Vivien Leigh's Extraordinary Life in Photos
The Gone With the Wind star was one of the greatest actresses of her era. In light of the new Netflix series Hollywood, we're taking a look back at her life in photos.
British actress Vivien Leigh, considered one of the most beautiful women of all time, is best remembered for her classic, Oscar-winning roles in Gone With the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire. She was also an accomplished stage actress—holding major Shakespearean parts like Ophelia and Cleopatra, as well as turns in plays by Thornton Wilder and Noël Coward (she even won a Tony for Tovarich in 1963.) Leigh is often referenced alongside her longtime husband Laurence Olivier. The couple—who were both married to other people when they met—were the original "Burton and Taylor," and their glossy, public marriage was just as tumultuous. Leigh, who suffered from mental health issues throughout much of her life, had a few affairs during the marriage, and the couple ultimately divorced in 1960. Leigh passed away in 1967 at the age of 53 from tuberculosis. To coincide with the new Netflix series, Hollywood (in which Leigh plays a minor role), we're taking a look back at the photos from her extraordinary life and from the movies and plays that endear her to fans to this day.
Early life
Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley on November 5, 1913 in Darjeeling, in what was then British India. The family returned to England and moved across Europe during much of her childhood. Leigh expressed interest in acting and enrolled in Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London in 1931—but dropped out after meeting Herbert Leigh Holman, who was 13 years her senior. They married in 1932 and Leigh gave birth to a daughter, Suzanne, one year later. Leigh still wanted to act, so she hired an agent who suggested she drop "Holman" from her name and go by Vivien Leigh. Her first role was as Henriette in the 1935 play The Mask of Virtue. She is seen here lounging at home in the 1930s.
1937
Turbulent relationships between co-stars are almost a Hollywood cliche (Burton and Taylor, Brad and Angelina). Olivier and Leigh were married to other people when they met in 1935, but their attraction was undeniable. “That's the man I'm going to marry," Leigh once told a friend (seemingly forgetting she already was married) after her initial meeting with Olivier, according to Michelangelo Capua's Vivien Leigh: A Biography. For his part, Olivier said: "I couldn't help myself with Vivien. No man could." They began an affair in 1937 and acted together in Hamlet that year.
1938
Leigh in "Serena Blandish" at the Gate Theatre in London. During the filming of the 1938 film A Yank in Oxford, Leigh had frequent mood swings and was seen as unreasonable and difficult on set, but it was later understood that she suffered from bipolar disorder for much of her adult life. Meanwhile, a great search was underway for the leading lady in an epic American film, set in the South during the Civil War...
1939
Clark Gable as Rhett Butler and Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara on the set of Gone with the Wind. She beat out over 1,000 other actresses for the role, and the movie made her an instant star. It went on to win 10 Academy Awards including a Best Actress award for Leigh.
1939
Leigh in costume for Gone With the Wind. The film had a grueling schedule: Leigh worked for 125 days on the movie while Gable worked for 71 days. Leigh—who spent two and a half hours on screen during the four hour movie— was paid approximately $25,000, while Gable earned more than $120,000. Her performance was the longest to win an Academy Award.
1940
Leigh accepting her "Best Actress" Academy Award for Gone With the Wind, beating Greta Garbo, Greer Garson, Irene Dunne and Bette Davis. Leigh joked that her speech was brief, unlike the film: "Ladies and gentlemen, please forgive me if my words are inadequate in thanking you for your very great kindness. If I were to mention all those who have shown me such wonderful generosity through Gone with the Wind I should have to entertain you with an oration as long as Gone with the Wind itself. So if I may, I should like to devote my thanks on this occasion to that composite figure of energy, courage, and very great kindness, in whom all points of Gone with the Wind meet, [producer] Mr. David Selznick."
1940
After three years of a clandestine affair, Olivier and Leigh were finally able to be together openly: in February 1940, Jill Esmond agreed to divorce Laurence Olivier, and Leigh Holman agreed to divorce Leigh. Esmond was granted custody of her son with Olivier, and Holman was granted custody of Suzanne, his daughter with Leigh. Olivier and Leigh were married on August 31, 1940 in Santa Barbara, California. (Katharine Hepburn was one of only two witnesses.) Here, Leigh prepares to kiss Laurence Olivier in a scene from that year's stage production of Romeo and Juliet.
1940s
Olivier and Leigh at a dinner table in the 1940s.
1945
In 1944, Leigh was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which she then suffered from on and off throughout her life. During the filming of Caesar and Cleopatra in 1945, Leigh was pregnant with Olivier’s child, but tragically suffered a miscarriage while filming a scene in which she fell. The incident sent her into a depression. She is seen here with British actor Claude Rains, who played Caesar.
1947
Leigh trying on the dresses created by Cecil Beaton for Anna Karenina in Paris, France. The film was not commercially successful.
1950
Leigh at home in Chelsea, England with her cat. Leigh starred as Blanche DuBois in the West End production of Streetcar Named Desire beginning in October 1949. After two years and 326 performances, she reprised her role in the film version.
1951
Marlon Brando and Leigh in a publicity still for the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire. The performance won Leigh a second Oscar, but she later said playing Blanche drove her further into madness.
1951
Leigh and Olivier in a London stage version of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. The couple performed it on alternate nights with George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, alternating the play each night.
1953
Leigh (at left) is seen here with John Tullis, Australian actor Peter Finch, and Rachel Kempsen in her London home. Leigh had begun an affair with Finch a few years earlier. In early 1953 they were filming Elephant Walk together in Sri Lanka when Leigh reportedly had a nervous breakdown and left the film. (She was replaced with Elizabeth Taylor.) Leigh confessed to her husband Olivier that she had been having an affair with Finch, but the couple reconciled.
1955
Olivier and Leigh on holiday in Lake Garda, Italy.
1956
Leigh, at left with Olivier, is seen here with Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller. (Olivier and Monroe were costars in the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl.) Leigh became pregnant in 1956 at the age of 44. She withdrew from her role in "South Sea Bubble," but after her final performance in the play she miscarried again, and entered another depression.
1957
Leigh vacationing at the home of Duke Luigi Visconti di Modrone and Duchess Laura Adani in northern Italy.
1957
Olivier and Leigh (waving) at a British Actors Equity Association protest march against the closing of the St. James Theater.
1960
Leigh's marriage to Olivier fell apart in 1960 after years of tension over her affairs with Peter Finch and Jack Merivale, as well her struggles with mental illness. They divorced after 20 years of marriage, and Olivier soon married actress Joan Plowright, while Leigh took up with Merivale.
1961
Despite the breakdown of her marriage, Leigh continued to act. She is shown in at left in a scene from a Broadway production of Jean Giraudoux's play Duel of Angels with Mary Ure.
Liz Cantrell is the assistant to the Editor in Chief of Town & Country, covering arts and culture, and has previously written for Esquire.
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