Vivien Leigh

"People who are very beautiful make their own laws." ~ Vivien

Vivien Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley on November 5, 1913, in Darjeeling, India. When she was six years old her parents took her to England so she could get a better education. After seeing her first play Vivien decided she wanted to become an actress. She married Herbert Leigh Holman, a London barrister, in 1932, and had a daughter named Suzanne. Vivien started her career performing on the London stage. She got small parts in movies like Things Are Looking Up and A Yank At Oxford. While making Fire Over England in 1937 Vivien fell in love with her costar Laurence Olivier and she divorced her husband to be with him. Vivien was one of dozens of actresses who auditioned for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in the 1939 epic Gone With The Wind. She got the part and won an Academy Award for her performance. Vivien finally married Laurence in 1940 but they had a tumultuous marriage and she had several miscarriages. She also suffered from manic depression. Vivien worked with Claude Rains in Caesar And Cleopatra and with Robert Taylor in Waterloo Bridge (which was her favorite film). She won a second Oscar in 1952 for her performance in A Streetcar Named Desire. During the production of Elephant Walk in 1954 she had a nervous breakdown and was replaced by Elizabeth Taylor. As she got older Vivien's behavior became erratic and she was hospitalized numerous times. Laurence divorced her in 1960 after he fell in love another woman. In 1963 Vivien starred on Broadway in the musical Tovarich and won a Tony Award. Her final film was the 1965 drama Ship Of Fools. Vivien died on July 7, 1967 from tuberculosis. She was just fifty-three years old. Her ashes were scattered at her London home.