Vivien Leigh

Few actresses have been as celebrated as Vivien Leigh.  She is certainly among the five best actresses of the Golden Age.  In her own country she was likely more honored for her stage work.  In America she is far better known for her work in two films playing neurotic southern women with a fire burning deep within them... and winning Oscars for both.

Marlon Brando, the male lead in A Streetcar Named Desire on both stage and film, was once asked who was the best Blanche, Jessica Tandy on Broadway or Vivien Leigh on film.  He didn't miss a beat with his answer.  Vivien, of course, because she really was Blanche.

The truth is that beyond the heart-stopping beauty and the gargantuan talent, beyond the gracious hostess, the lively conversationalist, the charm and grace and elegance, Leigh was tormented from a crippling mental illness.  She was a manic-depressive who was spoiled, controlling and self-destructive.  She struck out physically when her ire was unleashed and her cruelty knew no bounds.  At the center was a raging nymphomania that she was never able to manage.

Vivian Hartley was born in India in 1913 to upper-class British parents.  An only child, she was treated as a princess from the day she was born.  Her father was a broker and her mother, also born in India, had family still there when Vivian was born. At age three, she gave her first performance in Little Bo Peep.  Mama was devoted to the arts, reading and social graces and did all she could to instill them in her daughter.  

At age six, Vivian was taken to England and enrolled in a private boarding school.  She became life-long friends with a school chum, future actress Maureen O'Sullivan (mother of Mia Farrow) and did not see her parents for two years.  Rather than expressing how much she missed them, she would later say she liked the discipline.  She excelled in the performing arts while there, despite her young age, and told O'Sullivan she would one day be a great actress.

On the cusp of becoming a teenager, her parents took her out of school and the threesome embarked on a world tour that would last for four years.  She attended various schools and became proficient in speaking French and Italian.  By the time the family returned to England, all she could talk about was becoming an actress.  Her father enrolled her in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

In 1932, age 19, she married a barrister, Herbert Leigh Holman, 13 years her senior.  She did it mainly to get out of the house and out from under her parents' supervision.  She was wild about the actor Leslie Howard much as her Scarlett would be about his Ashley Wilkes.  Friends couldn't help noticing how much her new husband looked like Howard.  In short order she quit her studies and gave birth to her only child, a daughter.  By Vivian's own admission, she was never a good mother.

She wasn't going to win any honors in the wife department either.  She put acting on the back burner to make a stab at domesticity until friends encouraged her to get back to her dream and do some acting.  That miffed her husband who thought very little of show people. 

She made both her first screen and stage appearances in 1935.  As talented as she would be in her new profession, she would only make 19 films (we will make mention of 13.)  She took her husband's middle name as her new surname and changed the spelling of her first name.  

Attending her first stage performance was Laurence Olivier and they almost immediately became lovers despite the fact that each was married (him to actress Jill Esmond).  They were not as  cautious as they thought they were.  The white heat of their passions spilled over into everything they did and said.  She cooed that he was the most magnetic person she'd ever known.  At the same time each thought the other was the greatest actor.  Leigh, at least, had never experienced anything so intoxicating.

There was one other thing, however, that captured her attention.  During intervals of playing with Olivier, Leigh was deliriously reading Margaret Mitchell's mammoth bestseller, Gone with the Wind.  

The new lovers began filming the first of three movies they would make together, the Elizabethan costume drama Fire Over England (1937).  Those on the set would report that production was often held up while they lunched rather noisily in their dressing rooms.  

When they had to part for other work or responsibilities, neither could stand it.  Oh my darling little love I do long for you so, he wrote.  Oh my heart's blood it is unbearable without you.  They loved each other madly but neither had the capacity for fidelity... with their spouses or one another.  It was simply not in their nature.  They did not keep such things secret from one another.  Both knew what they were getting into.  Well, sort of.

In these days Leigh wasn't quite as unwell as she would become.  There hadn't yet been any suicide attempts or threats but there were episodes.  Olivier might have brushed them away at first because he knew from the beginning that she was a high-strung actress.  

He had his own truths.  He was a high-strung actor.  In his world he would be treated as though he were royalty.  There has never been a better actor and never will be sort of thing.  It got pretty heady.  Personally, while I agree with the accolades, I always thought they needed to be trimmed a bit.  There were other actors I admired much more.

As it so happens, Leigh and Olivier were both going to be in films that held some promise.  Knowing he would be in California while she was filming in England, she misbehaved but it was short-lived.  What she determined was that, since her picture finished first, she could join her lover and at the same time practice her southern accent.  She had some auditioning she was planning.   

