Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh (
November 5,
1913 –
July 8,
1967) was an
English actress who achieved outstanding success in
theatre and
cinema. Although her film appearances were relatively few, she won two
Academy Awards playing "
Southern belles",
Scarlett O'Hara in
Gone With the Wind (1939) and
Blanche DuBois in
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), a role she had also played in
London's
West End. She was a prolific stage performer, frequently in collaboration with her husband,
Laurence Olivier, who directed her in several of her roles. During her thirty-year stage career, she aimed to demonstrate her versatility as an actress, playing parts that ranged from the heroines of
Noël Coward and
George Bernard Shaw comedies to classic
Shakespearean characters such as
Ophelia,
Cleopatra,
Juliet and
Lady Macbeth.
Lauded for her beauty, Leigh felt that it sometimes prevented her from being taken seriously as an actress, a viewpoint shared by some of her contemporaries, but ill health proved to be her greatest obstacle. Affected by
bipolar disorder for most of her adult life, Leigh's extreme moods were often misunderstood, and as she gained a reputation for being difficult, her career went through periods of decline. She was further weakened by recurrent bouts of
tuberculosis, which was first diagnosed in the mid-1940s. She and Olivier divorced in 1960, and Leigh worked sporadically in film and theatre until her sudden death from tuberculosis.
Leigh was born
Vivian Mary Hartley, in
Darjeeling in
India, to Ernest Hartley, an officer in the Indian Cavalry who was of
English parentage, and Gertrude Robinson Yackje, who was of
French-
Irish descent. The family relocated to
Bangalore, where Vivian Hartley made her first stage appearance at the age of three, reciting "Little Bo Peep" for her mother's amateur theatre group. Gertrude Hartley tried to instill in her daughter an appreciation of literature, and introduced her to the works of
Hans Christian Andersen,
Lewis Carroll and
Rudyard Kipling, as well as stories of
Greek mythology. An only child, Vivian Hartley was sent to the "Convent of the Sacred Heart" in
Roehampton in England, in 1920. Her closest friend at the convent was the future actress
Maureen O'Sullivan, to whom she expressed her ambitions to become "a great actress".
[Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh, A Biography, Coronet Books, 1978 edition. ISBN 034023024x pp 12-19 ]Vivian Hartley completed her later education in
Europe, returning to her parents in England in 1931. She discovered that one of Maureen O'Sullivan's films was playing in London's
West End and told her parents of her ambitions to become an actress. Both were highly supportive, and her father helped her enroll at the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.
[Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh, A Biography, Coronet Books, 1978 edition. ISBN 034023024x pp 25-30]In late 1931 she met Herbert Leigh Holman, known as Leigh, a barrister thirteen years her senior. Despite his disapproval of "theatrical people", they were married on
December 20,
1932, and upon their marriage she terminated her studies at RADA. On
October 12,
1933, she gave birth to a daughter, Suzanne, but felt stifled by her domestic life. Her friends suggested her for a small part in the film
Things Are Looking Up, which marked her film debut. She engaged an agent, John Gliddon, who felt that the name "Vivian Holman" was not suitable for an actress, and after rejecting his suggestion, "April Morn", 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.
[Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh, A Biography, Coronet Books, 1978 edition. ISBN 034023024x pp 30-43 ]Cast in the play
The Mask of Virtue in 1935, Leigh received excellent reviews followed by interviews and newspaper articles, among them one from the
Daily Express in which the interviewer noted "a lightning change came over her face", which was the first public mention of the rapid changes in mood that became characteristic of her.
[Coleman, Terry, Olivier, The Authorised Biography, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0747583064 p 74] John Betjeman, the future
Poet Laureate, also wrote about her, describing her as "the essence of English girlhood".
[Coleman, Terry, Olivier, The Authorised Biography, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0747583064 p 75] Korda, who attended her opening-night performance, admitted his error and signed her to a film contract, with the spelling of her name revised to "Vivien Leigh". 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 folded soon after.
[Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh, A Biography, Coronet Books, 1978 edition. ISBN 034023024x pp 50-55 ] In 1960 Leigh recalled her ambivalence towards her first experience of critical acclaim and sudden fame, commenting, "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."
