1913–1934: Early life and acting debut Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley on 5 November 1913 in
British India 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, while her mother, a devout
Catholic, was born in Darjeeling in 1888 and might have been of Irish,
Parsi Indian, and
Armenian ancestry. Gertrude's parents, who lived in India, were Michael John Yackjee, an
Anglo-Indian man of independent means, and Mary Teresa Robinson, who was born to an
Irish family killed during the
Indian Rebellion of 1857 and grew up in an orphanage, where she met Yackjee; they married in 1872 and had five children, of whom Gertrude was the youngest. Ernest and Gertrude Hartley were married in 1912 in
Kensington, London. In 1917, Ernest Hartley was transferred to
Bangalore as an officer in the
Indian Cavalry, while Gertrude and Vivian stayed in
Ootacamund. At the age of three, Vivian made her first stage appearance for her mother's amateur theatre group, reciting "
Little Bo Peep". Gertrude Hartley tried to instill an appreciation of literature in her daughter and introduced her to the works of
Hans Christian Andersen,
Lewis Carroll and
Rudyard Kipling, as well as stories of
Greek mythology and
Indian folklore. At the age of six, Vivian was sent by her mother from
Loreto Convent, Darjeeling, to the Convent of the Sacred Heart (now
Woldingham School) then situated in
Roehampton, Middlesex. One of her
school friends there was future actress
Maureen O'Sullivan, two years her senior, to whom Vivian expressed her desire to become "a great actress". She was removed from the school by her father, and travelling with her parents for four years, she attended schools in Europe, notably in
Dinard (Brittany, France),
Biarritz (France), the Sacred Heart in San Remo on the Italian Riviera, and in Paris, becoming fluent in both French and Italian. The family returned to Britain in 1931. She attended
A Connecticut Yankee, one of O'Sullivan's films playing in
London's West End, and told her parents of her ambitions to become an actress. Shortly after, her father enrolled Vivian at the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. , in the 1950s Vivian met Herbert Leigh Holman, known as Leigh Holman, a barrister 13 years her senior, in 1931. Despite his disapproval of "theatrical people", they married on 20 December 1932 and she terminated her studies at RADA, her attendance and interest in acting having already waned after meeting Holman. On 12 October 1933 in London, she gave birth to a daughter, Suzanne Holman, later
Suzanne Farrington.
1935–1939: Early career and Laurence Olivier 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 name. Gliddon recommended her to
Alexander Korda as a possible film actress, but Korda rejected her as lacking potential. She was cast in the play
The Mask of Virtue, directed by Sydney Carroll in 1935, and received excellent reviews, followed by interviews and newspaper articles. One such article was from the
Daily Express, in which the interviewer noted that "a lightning change came over her face", which was the first public mention of the rapid changes in mood that had become characteristic of her.
John Betjeman, future
poet laureate, described her as "the essence of English girlhood". Korda attended her opening night performance, admitted his error, and signed her to a film contract. She continued with the play but, when Korda moved it to a larger theatre, Leigh was found to be unable to project her voice adequately or to hold the attention of so large an audience, and the play closed soon after. In the playbill, Carroll had revised the spelling of her first name to "Vivien". In 1960, Leigh recalled her ambivalence towards her first experience of critical acclaim and sudden fame, commenting that "some critics saw fit to be as foolish as to say that I was a great actress. And I thought, that was a foolish, wicked thing to say, because it put such an onus and such a responsibility onto me, which I simply wasn't able to carry. And it took me years to learn enough to live up to what they said for those first notices. I find it so stupid. I remember the critic very well and have never forgiven him." In the autumn of 1935 and at Leigh's insistence,
John Buckmaster introduced her to Laurence Olivier at the
Savoy Grill, where he and his first wife
Jill Esmond dined regularly after his performance in
Romeo and Juliet. Olivier had seen Leigh in
The Mask of Virtue earlier in May and congratulated her on her performance. Olivier and Leigh began an affair while acting as lovers in
Fire Over England (1937), while Olivier was still married to Esmond and Leigh to Holman. During this period, Leigh read the
Margaret Mitchell novel
Gone with the Wind and instructed her American agent to recommend her to
David O. Selznick, who was planning a film version. She remarked to a journalist, "I've cast myself as Scarlett O'Hara", and
The Observer film critic
C. A. Lejeune recalled a conversation of the same period in which Leigh "stunned us all" with the assertion that Olivier "won't play
