Vivien Leigh: Gone Too Soon

Touted as one of the most beautiful actresses of her day, the lovely Vivien Leigh was born an only child of British Cavalry officer and Yorkshire stockbroker Ernest Hartley and his wife Gertrude Robinson Yackje in Darjeeling, India on November 5th, 1913.
Her parents wanted to return their family to England but had to wait until after the war, and upon arrival her mother enrolled her in the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Roehampton, England in 1920 to give her a proper education.
Vivling (as her father called her-a combination of Vivien and darling) acquired best friend status there with future actress Maureen O'Sullivan and confided in her her wishes to become an actress. Expressing the same sentiment to her parents, they then enro
lled her in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London in 1932.
That same year she met and married British barrister Herbert Leigh Holman and adopted his middle name as her professional/stage name.
On October 12th, 1933 she gave birth to daughter Suzanne and even though she delighted in becoming a mother, nothing seemed to fill the void of her desire to become an actress.
In 1934 Vivien made her screen debut in Things Are Looking Up with a one line role and the
following year she appeared in small parts, acquiring her first starring role in 1935's The Mask of Virtue which was a major flop but made Leigh an overnight sensation.
She was quickly signed to a 5-year contract by film producer Alexander Korda and appeared in 1937's Fire Over England along with 21 Days with co-star Laurence Olivier.
During filming the pair fell in love, although they were both still married; Leigh as you recall to Holman and Olivier to actress Jill Esmond.
Leigh left Holman shortly thereafter and began a courtship with Laurence-who would not?
In 1938 she filmed A Yank at Oxford with my Robert Taylor then traveled with Olivier to Hollywood-he to star in Wuthering Heights and she to audition for the highly coveted role of southern belle Scarlet O'Hara in David O. Selznick's production of Gone with the Wind. Reportedly David's brother introduced Leigh to David with the words: "Hey genius, meet your Scarlett!"
Vivien claimed when she tested for Gone with the Wind the costume was still warm from the previous actress's body heat..eww.
Viv's measurements during GWTW? 32-23-33-sheer perfection.
Selznick launched a 2-year, $100,000 search for Scarlett and Vivien won over hundreds of other candidates with her performance earning her international fame and an Academy Award.
On August 31st, 1940, Vivien married Laurence Olivier at San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara and honeymooned on actor Roger Colman's yacht, friend Katherine Hepburn was her maid of honor, can you imagine Katherine being your maid of honor? How swank is that?
She then appeared in several more films afterwards including Romeo and Juliet, Waterloo Bridge and That Hamilton Woman, said to have been Sir Winston Churchill's all time favorite movie.
In 1944 while filming Caesar and Cleopatra, Leigh was involved in an on set accident that resulted in a miscarriage.
Some elude to Leigh's bouts with manic depression which began as far back as 1930 attributing to the troubling incident, but as you know already..we may never know.
Reportedly during 1954's Elephant Walk she was replaced after only a few scenes due to her difficult nature but not all were privy to the fact she was suffering from manic depression.
She was swiftly replaced with the lovely actress Elizabeth Taylor.
Despite being in poor health already, as she also suffered from tuberculosis-a chronic illness she contracted in 1945, she went through yet another heartbreaking miscarriage.
She rebounded well in her role as Blanch DuBois in her second Oscar winning performance in 1951's A Streetcar Named Desire opposite Marlon Brando and also filmed 1955's The Deep Blue Sea during this time.
Despite the comeback, her mental and physical instability was aggravated by her deteriorating marriage to Olivier and the couple divorced in 1960.
Olivier married actress Joan Plowright with whom he stayed married until his death on July 11th, 1989.
Vivien made several more films in The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone in 1961 and Ship of Fools in 1965 along with a musical comedy, Tovarich which won her a Tony Award.
On the night of July 7th, 1967 around midnight, Leigh's companion and caretaker Canadian actor John Merivale returned to their apartment to find the actress asleep in her room. He returned to her bedroom some 30 minutes later to discover her body on the floor-where she apparently attempted to get to the bathroom. He quickly checked her vitals but she was unresponsive.
Vivien Leigh died as a result of her bout with severe tuberculosis.
Merivale reportedly contacted Olivier who was receiving treatment for prostrate cancer in a hospital nearby and he rushed over and paid his respects and "stood and prayed for forgiveness for all the evils that had sprung up between us" then proceeded to help John make Vivian's funeral arrangements.
Vivien was cremated and her ashes scattered about a lake near her home in Tickerage Mill near Blackboys, East Sussex.

Vivien Leigh was a gifted actress who realized early on her passion for the stage and screen. And although she made fewer than twenty films throughout her storied career, she will gracefully be remembered as one of the most accomplished and beautiful leading ladies of the golden age of Hollywood.



Sources:
Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh,
A Biography, Coronet Books, 1978
Olivier Laurence, Confessions of an Actor
Simon and Schuster, 1982
Haver, Ronald. David O. Selznick's Hollywood
Bonanza Books, New York, 1980

Photo Credits:
Flick'r BooBooGB