[Actors Talk About Acting - Vivien Leigh interview (1961) Edited by John E. Boothe and Lewis Funke. Retrieved January 7, 2006]Laurence Olivier saw Leigh in
The Mask of Virtue, and a friendship developed after he congratulated her on her performance. While playing lovers in the film
Fire Over England (1937), Olivier and Leigh developed a strong attraction, and after filming was completed, they began an affair. During this time Leigh read the
Margaret Mitchell novel
Gone with the Wind and instructed her agent to suggest her to
David O. Selznick, who was planning a film version. Selznick replied that he was not interested, having never so much as seen a photograph of her before, but Leigh continued to hope to play the part. She remarked to a journalist, "I've cast myself as
Scarlett O'Hara", and the 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."
[Coleman, Terry, Olivier, The Authorised Biography, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0747583064 pp 76-77, 90, 94-95 ]Leigh played
Ophelia to Olivier's
Hamlet in an
Old Vic Theatre production, and Olivier later recalled an incident during which her mood rapidly changed as she was quietly 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.
[Coleman, Terry, Olivier, The Authorised Biography, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0747583501; p 97-98 ] They began living together; Holman and Olivier's wife, the actress
Jill Esmond, each having refused to grant either a divorce.
Leigh appeared with
Robert Taylor,
Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan in
A Yank at Oxford (1938), the first of her films to receive attention in the United States. During production she developed a reputation for being difficult and unreasonable, and Korda instructed her agent to warn her that her option would not be renewed if her behaviour did not improve.
[ Coleman, Terry, Olivier, The Authorised Biography, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0747583501; p 97 ] Her next role was in
St. Martin's Lane (1938) with
Charles Laughton.
Olivier had been attempting to broaden his film career; despite his success in Britain, he was not well-known in the United States and earlier attempts to introduce him to the American market had failed. Offered the role of
Heathcliff in
Samuel Goldwyn's production of
Wuthering Heights (1939), he 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 it, saying she would only play Cathy, a role already assigned to
Merle Oberon. Leigh travelled to Los Angeles, ostensibly to be with Olivier; however, she arranged meetings with prospective employers soon after her arrival.
[ Berg, A. Scott. Goldwyn, Sphere Books, 1989. ISBN 074740593x, p 323] |
Leigh in a 1939 publicity photograph for Gone with the Wind. |
Hollywood was in the midst of a widely publicised search to find an actress to portray
Scarlett O'Hara in
Gone with the Wind (
1939), and when Leigh met Olivier's American
agent Myron Selznick, he felt that she possessed the qualities his brother
David O. Selznick was searching for. Myron Selznick took Leigh and Olivier to the set where the "burning of Atlanta" scene was being filmed and introduced Leigh. The following day, Leigh read a scene for Selznick, who organised a
screen test 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 the "incredible wildness" of Leigh, who was given the part soon after.
[Haver, Ronald. David O. Selznick's Hollywood, Bonanza Books, New York, 1980. [ISBN 0517476657]; p 259]Filming proved difficult for Leigh; Cukor was dismissed and replaced by
Victor Fleming, with whom Leigh frequently quarrelled. She and
Olivia de Havilland secretly met with Cukor at night and on weekends for his advice about how they should play their parts. She befriended
Clark Gable, his wife
Carole Lombard and de Havilland, but she clashed with
Leslie Howard, with whom she was required to play several emotional scenes. Adding to her distress, she was sometimes required to work seven days a week, often late into the night, and she missed Olivier who was working in New York. She wrote to Leigh Holman, "I loathe Hollywood.... I will never get used to this – how I
hate film acting."
[ Taylor, John Russell. Vivien Leigh, Elm Tree Books, 1984. [ISBN 0241113334] pp 22-23]In 2006 Olivia de Havilland responded to claims of Leigh's manic behaviour during filming
Gone with the Wind, published in a biography of Laurence Olivier. She defended Leigh, saying, "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."
