Vivien Leigh -- Biography
Born in India to a British stockbroker and his Irish wife, Vivien Leigh first appeared on stage in convent-school amateur theatricals. Completing her education in England, France, Italy and Germany, Leigh continued pursuing acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; she was not a particularly impressive pupil, so she was obliged to continue her training with private tutors. In 1932, Leigh briefly interrupted her pursuit of a theatrical career to marry London barrister Herbert Leigh Holman.
Three years later, she made her professional stage bow in The Sash, which never made it to London's West End; still, Leigh's bewitching performance caught the eye of producer Sydney Carroll, who cast her in her first London play, The Mask of Virtue. She alternated between stage and film work, usually in flighty, kittenish roles, until being introduced to Shakespeare (and vice versa) at the Old Vic. It was there that she met Laurence Oliver, appearing with him on stage as Ophelia in Hamlet and Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and on screen in 1937's Fire Over England. It was the latter picture which brought Leigh to the attention of American producer David O. Selznick, who brought his well-publicized search for the "perfect" Scarlett O'Hara to a sudden conclusion when he cast Leigh as the resourceful Southern belle in 1939's Gone With the Wind. The role won Leigh her first Academy Award, after which she kept her screen appearances to a minimum, preferring to devote her time to Olivier, who would become her second husband in 1940.
Refusing to submit to the Hollywood publicity machine, Leigh and her new husband all but disappeared from view for months at a time. Often there were gaps of two to three years between Leigh's films; the stage would forever remain foremost in her heart. One of her rare movie appearances in the 1950s was as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), a performance that won her a second Oscar. In private life, Leigh began developing the severe emotional and health problems that would eventually destroy her marriage to Olivier and seriously impede her ability to perform on stage or before the camera. Despite her ongoing manic-depressive state, she managed to turn in first-rate performances in such films as The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) and Ship of Fools (1965), and maintained a busy theatrical schedule, including a 1963 musical version of Tovarich and a 1966 Broadway appearance opposite John Gielgud in Ivanov. Leigh was preparing to star in the London production of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance when she was found dead, presumably of tuberculosis, in her London apartment; in tribute to the actress, the lights in London's theatre district were blacked out for an hour. -- Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Gone With The Wind
2/8/01 last updated
Shuming Chang
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