted custody of Suzanne, his daughter with Leigh. On 31 August 1940, Olivier and Leigh were...
Leigh next sought the role of Blanche DuBois in the West End stage production of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and was cast after Williams and the play's producer Irene Mayer Selznick saw her in The School for Scandal and Antigone; Olivier was contracted to direct. The play contained a rape scene and references to promiscuityand hom...
In 1951 in London, Leigh and Laurence Olivier performed two plays about Cleopatra, William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, alternating the play each night and winning good reviews. They took the productions to New York, where they performed a season at the Ziegfeld Theatre into 1952. The reviews th...
Merivale proved to be a stabilising influence for Leigh, but despite her apparent contentment, she was quoted by Radie Harris as confiding that she "would rather have lived a short life with Larry [Olivier] than face a long one without him". Her first husband Leigh Holman also spent considerable time with her. Merivale joined her for a tour of Aust...
- Actress
- List of awards and nominations
- 1935–1967
- Suzanne Farrington
Rather than an outfit with a corset and maxi petticoats, the cut of her dress is a close-body fit, a sensual and polar-opposite piece in comparison to what the other women in the room are wearing. With her plunging sweetheart neckline and burgundy ostrich feathers, Scarlett O’Hara steals the show.
Nov 5, 2013 · It took two years and hundreds of auditions to cast Scarlett O’Hara in 1939’s “Gone With the Wind.” But Vivien Leigh, born 100 years ago today, knew from the start that she’d get the part.
Nov 4, 2016 · Getty Images. Though perhaps most famous for bringing the role of Scarlett O'Hara to life in Gone with the Wind (for which she won her first Academy Award), English actress Vivien Leigh...
- Visuals Director
Apr 2, 2014 · Vivien Leigh was a British actress who achieved film immortality by playing two of American literature's most celebrated Southern belles, Scarlett O'Hara and Blanche DuBois.
Sep 30, 2021 · (Original Caption) Head and shoulders portrait of British actress Vivien Leigh, wearing ruffles and ribbons as Scarlett O'Hara in the film 'Gone with the Wind', 1939. Short title SF26439