[ The Washington Examiner Bob Thomas, The Associated Press, published January 3, 2006. Retrieved January 7, 2006, quoting Olivia de Havilland]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."
[ Taylor, John Russell. Vivien Leigh, Elm Tree Books, 1984. [ISBN 0241113334] pp 22-23]Among the ten
Academy Awards won by
Gone with the Wind was a
Best Actress award for Leigh, who also won a
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress.
In February 1940 Jill Esmond agreed to divorce Olivier, and Holman also agreed to divorce Leigh, although they maintained a strong friendship for the rest of Leigh's life. Esmond was granted custody of Tarquin, her son with Olivier, and Holman was granted custody of Suzanne, his daughter with Leigh. On
August 30 Olivier and Leigh were married in
Santa Barbara, California, in a ceremony attended only by their witnesses,
Katharine Hepburn and
Garson Kanin.
Leigh hoped to star with Olivier and made a screentest for
Rebecca, which was to be directed by
Alfred Hitchcock with Olivier in the leading role, but after viewing her screentest 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.
[McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock, A Life in Darkness and Light, Wiley Press, 2003. ISBN 0470869739, p 238. ] Selznick also observed that she had shown no enthusiam for the part until Olivier had been confirmed as the lead actor, and subsequently cast
Joan Fontaine. He also refused to allow her to join Olivier in
Pride and Prejudice (1940), and
Greer Garson took the part Leigh had envisioned 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. Leigh's top-billing reflected her status in Hollywood, and despite her reluctance to participate without Olivier, the film proved to be popular with audiences and critics.
She and Olivier mounted a stage production of
Romeo and Juliet for
Broadway. The New York press discussed the adulterous nature that had marked the beginning of Olivier and Leigh's relationship, and questioned their ethics in not returning to England to help with the
war effort, and the critics were hostile in their assessment of the production.
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."
[Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh, A Biography, Coronet Books, 1978 edition. ISBN 034023024x p 127 ] 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 their entire savings into the project, and its failure was a financial disaster for them.
[ Holden, Anthony, Olivier, Sphere Books Limited, 1989, ISBN 13579108642; pp 189-190 ]They filmed
That Hamilton Woman (1941) with Olivier as
Horatio Nelson and Leigh as
Emma Hamilton. With Britain engaged in World War II, 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, but was an outstanding success in the
Soviet Union.
Winston Churchill arranged a screening for a party which 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."
[ Holden, Anthony, Olivier, Sphere Books Limited, 1989, ISBN 13579108642; pp 202, 205 and 325 ]The Oliviers returned to England, and Leigh toured through
North Africa in 1943, performing for troops before falling ill with a persistent cough and fevers. In 1944 she was diagnosed as having
tuberculosis in her left
lung, but after spending several weeks in hospital, she appeared to be cured. In spring she was filming
Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) when she discovered she was pregnant, but suffered a miscarriage. She fell into a deep depression which reached its nadir when she turned on Olivier, verbally and physically attacking him until she fell to the floor sobbing. This was the first of many major breakdowns related to manic-depression, or bipolar mood disorder. Olivier 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.
[Holden, Anthony, Olivier, Sphere Books Limited, 1989, ISBN 13579108642; pp 221-222 ]She was well enough to resume acting in 1946 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 successes.
In 1947 Olivier was knighted, and Leigh accompanied him to
Buckingham Palace for the investiture. She became Lady Olivier, a title she continued to use after their divorce, until she died.
By 1948 Olivier was on the Board of Directors for the
Old Vic Theatre, and he and Leigh embarked on a tour of
Australia and
New Zealand to raise funds for the theatre. During their six-month tour, Olivier performed
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, with the most dramatic of these occurring in
Christchurch when Leigh refused to go on stage. Olivier slapped her face, and Leigh slapped him in return and swore at him before she made her way to the stage. By the end of the tour, both were exhausted and ill, and Olivier told a journalist, "You may not know it, but you are talking to a couple of walking corpses." Later he would comment that he "lost Vivien" in Australia.
[Holden, Anthony, Olivier, Sphere Books Limited, 1989, ISBN 13579108642; pp 295 ]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.
