Vivien Leigh

Leigh got married to Herbert Leigh Holman, a barrister, in 1932; he was 13 years older to her. He was against her theatrical endeavors, which is why she left RADA in the middle. They had a daughter together, Suzanne.

She started an affair with Laurence Olivier in 1937. They could not get married as both their spouses refused to give them divorces, which is why they had to live together instead.

In 1940, after finally receiving divorces from their respective partners, Leigh and Olivier got married in Santa Barbara, California. But their marriage was also clouded with problems. They both got divorced in 1960, and she started an affair with actor Jack Merivale, who was very well aware of her mental condition. They never got married but stayed together until her death.

Vivien Leigh was born on November 5, 1913 in Darjeeling in the Bengal Presidency of British India to Earnest Hartley and Gertrude May Frances. Her father was a clerk in the brokerage offices of Piggott Chapman and Company in Bengal.

In 1917, Leigh’s father was transferred to Bangalore while she and her mother stayed in Ootacamund (Ooty). She performed for the first time on stage for her mother’s amateur theatre group and gave a performance on “Little Bo Peep”.

Leigh was sent back to England at the age of six and was made to attend Woldingham School in Roehampton. She went on a tour with her father to Europe and completed her schooling at different schools all around Europe.

In 1931, the family returned back to England and it was then that Leigh made a declaration of her desire to become an actress. Her father got her enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.

In her struggle to become an actress, Leigh hired an agent, John Gliddon, who introduced her to film maker Alexander Korda, but unfortunately he rejected her. In 1935, she was cast in a play called ‘Mask of Virtue’.

After attending the play, Korda accepted his misjudgment and signed a film contract with her. He moved her play to a larger theatre but Leigh failed to deliver her performance in bigger space and in front of larger audience.

In 1937, Leigh did, ‘Fire Over England’ opposite Laurence Olivier. It was based on a novel with same title and was directed by William K. Howard. This movie was the onset of the affair between Leigh and Olivier.

Around the same time, she was cast as ‘Ophelia’ opposite Olivier’s ‘Hamlet’ in Old Vic Theatre, which was staged in Denmark. By this time she and Olivier had started to live together.

In 1938, she grabbed American attention with her film, ‘A yank at Oxford’, in which she was cast along with Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O’Sullivan. She also did ‘St. Martin’s Lane’ in the same year.

Leigh is remembered for her great portrayal of ‘Scarlett O’Hara’ in Selznick’s ‘Gone with the Wind’ in 1939. She won an Academy Award and a New York Film Critics Award for the role.