Rhett Butler, but I shall play Scarlett O'Hara. Wait and see." Despite her relative inexperience, Leigh was chosen to play Ophelia to Olivier's
Hamlet in an
Old Vic Theatre production staged at
Elsinore, Denmark. Olivier later recalled an incident when her mood rapidly changed as she was preparing to go onstage. Without apparent provocation, she began screaming at him before suddenly becoming silent and staring into space. She was able to perform without mishap, and by the following day she had returned to normal with no recollection of the event. It was the first time Olivier witnessed such behaviour from her. They began living together, as their respective spouses had each refused to grant either of them a divorce. Under the moral standards then enforced by the film industry, their relationship had to be kept from public view. Leigh appeared with
Robert Taylor,
Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan in
A Yank at Oxford (1938), which was the first of her films to receive attention in the United States. During production, she developed a reputation for being difficult and unreasonable, partly because she disliked her secondary role but mainly because her petulant antics seemed to be paying dividends. After dealing with the threat of a lawsuit brought over a frivolous incident, Korda instructed her agent to warn her that her option would not be renewed if her behaviour did not improve. Her next role was in
Sidewalks of London, also known as ''St. Martin's Lane'' (1938), with
Charles Laughton. Olivier had been attempting to broaden his film career. He was not well known in the United States despite his success in Britain, and earlier attempts to introduce him to American audiences had failed. Having been offered the role of
Heathcliff in
Samuel Goldwyn's production of
Wuthering Heights (1939), Olivier travelled to Hollywood, leaving Leigh in London. Goldwyn and the film's director,
William Wyler, offered Leigh the secondary role of Isabella, but she refused, preferring the role of Cathy, which went to
Merle Oberon.
1939: Gone with the Wind and Leigh in
Gone with the Wind (1939).
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 she be considered to play the part of Scarlett O'Hara. David O. Selznick watched her performances that month in
Fire Over England and
A Yank at Oxford and thought that she was excellent but in no way a possible Scarlett because she was "too British". Leigh travelled to Los Angeles, however, to be with Olivier and to try to convince David Selznick that she was the right person for the part. Myron Selznick also represented Olivier and when he met Leigh, he felt that she possessed the qualities that his brother was searching for. According to legend, Myron Selznick took Leigh and Olivier to the set where the burning of the
Atlanta Depot scene was being filmed and stage-managed an encounter, where he introduced Leigh, derisively addressing his younger brother, "Hey, genius, meet your Scarlett O'Hara." The following day, Leigh read a scene for Selznick, who organized a
screen test with director
George Cukor and wrote to his wife, "She's the Scarlett dark horse and looks damn good. Not for anyone's ear but your own: it's narrowed down to
Paulette Goddard,
Jean Arthur,
Joan Bennett and Vivien Leigh". The director, George Cukor, concurred and praised Leigh's "incredible wildness". She secured the role of Scarlett soon after. Filming proved difficult for Leigh. Cukor was dismissed and replaced by
Victor Fleming, with whom Leigh frequently quarreled. She and
Olivia de Havilland secretly met with Cukor at night and on weekends for his advice about how they should play their parts. Leigh befriended Clark Gable, his wife
Carole Lombard and Olivia de Havilland, but she clashed with
Leslie Howard, with whom she was required to play several emotional scenes. Leigh was sometimes required to work seven days a week, often late into the night, which added to her distress, and she missed Olivier, who was working in
New York City. On a long-distance telephone call to Olivier, she declared: "Puss, my puss, how I hate film acting! Hate, hate, and never want to do another film again!" Quoted in a 2006 biography of Olivier, Olivia de Havilland defended Leigh against claims of her
manic behaviour during the filming of
Gone with the Wind: "Vivien was impeccably professional, impeccably disciplined on
Gone with the Wind. She had two great concerns: doing her best work in an extremely difficult role and being separated from Larry [Olivier], who was in New York."
Gone with the Wind brought Leigh immediate attention and fame, but she was quoted as saying, "I'm not a film star—I'm an actress. Being a film star—just a film star—is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity. Actresses go on for a long time and there are always marvellous parts to play." The film won ten
Academy Awards, including
Best Actress for Leigh, who also won the
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress.