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
The School for Scandal and
Antigone, and Olivier was contracted to direct. Containing a rape scene and references to promiscuity and homosexuality, the play was destined to be controversial, and the media discussion about its suitability added to Leigh's anxiety, but she believed strongly in the importance of the work.
J. B. Priestley denounced the play and Leigh's performance, and the critic
Kenneth Tynan 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 and sensationalist story, rather than the
Greek tragedy that they envisioned, but the play also had strong supporters,
[Coleman, Terry, Olivier, The Authorised Biography, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0747583064 pp 227-231] among them
Noël Coward who described Leigh as "magnificent".
[ Holden, Anthony, Olivier, Sphere Books Limited, 1989, ISBN 13579108642; p 312 ]After 326 performances Leigh finished her run; however, she was soon engaged for the
film version. Her irreverent and often bawdy sense of humour allowed her to establish a rapport with her co-star
Marlon Brando, but she had difficulty with the director
Elia Kazan, who did not hold her in high regard as an actress. He later commented that "she had a small talent", but as work progressed, 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 gruelling and commented to the
Los Angeles Times, "I had nine months in the theatre of Blanche DuBois. Now she's in command of me."
[Coleman, Terry, Olivier, The Authorised Biography, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0747583064 pp 233-236] The film won glowing reviews for her, and she won a second
Academy Award for Best Actress, a
BAFTA Award and a
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. Tennessee Williams commented that Leigh brought to the role "everything that I intended, and much that I had never dreamed of", but in later years, Leigh would say that playing Blanche DuBois "tipped me over into madness".
[ Holden, Anthony, Olivier, Sphere Books Limited, 1989, ISBN 13579108642; pp 312-313 ]In 1951, Leigh and 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 the critic
Kenneth Tynan angered them when he suggested that Leigh's was a mediocre talent which forced Olivier to compromise his own. Tynan's diatribe almost precipitated another collapse; Leigh, terrified of failure and intent on achieving greatness, obsessed over his comments, while ignoring the positive reviews of other critics.
[Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh, A Biography, Coronet Books, 1978 edition. ISBN 034023024x pp 196-197 ]In January 1953 Leigh travelled to
Ceylon to film
Elephant Walk with
Peter Finch. Shortly after filming commenced, she suffered a breakdown, and
Paramount Studios replaced her with
Elizabeth Taylor. Olivier returned her to their home in England, where between periods of incoherence, Leigh told him that she was in love with Finch, and had been having an affair with him. She gradually recovered over a period of several months.
|
Olivier and Leigh in the 1955 production of Titus Andronicus |
As a result of this episode, many of the Oliviers' friends learnt of her problems.
David Niven said she had been "quite, quite mad", and in his diary
Noël Coward expressed surprise that "things had been bad and getting worse since 1948 or thereabouts."
[Coleman, Terry, Olivier, The Authorised Biography, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0747583064 pp 254-263]Leigh recovered sufficiently to play
The Sleeping Prince with Olivier in 1953, 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, Leigh's health seemingly stable.
Noël Coward wrote the play
South Sea Bubble for her, but she became pregnant and withdrew from the production. Several weeks later, she miscarried and entered a period of depression that lasted for months. She joined Olivier for a European tour with
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 continued to exert a strong influence over her, stayed with the Oliviers and helped calm her.
In 1958, considering her marriage to be over, Leigh began a relationship with the actor
Jack Merivale, who knew of Leigh's medical condition and assured Olivier he would care for her. She achieved a success in 1959 with the Noël Coward comedy
Look After Lulu, with
The Times critic describing her as "beautiful, delectably cool and matter of fact, she is mistress of every situation."
[Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh, A Biography, Coronet Books, 1978 edition. ISBN 034023024x pp 219-234 and 239]In 1960 she and Olivier divorced, and Olivier married the actress
Joan Plowright. In his autobiography he discussed the years of problems they had experienced because of Leigh's illness, writing, "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."
