Vivien Leigh

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Vivien Leigh (1958)

Vivien Leigh , born Vivian Mary Hartley (born November 5, 1913 in Darjeeling , India , † July 8, 1967 in London ), was a British actress . In total, she appeared in 20 film and television productions over a period of 30 years. Leigh achieved fame in the role of Scarlett O'Hara in the film Gone with the Wind (1939), which earned her an Oscar . Her portrayals of Blanche in the theater film Endstation Sehnsucht (1951) and Tatiana in the Broadway musical Tovarich (1963) were also awarded prizes . Leigh was married to, among others, the British actor and director Laurence Olivier , with whom she also appeared together in film and theater.

Life

Childhood and youth

Vivien Leigh was the daughter of the wealthy stockbroker Ernest Hartley and Gertrude Yackjee. She was born in India where she spent the first six years of life. Her parents both loved literature and introduced them to the works of Rudyard Kipling , Hans Christian Andersen and Lewis Carroll . In 1920 they left Darjeeling and returned to England.

In England, Leigh was sent to a Catholic boarding school for the next eight years. At the Convent of the Sacred Heart , she played in the theater group and cello in the school orchestra, while taking ballet and piano lessons. In 1928 she spent a few months in a convent in San Remo on the Italian Riviera. She finished her school education in Auteuil, France, and in the Bavarian Alps.

Beginning of the acting career

In 1932 she met Herbert Leigh Holman. In May of the same year she began studying acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Hartley and Leigh Holman married on December 20, 1932, and their daughter Suzanne was born on October 10, 1933.

Leigh did not last long as a housewife. In 1934 she was working on her first film, Things Are Looking Up . In September of the same year she saw Laurence Olivier on stage for the first time and immediately began to rave about him. In the months that followed, she starred in several small films and plays. Her husband Leigh Holman was not very enthusiastic about her "crush on acting" and hoped she would get away from it and devote herself more to her role as wife and mother.

In 1935 Leigh had stage appearances and starred in smaller film productions. The film producer Alexander Korda saw her in The Mask of Virtue and gave her a contract for ten British films. She had shot six of them when she went to Hollywood in 1938 . Leigh met Laurence Olivier personally while filming Fire Over England , and the two soon became a couple. In June 1938, Leigh left her husband and moved into an apartment in Chelsea with Olivier . She left her daughter Suzanne in the care of her mother.

Blown by the wind

During the shooting of Twenty-One Days las Vivien Leigh's novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and was fascinated:

“From the moment I read Gone With The Wind , I was fascinated by the lovely wayward, tempestuous Scarlett. I felt that I loved and understood her, almost as though I had known her in the flesh. When I heard that the book was to be filmed in Hollywood early in 1939 I longed to play the part ”

“From the moment I read Gone With the Wind , I was fascinated by the beautiful headstrong, stormy Scarlett. I felt that I loved and understood her, almost as if I had known her personally as a real person. When I heard that the book was going to be filmed in Hollywood in early 1939, I longed to play the part. "

When Laurence Olivier went to Hollywood in the fall of 1938, Leigh accompanied him , and she was introduced to the producer through David O. Selznick's brother. Selznick was enthusiastic about the actress, who was still unknown in the USA at the time. Leigh had to take speaking lessons to learn the southern accent. She also took singing and ballet lessons to improve her voice and posture. During the filming of Gone With the Wind , the script was constantly being rewritten, which was a great challenge for everyone involved. Never before had there been a large-scale production in Hollywood that put such an enormous effort into the producers, the three directors, the actors and the technical crew. Leigh and Olivier hardly saw each other during this time.

The film was shot in the summer of 1939, and in December of that year the premiere in Atlanta made Leigh famous overnight. Adjusted for inflation, the film is still the most commercially successful film of all time. Filming on Waterloo Bridge began shortly before Christmas . On February 29, 1940, she received an Oscar for her role as best actress. Her husband Leigh Holman then agreed to the divorce. Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier were married in Santa Barbara on August 31, 1940 , with Katharine Hepburn as their maid of honor. After the filming of Lady Hamilton , the pair traveled to London, where Leigh to 1943 with The Doctor's Dilemma by George Bernard Shaw was on stage. Then Leigh took part in a tour to the British troops.

Back in England

Neither Olivier nor Leigh felt like going back to Hollywood. While Olivier was working on his Shakespeare film adaptation of Henry V , Vivien Leigh signed for Caesar and Cleopatra . During the filming, she fell badly, suffered from hysterical attacks and fell into depression. After the film was over, she went to a sanatorium for several months to cure an established tuberculosis . Soon after, she was back on stage. The piece we are once again escaped from Thornton Wilder was almost two years (1945-46) listed, but here there were constant interruptions due to diseases of the actress.

Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier (1948)

In 1947, Leigh began filming Anna Karenina . Although she was severely depressed and in psychiatric treatment, she loved the role of Anna. In 1948 and 1949 she was on stage with Olivier. The two went on a world tour that took them to Australia. Their relationship suffered from Leigh's constant depression, along with their alcohol consumption. Olivier also had a number of affairs. In the autumn of 1949 Leigh was in England with the play Endstation Sehnsucht by Tennessee Williams on the stage and played the role of Blanche in the Hollywood film adaptation of the play alongside Marlon Brando the following year . Director Elia Kazan thought Vivien Leigh was a determined craftsperson, but less gifted than his Broadway cast of Blanche, Jessica Tandy . However, the producers insisted on Leigh, as she was considered the bigger star and therefore promised greater success at the box office. Leigh eventually received her second Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film.

From 1950 on, Leigh was back on stage more often, but she was often sick and suffered several nervous breakdowns. At Laurence Olivier's urging, she sought psychiatric treatment for electroconvulsive therapy . In the 1950s she was forced to stop filming because of her health condition. She also suffered from severe memory problems and was therefore no longer able to perform regularly in the theater.

Illness and end of the marriage with Olivier

In 1956, Vivien Leigh, who was 43 years old, found out to her surprise that she was pregnant again. However, she lost the child, which again caused severe depression. She repeatedly underwent electroconvulsive therapy, which led to severe migraine attacks and did not improve her condition. The relationship with Olivier deteriorated increasingly - there were also physical arguments between the two. In 1957 she began an affair with Peter Finch .

In 1958 Leigh was back on stage. Her marriage to Olivier at the time was nothing but paper. This was meanwhile in a relationship with the actress Joan Plowright . In 1960 he asked Leigh for a divorce because he wanted to marry Plowright.

In 1960/61 Vivien Leigh fell deeper and deeper into depression and underwent several shock treatments. She also drank a lot, but still performed successfully on stage. She moved in with her lover, stage actor John Merivale , and began filming Mrs. Stone's Roman Spring . She received good reviews for her portrayal in the film, which was so good for her health that she wanted to appear again in the theater.

In 1963 she convinced in the musical Tovarich , for which she was honored with a Tony Award . However, the performances turned out to be so exhausting that she suffered burnout and had to go to a psychiatric clinic again. From then on she was looked after and accompanied by a nurse.

The last film

In 1964 she recovered enough to travel to Hollywood to film The Ship of Fools . The shooting of her last film had to be interrupted several times because she again underwent shock treatment. Physically, she deteriorated more and more and had trouble getting through the dance scenes in the film.

In 1965 she toured England and the United States with the play Ivanov by Anton P. Chekhov . Exhausted, she then went to several sanatoriums in France and Greece. In May 1967 she fell seriously ill again. On July 7, 1967, her significant other, John Merivale, found her dead on the floor of her bedroom. The cause of death was apparently her tuberculosis , which had never fully healed . After cremation at Golders Green Crematorium , her ashes were scattered on the pond of her last residence, Tickerage Mill, near Blackboys, Sussex .

Filmography

Plays (selection)

Appearances on New York Broadway :

  • 1940: Romeo and Juliet (51st Street Theater), role: Juliet
  • 1951–1952: Caesar and Cleopatra (Ziegfeld Theater), role: Cleopatra
  • 1951–1952: Antony and Cleopatra (Ziegfeld Theater), role: Cleopatra
  • 1960: Duel of Angels (Helen Hayes Theater), role: Paola
  • 1963: Tovarich (Broadway Theater / Majestic Theater / Winter Garden Theater), role: Tatiana
  • 1966: Ivanov (Shubert Theater), role: Anna Petrovna

Awards

literature

Film documentaries

  • Vivien Leigh: Scarlett & Beyond . TV documentary by Gene Feldman and Suzette Winter, USA 1990, 46 minutes
  • In the US television series Hollywood from 2020 about homophobia , racism and sexism in the dream factory in the 1940s, which, however, reserves a number of artistic freedoms, Leigh is embodied in a supporting role by actress Katie McGuinness .

Web links

Commons : Vivien Leigh  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Profile in the Internet Broadway Database (accessed July 8, 2012).
personal data
SURNAME Leigh, Vivien
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hartley, Vivian Mary (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Darjiling , India
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1967
Place of death London , England, UK