Vivien Leigh was a successful actress, best known for her roles in Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire. Born in India, she attended a convent school and later became a star in British films. She left her first husband for Laurence Olivier and moved to America, where she achieved great success. Despite personal hardships and health problems, she remained popular at the box office and is remembered as one of the most popular Hollywood actresses of all time. She died of tuberculosis in 1967.
Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) was a very successful actress, starring in 20 films in her lifetime and taking home Oscars for two of them. She is best remembered for her Academy Award-winning role in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, although she also played Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951, for which she also won an Academy Award. Vivien Leigh is remembered as a strikingly beautiful woman, with expressive features and a distinctive arched brow.
Vivien Leigh was born in Darjeeling, India, where she lived until 1920. Her British parents wanted to return home to England, but decided to stay in India for World War I, as they felt it would be safer. Upon their return to England, Vivien Leigh was enrolled in a convent school, because her mother felt that she would give her daughter the best possible education. During Vivien’s time at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, her mother introduced her to the theatre, and Vivien Leigh also appeared in many school productions.
Even at a young age, Vivien Leigh struck observers with her beauty, delicacy and poise. In the early 1930s, she finished her convent and school education and she married Leigh Holman, a lawyer. After giving birth to a daughter in 1933, Vivien Leigh attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London to hone her acting skills. In 1934, she won a small role in Things Are Getting Better and was introduced to the big screen.
Vivien Leigh went on to star in a number of popular British films, including The Mask of Virtue in 1935 which made her into an overnight star. Leigh Holman began to suspect that Vivien Leigh had more than a passing interest in acting and she realized she was unlikely to be happy as a wife and mother on her own. In 1937, Vivien Leigh left Holman for Lawrence Olivier, whom she followed to America in 1938.
It was this trip to America that resulted in Leigh’s most famous role, that of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind opposite Clark Gable. She captured the love of movie goers on both sides of the Atlantic with her role, and is still regarded as one of the best roles of all time, in one of the best movies of all time. Encouraged by her success in film, Vivien Leigh tried out for a number of other Hollywood films, finally appearing in Waterloo Bridge in 1940.
Vivien Leigh appeared in a number of films during the war years but her life took several ugly turns during this time. She had health problems exacerbated by a tuberculosis infection and struggled with her personal life and screen roles. Unlike many actresses who suffer from personal hardships, however, Vivien Leigh remained hugely popular at the box office, making several high-grossing films in the 1940s and 1950s.
Vivien Leigh’s last role was in the 1965 production of Ship of Fools, and she succumbed to tuberculosis two years later. Vivien Leigh has captured many imaginations with her good looks and fiery personality about her, and is often cited as one of the most popular Hollywood actresses of all time. Had her life not been cut short by tuberculosis, Vivien Leigh probably would have gone on to make many excellent films in her middle age, as did other actresses such as Katharine Hepburn.
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