[Olivier, Laurence, Confessions Of an Actor, Simon and Schuster, 1982, ISBN 0140068880 p 174 ] |
Leigh photographed in 1958 |
Merivale proved to be a stable 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".
[ Walker, Alexander. Vivien, The Life of Vivien Leigh, Grove Press, 1987. ISBN 0802132596 p290 ]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 Olivier sharing the spotlight with her. Though she was still beset by bouts of depression, 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. She also appeared in the films
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) and
Ship of Fools (1965).
[Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh, A Biography, Coronet Books, 1978 edition. ISBN 034023024x pp 266-272 ]In May 1967 she was rehearsing to appear with
Michael Redgrave in
Edward Albee's
A Delicate Balance when she became ill with tuberculosis but, after resting for several weeks, seemed to be recovering. On the night of July 7, Merivale left her as usual, to perform in a play, and returned home around midnight to find her asleep. About thirty minutes later (by now
July 8), he returned to the bedroom and discovered her body on the floor.
[Vivien Leigh's death certificate ] She had been attempting to walk to the bathroom, and as her lungs filled with liquid, she had collapsed.
[Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh, A Biography, Coronet Books, 1978 edition. ISBN 034023024x pp 304-305 ] Merivale contacted 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",
[Olivier, Laurence, Confessions Of an Actor, Simon and Schuster, 1982, ISBN 0140068880 pp 273-274]before helping Merivale make funeral arrangements.
She was
cremated, and her ashes were scattered on the lake at her 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 the United States, she became the first actress honoured 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.
[Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh, A Biography, Coronet Books, 1978 edition. ISBN 034023024x p 306]Vivien Leigh was considered one of the most beautiful actresses of her day, and her directors emphasised this in most of her films. When asked if she believed her beauty had been a handicap, she said, "people think that if you look fairly reasonable, you can't possibly act, and as I only care about acting, I think beauty can be a great handicap, if you really want to look like the part you're playing, which isn't necessarily like you."
[Actors Talk About Acting - Vivien Leigh interview (1961) Edited by John E. Boothe and Lewis Funke. Retrieved January 7, 2006]George Cukor commented that Leigh was a "consummate actress, hampered by beauty",
[Shipman, David, Movie Talk, St Martin's Press, 1988. ISBN 0312034032; p 126 ] and Laurence Olivier said that critics should "give her credit for being an actress and not go on forever letting their judgements be distorted by her great beauty."
[Coleman, Terry, Olivier, The Authorised Biography, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0747583064 p 227] Garson Kanin shared their viewpoint and described Leigh as "a stunner whose ravishing beauty often tended to obscure her staggering achievements as an actress. Great beauties are infrequently great actresses – simply because they don't need to be. Vivien was different; ambitious, persevering, serious, often inspired."
[Shipman, David, Movie Talk, St Martin's Press, 1988. ISBN 0312034032; p 125 ]Leigh explained that she played "as many different parts as possible" in an attempt to learn her craft and to dispel prejudice about her abilities. She believed that comedy was more difficult to play than drama because it required more precise timing, and said that more emphasis should be placed upon comedy as part of an actor's training. Nearing the end of her career, which ranged from
Noël Coward comedies to Shakespearean tragedies, she observed, "It's much easier to make people cry than to make them laugh."
[Actors Talk About Acting - Vivien Leigh interview (1961) Edited by John E. Boothe and Lewis Funke. Retrieved January 7, 2006]Her early performances brought her immediate success in Britain, but she remained largely unknown in other parts of the world until the release of
Gone with the Wind. In December 1939 the
New York Times wrote, "Miss Leigh's Scarlett has vindicated the absurd talent quest that indirectly turned her up. She is so perfectly designed for the part by art and nature that any other actress in the role would be inconceivable"
[Haver, Ronald. David O. Selznick's Hollywood Bonanza Books, New York, 1980. ISBN 0517476657; p 305], and as her fame escalated, she was featured on the cover of
Time Magazine as Scarlett. In 1969 critic
Andrew Sarris commented that the success of the film had been largely due to "the inspired casting" of Leigh,
[Roger Ebert.com quoting Andrew Sarris, The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968, retrieved January 6, 2006. ] and in 1998 wrote that "she lives in our minds and memories as a dynamic force rather than as a static presence."