1940–1949: Marriage and early collaborations with Olivier 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 married at the
San Ysidro Ranch in
Santa Barbara, California, in a ceremony attended only by their hosts,
Ronald and Benita Colman and witnesses,
Katharine Hepburn and
Garson Kanin. Leigh had made a screen test and hoped to co-star with Olivier in
Rebecca, which was to be directed by
Alfred Hitchcock with Olivier in the leading role. After viewing Leigh's screen test, David Selznick noted that "she doesn't seem right as to sincerity or age or innocence", a view shared by Hitchcock and Leigh's mentor, George Cukor. Selznick observed that she had shown no enthusiasm for the part until Olivier had been confirmed as the lead actor, so he cast
Joan Fontaine. He refused to allow her to join Olivier in
Pride and Prejudice (1940), and
Greer Garson played the role Leigh had wanted for herself.
Waterloo Bridge (1940) was to have starred Olivier and Leigh; however, Selznick replaced Olivier with Robert Taylor, then at the peak of his success as one of
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's most popular male stars. Her top billing reflected her status in Hollywood, and the film was popular with audiences and critics. in
That Hamilton Woman (1941) The Oliviers mounted a stage production of
Romeo and Juliet for
Broadway. The New York press publicised the adulterous nature of the beginning of Olivier and Leigh's relationship and questioned their ethics in not returning to the UK to help with the
war effort. After Olivier enrolled in the
Fleet Air Arm, he served for two years as a pilot, resigning his commission in 1943 as a lieutenant-commander. Ultimately,
Ralph Richardson and others dissuaded him, convincing Olivier that his contribution to the war effort should be on stage and in film. Critics were hostile in their assessment of
Romeo and Juliet.
Brooks Atkinson for
The New York Times wrote: "Although Miss Leigh and Mr. Olivier are handsome young people, they hardly act their parts at all." While most of the blame was attributed to Olivier's acting and direction, Leigh was also criticised, with
Bernard Grebanier commenting on the "thin, shopgirl quality of Miss Leigh's voice". The couple had invested almost all of their combined savings of $40,000 () in the project, and the failure was a financial disaster for them. The Oliviers filmed
That Hamilton Woman (1941) with Olivier as
Horatio Nelson and Leigh as
Emma Hamilton. With the United States not yet having entered the war, it was one of several Hollywood films made with the aim of arousing a pro-British sentiment among American audiences. The film was popular in the United States and an outstanding success in the
Soviet Union.
Winston Churchill arranged a screening for a party that included
Franklin D. Roosevelt and, on its conclusion, addressed the group, saying, "Gentlemen, I thought this film would interest you, showing great events similar to those in which you have just been taking part." The Oliviers remained favourites of Churchill, attending dinners and occasions at his request for the rest of his life; and, of Leigh, he was quoted as saying, "By Jove, she's a clinker." The Oliviers returned to Britain in January 1941, and Leigh toured through North Africa in 1943 as part of a revue for the armed forces stationed in the region. She reportedly turned down a studio contract worth $5,000 a week () in order to volunteer as part of the war effort. Leigh performed for troops before falling ill with a persistent cough and fevers. In 1944, she was diagnosed as having tuberculosis in her left
lung and spent several weeks in hospital before appearing to have recovered. Leigh was filming
Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) when she discovered she was pregnant, then had a
miscarriage. Leigh temporarily fell into a deep depression that hit its low point with her falling to the floor, sobbing in a hysterical fit. This was the first of many major bipolar disorder breakdowns. Olivier later came to recognise the symptoms of an impending episode—several days of hyperactivity followed by a period of depression and an explosive breakdown, after which Leigh would have no memory of the event, but would be acutely embarrassed and remorseful. With her doctor's approval, Leigh was well enough to resume acting in 1946, starring in a successful London production of
Thornton Wilder's
The Skin of Our Teeth; but her films of this period,
Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) and
Anna Karenina (1948), were not great commercial successes. All British films in this period were adversely affected by a Hollywood boycott of British films. In 1947, Olivier was
knighted and Leigh accompanied him to
Buckingham Palace for the investiture. She became Lady Olivier. By 1948, Olivier was on the board of directors for the
Old Vic Theatre, and he and Leigh embarked on a six-month tour of Australia and New Zealand to raise funds for the theatre. Olivier played the lead in
Richard III and also performed with Leigh in
The School for Scandal and
The Skin of Our Teeth. The tour was an outstanding success and, although Leigh was plagued with
insomnia and allowed her understudy to replace her for a week while she was ill, she generally withstood the demands placed upon her, with Olivier noting her ability to "charm the press". Members of the company later recalled several quarrels between the couple as Olivier was increasingly resentful of the demands placed on him during the tour. The most dramatic altercation occurred in
Christchurch, New Zealand, when her shoes were not found and Leigh refused to go onstage without them. Olivier screamed an obscenity at her and slapped her face, and a devastated Leigh slapped him in return, dismayed that he would hit her publicly. Subsequently, she made her way to the stage in borrowed pumps, and in seconds, had "dried her tears and smiled brightly onstage". By the end of the tour, both were exhausted and ill. Olivier told a journalist, "You may not know it, but you are talking to a couple of walking corpses." Later, he would observe that he "lost Vivien" in Australia. The success of the tour encouraged the Oliviers to make their first
West End appearance together, performing the same works with one addition,
Antigone, included at Leigh's insistence because she wished to play a role in a
tragedy.
