Vivien Leigh (Deceased) With the immortal words “Oh fiddly dee’, this Indian born, American/British actress will always be associated and remembered for her stunning role in the epic movie of Margaret Mitchell’s book. ‘Gone with the Wind’ along with her constant battle with depression. Vivien Leigh was born in Darjeeling, British India on November 5th 1913 a British Army officer in the Indian Cavalry, Ernest Hartley and his wife Gertrude Yackje, who is thought to have originated from Armenian or Parsee Indian ancestry. Vivien was the only child of Gertrude and Ernest and after the family returned to England from India she was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Roehampton, England, where she met her friend, and future actress, Maureen O’Sulivan. Her mother was a member of an amateur theatrical group and that is where Vivien had her first encounter with an audience when she recited ‘Little Bo-Peep’ to her mother’s group. Vivien was given a good grounding in literature when her mother introduced her to the works of Hans Christian Anderson, Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling When Vivien expressed an interest in becoming an actress both her parents were very supportive and enrolled her into R.A.D.A., The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.
When Vivien met her first husband, Herbert Holman, a barrister, she terminated her studies at R.A.D.A. due to his disapproval of theatrical types. The couple were married in December 1932. Together they had a daughter, Suzanne in October 1933 but domestic life was not enough for Vivien and she returned to acting in her first film role, ‘Things are Looking U.’ It was at this time she changed her name from Holeman to Leigh. During her early days in film her success was marred by the refusal of producer, Alexander Korda, to recognize her potential talent when he rejected her stating ‘she was lacking potential.’ Cast in the play ‘The Mask of Virtue’ in 1935, Leigh received excellent reviews followed by interviews and newspaper articles and her first encounter with her future husband, Laurence Olivier. During their appearance together in the movie ‘ Fire over England’ in 1937 her friendship with Olivier developed into an affair. At this time she read Margaret Mitchell’s book ‘Gone with the Wind’ and suggested to David O’ Selznick, who was one of the iconic Hollywood producers of the Golden Age, that she should be cast as Scarlett O’Hara in the movie of the book but that Olivier would not play Rhett Butler to her Scarlett. They had played opposite each other in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, when she was Ophelia and Olivier was Hamlet. Olivier had noted her mood swings at that time and she was diagnosed with manic depression. With her ex-husband and Olivier’s ex-wife not granting either a divorce, Vivien and Oliver began living together. And so it was that Clark Gable was cast in the role of Rhett Butler. During the filming Vivien spent weeks at a time away from Olivier while he lived in New York and she lived in Hollywood. In a letter to her ex-husband she wrote, ‘"I loathe Hollywood, I will never get used to this, how I hate film acting.’ However, ‘Gone with the Wind’ brought Vivien the attention she desired as an actress and she was received an Academy Award for Best Actress. Eventually in 1940 both Vivien and Olivier’s partners granted them divorces and the couple were married in August of that year in Santa Barbara, California with Katherine Hepburn as one of the witnesses to the ceremony.
In the early 1940’ Vivien faced rejection from director Alfred Hitchcock when he remarked that she was not the most suitable actress for ‘Rebecca’ and the part eventually went to Joan Fonatiane. Olivier and Vivien became firm favourites of Britain’s prime Minister during the war years, Winston Churchill, and attended many functions and dinners at his request. After returning to England in 1943, Vivien was diagnosed with tuberculosis but after a number of weeks bed rest she appeared to have been cured. She accompanied Olivier to Buckingham Palace when he was knighted in 1947 by King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. This gave Vivien the title of Lady Olivier, a title she kept even after her divorce from Olivier in 1966. Leigh lived for the rest of her life with a younger actor by the name of Jack Merivale, but it was always believed that Olivier was the greatest love of her life. In 1944, during the filming of ‘Cesear and Cleopatra’ Leigh discovered she was pregnant but miscarried only weeks into the pregnancy. During the filming of ‘A Street Car Named Desire’ Vivien developed a rapport with co-star Marlon Brando and after glowing reviews she won a second Academy Award for Best Actress, a BAFTA Award and a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. Many years later, Leigh commented that playing Blanche DuBois "tipped me over into madness". Vivien’s career continued among periodic bouts of depression and emotional outburst and breakdowns. Even through those times she continued to work in the theatre and in 1963 won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in the Broadway musical Tovarich. In 1967 tuberculosis set in again and Leigh had to rest again until she appeared to be recovering. However, after her friend Merivale had visited her one evening in July he returned after a short while to find her dead on the floor of her bedroom. In 1985, in England, a portrait of her was included in a series of postage stamps, along with other notable film greats, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, Peter Sellers and David Niven to commemorate "British Film Year". ABB |
