Vivien Leigh (pronounced Lee) was one of the most beautiful women ever born.  Unfortunately, beauty doesn't guarantee a lifetime of happiness. 

Born an only child in Darjeeling, India on November 5, 1913, dark brown haired, blue-green eyed Leigh's birth name was Vivian Mary Hartley.  Her British father, a trader of sorts, and her mother, who would later run The Academy of Beauty Culture for three decades, moved the family back to England when Vivian was six years old. 

Vivien studied in Europe to become fluent in French and Italian.  Throughout her entire life, she continued to study languages, including German, and would eventually dub her own films.

She married British barrister Leigh Holman when she was nineteen.  The two had a child, Suzanne, in 1933. 

After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, she changed her name to Vivien Leigh.  Her first stage role in The Mask of Virtue in 1935 was worthy of critical note.  Later that year, she made her film debut in Things Are Looking Up. 

In a 1937 costume epic, Fire Over England, she co-starred with Lawrence Olivier (pronounced O-live-ē-ā) whom she called him Larry.  Seven years older, he was her on-screen lover as well as her lover in reality.  Their affair was kept private for two years, but eventually became public knowledge.  The sneaking around and guilt is said to have added wild passion to their situation since both Leigh and Olivier were married to other people.

A year later, Leigh moved to Hollywood to be with Olivier and to test for the most coveted film role in history, Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind.  Casting directors had been sent around the United States and tested over 1000 women for the part.  On December 10, 1938, while they were filming the famous "burning of Atlanta” scene, Olivier introduced Leigh to producer David O. Selznick.  There in the glimmer from the dancing flames, Selznick knew he had his Scarlett because, simply, she had "the look.”  After rehearsals and screen tests the next week, Selznick told 26 year old Leigh she was hired during a dinner party at his house.  Leigh had won the coveted role of the southern belle over well-known actresses like Paulette Goddard, Lucille Ball, Loretta Young, Joan Crawford and Katherine Hepburn. 

Leigh practiced a southern accent for weeks.  The filming took 122 days, ending on June 27, 1939.  Gone With The Wind (to Fox Theater) premiered in Atlanta, Georgia on December 15, 1939 to rave reviews. 

Leigh won an Academy Award for Best Actress in that movie.  (Near the end of the twentieth century, her Oscar sold at auction by Sotheby's in New York, $563,000.)  Leigh was paid the grand sum of $25,000 with no royalties.  This was not considered a huge amount of money at the time; however, the success of the role gave her more control over future parts. 

Of Scarlett, Leigh is quoted as having said: "When Scarlett wanted something from life, she schemed about how to get it.  That was her trouble.  I just plunge ahead without thinking.  That's my trouble.  Every so often, I bump into stone walls and have to pick myself up and climb over them.  Also, she commented, "I hope I've one thing that Scarlett never had.  A sense of humor.  I want some joy out of life.  And she had one thing I hope I never have.  Selfish egotism.”

Both Leigh and Olivier were now huge stars whose partners couldn't endure the humiliation of their affair.  In 1940, both Leigh's husband Leigh Holman, and Olivier's wife, Jill Esmond, divorced their respective spouses.  The two lovers wed in August 1940 at San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, the same place that Jacqueline and John Kennedy honeymooned.

Leigh tried to be a "regular person,” enjoying her homes, always near the water.  She enjoyed flower arranging, fashion, interior designing, crossword puzzles, cats, and gin and soda with lemon.  She and Olivier tried for a family of their own, but that ended in two miscarriages.  In 1947, Olivier was knighted and for the next ten years, Leigh was known as Lady Oliver.

Still living in the United States, the two performed on stage in Romeo and Juliet and appeared in the films Twenty-One Days, in 1940, and That Hamilton Woman, in 1941.  They returned to England to act together on stage and even toured in Australia performing classic works like Antony and Cleopatra.

Their bliss was interrupted by Leigh's illness, which was diagnosed as tuberculosis in 1945.  She was also stuck with manic depression.  Her mood swings and hallucinations were violent and uncontrollable.  Often she had no recollection afterward.  This affected her ability to work.  And at that time, there was no medication, short of sedation, that was available to relieve the condition.

Some wonder if her performance as an aging, tortured southern belle, Blanche DuBois, in 1951's A Streetcar Named Desire, was no "stretch” for her since her personal life was likewise tortured.  She won a second Academy Award as Best Actress for Streetcar.

Leigh was originally hired to star in Elephant Walk in 1954.  She was replaced by Elizabeth Taylor when she was unable to complete the project.  Leigh can still be seen in some distant shots in that movie, however.

Olivier needed stability.  He was unable to endure Leigh's unpredictable and extreme moods, wild parties and affairs.  Despite her TB, she refused to quit smoking Players, her favorite cigarette, which contributed to his frustration.  After twenty years of marriage, Olivier and Leigh were divorced in 1960.  His wish was that they never again meet in person again.

Crushed and feeling abandoned at the loss, Leigh took a companion, actor Jack Merivale.  Sick on and off, mentally and physically, she did speak to Olivier, now married to actress Joan Plowright, by phone once when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which he survived.  But that was the last and only time.

Despite her heartache, Leigh went on to win a 1963 Tony Award for Best Actress in Tovarich.  Her last performance was on stage in Ivanov with Merivale.

On July 8, 1968, Merivale found Leigh dead on the floor of her pink rose chintz bedroom.  Her cat was her only company.  The next Saturday night, London theatres turned off their outside lights at 10 p.m. in tribute to her.  Her casket was blanketed with white roses from her garden and a funeral was held at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in London on July 12, 1967 at 10 a.m.  Oliver wasn't there, but his son, Tarquin, attended in his father's stead.  Oliver did attend a memorial service on August 15^th, hiding behind pillars in the back of the room.  Leigh's ashes were scattered on a lake on October 8, 1967.

The star kept photos of Olivier on her bedside table and by her make-up mirror.  Although the actual cause of death is listed as tuberculosis, some still say that the loss of Olivier was the true cause.   And it might have been mutual.  While he loved his wife, Joan, until his death in 1989, it was reported that in his later years, while sitting in the dark, watching one of Leigh's old black and white movies and weeping, he was overheard to have said, "This, this was love.  This was the real thing.”

Vivien Leigh loved hard and lived hard.  She said, "I would rather of lived a short life with Larry than face a long one without him.” 

Her illness robbed us of what might have been many more brilliant performances.  We must count ourselves blessed that so many of her triumphs are permanently captured on film for us to enjoy.

Other films starring Vivien Leigh

1935  Things Are Looking Up

1935  The Village Squire

1935  Gentleman's Agreement    

1935  Look Up and Laugh   

1938  A Yank at Oxford

1955  The Deep Blue Sea