1949–1951: Play and film roles in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) 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
promiscuity and
homosexuality, and was destined to be controversial; the media discussion about its suitability added to Leigh's anxiety. Nevertheless, she believed strongly in the importance of the work. When the West End production of
Streetcar opened in October 1949,
J. B. Priestley denounced the play and Leigh's performance; and the critic
Kenneth Tynan, who was to make a habit of dismissing her stage performances, commented that Leigh was badly miscast because British actors were "too well-bred to emote effectively on stage". Olivier and Leigh were chagrined that part of the commercial success of the play lay in audience members attending to see what they believed would be a salacious story, rather than the
Greek tragedy that they envisioned. The play also had strong supporters, among them Noël Coward, who described Leigh as "magnificent". After 326 performances, Leigh finished her run, and she was soon assigned to reprise her role as Blanche DuBois in the
film version of the play. She established a rapport with
Marlon Brando, but she had an initial difficulty in working with director
Elia Kazan, who was displeased with the direction that Olivier had taken in shaping the character of Blanche. Kazan had favored
Jessica Tandy and later, Olivia de Havilland over Leigh, but knew she had been a success on the London stage as Blanche. He later commented that he did not hold her in high regard as an actress, believing that "she had a small talent." As work progressed, however, he became "full of admiration" for "the greatest determination to excel of any actress I've known. She'd have crawled over broken glass if she thought it would help her performance." Leigh found the role grueling and commented to the
Los Angeles Times, "I had nine months in the theatre of Blanche DuBois. Now she's in command of me." Olivier accompanied her to Hollywood where he was to co-star with
Jennifer Jones in
William Wyler's
Carrie (1952). Leigh's performance in
A Streetcar Named Desire won glowing reviews, as well as her second
Academy Award, the
BAFTA Award for Best British Actress, the
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, and the
Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the
Venice Film Festival. Tennessee Williams commented that Leigh brought to the role "everything that I intended, and much that I had never dreamed of". Leigh herself had mixed feelings about her association with the character; in later years, she said that playing Blanche DuBois "tipped me over into madness".
1951–1960: Struggle with mental illness 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 there were also mostly positive, but film critic
Kenneth Tynan angered them when he suggested that Leigh's was a mediocre talent that forced Olivier to compromise his own. Tynan's
diatribe almost precipitated another collapse; Leigh, terrified of failure and intent on achieving greatness, dwelt on his comments and ignored the positive reviews of other critics. In January 1953, Leigh travelled to
Ceylon to film
Elephant Walk with
Peter Finch. Shortly after filming commenced, she had a nervous breakdown and
Paramount Pictures replaced her with
Elizabeth Taylor. Olivier returned her to their home in Britain, where, between periods of incoherence, Leigh told her husband she was in love with Finch and had been having an affair with him. Over a period of several months, she gradually recovered. As a result of this episode, many of the Oliviers' friends learned of her problems.
David Niven said she had been "quite, quite mad".
Noël Coward expressed surprise in his diary that "things had been bad and getting worse since 1948 or thereabouts". Leigh's romantic relationship with Finch began in 1948, and waxed and waned for several years, ultimately flickering out as her mental condition deteriorated. Also in 1953, Leigh recovered sufficiently to play
The Sleeping Prince with Olivier, and in 1955 they performed a season at
Stratford-upon-Avon in Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night,
Macbeth and
Titus Andronicus. They played to capacity houses and attracted generally good reviews, with Leigh's health seemingly stable.