[ New York Times - Reviews on the Web Quoting Andrew Sarris in You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet, The American Talking Film: History & Memory, 1927-1949. May 3, 1998. Retrieved January 11, 2006. ]Leonard Maltin described the film as one of the all-time greats, writing in 1998 that Leigh "brilliantly played" her role.
[Maltin, Leonard, 1998 Movie and Video Guide, Signet Books, 1997, p 522]Her performance in the
West End production of
A Streetcar Named Desire, described by the theatre writer
Phyllis Hartnoll as "proof of greater powers as an actress than she had hitherto shown", led to a lengthy period during which she was considered one of the finest actresses in British theatre.
[Hartnoll, Phyllis, The Concise Companion to the Theatre, Omega Books, 1972, ISBN 185007044X, p 301 ] Discussing the subsequent film version,
Pauline Kael wrote that Leigh and
Marlon Brando gave "two of the greatest performances ever put on film" and that Leigh's was "one of those rare performances that can truly be said to evoke both fear and pity."
[Kael, Pauline, 5001 Nights At The Movies, Zenith Books, 1982, ISBN 0099335506; p 564 ]Kenneth Tynan ridiculed Leigh's performance opposite Olivier in the 1955 production of
Titus Andronicus, commenting that she "receives the news that she is about to be ravished on her husband's corpse with little more than the mild annoyance of one who would have preferred foam rubber."
[Guardian Unlimited Ellis, Samantha, for The Guardian, June 23, 2003 (quoting Kenneth Tynan). Retrieved January 7, 2005] He was one of several critics to react negatively to her reinterpretation of
Lady Macbeth in 1955, saying that her performance was insubstantial and lacked the necessary fury demanded of the role; however, after her death he revised his opinion, describing his earlier criticism as "one of the worst errors of judgement" he had ever made. He came to believe that Leigh's interpretation, in which Lady Macbeth uses her sexual allure to keep Macbeth enthralled, "made more sense ... than the usual battle-axe" portrayal of the character. In a survey of theatre critics conducted shortly after Leigh's death, several named it as one of her greatest achievements in theatre.
[ Taylor, John Russell. Vivien Leigh, Elm Tree Books, 1984. ISBN 0241113334 p 99 ]In 1969 a plaque to Leigh was placed in the actor's church,
St Paul's, Covent Garden, and in 1985 a portrait of her was included in a series of
postage stamps, along with
Alfred Hitchcock,
Charles Chaplin,
Peter Sellers and
David Niven to commemorate "British Film Year".
[ Walker, Alexander. Vivien, The Life of Vivien Leigh, Grove Press, 1987. ISBN 0802132596 pp303, 304 ]The
British Library in London purchased the papers of Laurence Olivier from his estate in 1999. Known as
The Laurence Olivier Archive, the collection includes many of Vivien Leigh's personal papers, including numerous letters written by her to Olivier. The papers of Vivien Leigh, including letters, photographs, contracts and diaries, are owned by her daughter, Mrs Suzanne Farrington. In 1994 the
National Library of Australia purchased a photograph album, monogrammed "L & V O" and believed to have belonged to the Oliviers, containing 573 photographs of the couple during their 1948 tour of Australia. It is now held as part of the record of the history of the performing arts in Australia.
[ National Library of Australia – Gateways ISSN 1443-0568 No. 14 March 1995, retrieved January 7, 2006.]For a full chronology of Leigh's theatre and film work, see
Vivien Leigh chronology of stage and film performances.
*
Vivien Leigh at Classic Movies*
Vivien Leigh at Classic Actresses*
Australian National Library, photographs from Australian tour{{Persondata
NAME=Leigh, Vivien | ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Hartley, Vivian Mary | SHORT DESCRIPTION=actress | DATE OF BIRTH=November 5, 1913 | PLACE OF BIRTH=Darjeeling, India | DATE OF DEATH=July 7, 1967 | PLACE OF DEATH=London, England
|