John Gielgud directed
Twelfth Night and wrote, "... perhaps I will still make a good thing of that divine play, especially if he will let me pull her little ladyship (who is brainier than he but
not a born actress) out of her timidity and safeness. He dares too confidently ... but she hardly dares at all and is terrified of overreaching her technique and doing anything that she has not killed the spontaneity of by over-practice." In 1955, Leigh starred in
Anatole Litvak's film
The Deep Blue Sea; co-star
Kenneth More felt he had poor chemistry with Leigh during the filming. In 1956, Leigh took the lead role in the Noël Coward comedy
South Sea Bubble, but withdrew from the production when she became pregnant. Several weeks later, she miscarried and entered a period of
depression that lasted for months. She joined Olivier for a European tour of
Titus Andronicus, but the tour was marred by Leigh's frequent outbursts against Olivier and other members of the company. After their return to London, her former husband, Leigh Holman, who could still exert a strong influence on her, stayed with the Oliviers and helped calm her. In 1959, when she achieved a success with the Noël Coward comedy
Look After Lulu!, a critic working for
The Times described her as "beautiful, delectably cool and matter of fact, she is mistress of every situation". Considering her marriage to be over, Leigh began a relationship with actor
John Merivale in 1960, who knew of Leigh's medical condition and assured Olivier that he would care for her. That same year, she and Olivier divorced and Olivier soon married actress
Joan Plowright. In his autobiography, Olivier discussed the years of strain they had experienced because of Leigh's illness: "Throughout her possession by that uncannily evil monster, manic depression, with its deadly ever-tightening spirals, she retained her own individual canniness—an ability to disguise her true mental condition from almost all except me, for whom she could hardly be expected to take the trouble."
1961–1967: Final years and death 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 Australia, New Zealand and Latin America that lasted from July 1961 until May 1962, and Leigh enjoyed positive reviews without sharing the spotlight with Olivier. Though she was still beset by bouts of depression, she continued to work in the theatre and, in 1963, won the
Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in
Tovarich. She also appeared in the films
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) and
Ship of Fools (1965). Leigh's last screen appearance in
Ship of Fools was both a triumph and emblematic of her illnesses that were taking root. Producer and director
Stanley Kramer, who ended up with the film, planned to star Leigh but was initially unaware of her fragile mental and physical state. Later recounting her work, Kramer remembered her courage in taking on the difficult role, "She was ill, and the courage to go ahead, the courage to make the film—was almost unbelievable." Leigh's performance was tinged by paranoia and resulted in outbursts that marred her relationship with other actors, although both
Simone Signoret and
Lee Marvin were sympathetic and understanding. In one unusual instance during the attempted rape scene, Leigh became distraught and hit Marvin so hard with a spiked shoe that it marked his face. Leigh won the ''L'Étoile de Cristal
for her performance in Ship of Fools''. In May 1967, Leigh was rehearsing to appear with
Michael Redgrave in
Edward Albee's
A Delicate Balance when her tuberculosis resurfaced. Following several weeks of rest, she seemed to recover. On the night of 7 July 1967, Merivale left her as usual at their
Eaton Square flat to perform in a play, and he returned home just before midnight to find her asleep. About thirty minutes later (by now 8 July), he entered the bedroom and discovered her body on the floor. She had been attempting to walk to the bathroom and, as her lungs filled with fluid, she collapsed and suffocated. Merivale first contacted her family and later was able to reach Olivier, who was receiving treatment for
prostate cancer in a nearby hospital. In his autobiography, Olivier described his "grievous anguish" as he immediately travelled to Leigh's residence, to find that Merivale had moved her body onto the bed. Olivier paid his respects, and "stood and prayed for forgiveness for all the evils that had sprung up between us", before helping Merivale make funeral arrangements; Olivier stayed until her body was removed from the flat. A
Catholic service for Leigh was held at
St. Mary's Church, Cadogan Street in London. Her funeral was attended by stars of British stage and screen. According to the provisions of her will, Leigh was
cremated at the
Golders Green Crematorium and her ashes were scattered on the lake at her summer home, Tickerage Mill, near
Blackboys,
East Sussex, England. A memorial service was held at
St Martin-in-the-Fields, with a final tribute read by John Gielgud. In 1968, Leigh became the first actress honoured in the United States by "The Friends of the Libraries at the
University of Southern California". The ceremony was conducted as a memorial service, with selections from her films shown and tributes provided by such associates as George Cukor, who screened the tests that Leigh had made for
Gone with the Wind, the first time the screen tests had been seen in thirty years. == Artistry and legacy ==