First, however, there was A Yank at Oxford (1938).  Produced by MGM, it was essentially Leigh's introduction to American audiences... and they were waiting breathlessly to see this goddess that newspapers and movie magazines couldn't stop fussing over.  She displayed her first sign of temperament on the job, was considered unreasonable and difficult to get along with.  No one knew she was having a harder time than usual dealing with her disease.  She sought no help.

She would be paired with Robert Taylor, a dreamboat who was looking to change his image.  This film can largely be credited with doing that.  Leigh's childhood chum, Maureen O'Sullivan, had the lead female role.  Leigh would play a bookstore owner's flirty wife.  Her character's sexuality was usually a focus but for sure it would put her in good standing for that role she so coveted. 

Meanwhile St. Martin's Lane (1938) opened overseas to good reviews.  It is a delightful comedy about buskers (street performers) with Charles Laughton reciting dramatic passages and Leigh  dancing and picking pockets.  Rex Harrison complicates things when he falls for Leigh and we all have a fun time.  The lady proved she had as much talent for comedy and dancing as she did drama but did little of it.

Olivier wrote to her... I woke up absolutely raging with desire for you, my love.  Oh dear God how I did want you.  Perhaps you were stroking your darling self.  She responded that she loved him with a special kind of soul.

Playing Scarlett O'Hara had become an obsession with Vivien Leigh.  She was well aware that there had never been a year-long, worldwide talent search like never before (or since).  She kept track of it all.  She was happy when a couple of good candidates were considered but passed over and generally thought that some trying out were way wrong.  

She knew she and Scarlett had a lot in common which was precisely why she was drawn to it.  Well, that was besides the awaiting staggering fame.  Both were headstrong, acted on impulse, had no sense of consequence, were lusty, troublesome and beautiful.  Oh yes, she just had to have this role.

Enter the Selznick brothers, Lewis and younger brother David.  Lewis was one of Hollywood biggest agents and David was a hotshot, independent producer and the head honcho on GWTW.  Lewis was Olivier's agent and became Leigh's about five minutes before being introduced to David.  That happened on an RKO lot (which David owned) for the film's first scene, the burning of Atlanta.  The most ambitious film ever had begun without a leading lady.

Brother met brother with the line hey genius, meet your Scarlett O'Hara.  Baby brother had no doubt.  He took one look at that porcelain doll face, the cat-like smile, the long beautiful hair, dark eyes and lashes.  If he weren't already sold her offering a wicked line with her raised eyebrow and in an engaging southern accent surely cemented the deal.  He was certainly aware of how famous she already was and that the American public had been clamoring to see more of her.  Selznick knew Vivien Leigh would be as good for GWTW as the film would be for her.  Sign here.

Scarlett O'Hara would go on to be judged the most famous female character in the history of American movies.  If there were any doubts as to Leigh's ever-lasting fame, it ended when she inhabited this role.  She would rightly win the Oscar, the first British woman to do so.

Poor Olivier... he couldn't hide his jealousy.  After all he'd come over to make a little romance story called Wuthering Heights that people seemed to take to and he was nominated for an Oscar for his efforts.  

Of course MGM wanted a followup with Leigh and since the studio was so happy with their first pairing, Robert Taylor was brought back.  Not only was Waterloo Bridge (1940) better than their first film, it remains still a touching love story.  Taylor thought the world of her but he admitted to being a little taken aback when he witnessed a couple of her manic moments.  He said she could be genuinely frightening.  Leigh would always claim this was her favorite film.

21 Days Together (1940), the second film for Leigh and Olivier and made earlier, was finally released.  He kills someone in self-defense but decides not to tell his girlfriend and the conflict arises out of those facts.  It had its moments but should have been better.

Leigh and Olivier were married in picturesque Santa Barbara, California in 1940 with Katharine Hepburn serving as maid of honor.  Leigh was thrilled.  She got her man.  His ex-wife had named Leigh as correspondent in the divorce action.

They rented a mansion in Bel Air next door to comedian Danny Kaye.  He and Olivier would begin an affair that would last for years although it was sporadic.  Leigh was aware of her husband's bisexuality and that of his ex-wife as well.  Leigh made it okay, which on one hand is strange given her possessive kind of love, but she needed him to understand something, too.  She needed a lot more sex than he was up for so she would take lovers.  (The real truth is likely she would have taken lovers regardless of Olivier's  sexual prowess.)  So far it had been casual sex, one-night stands, although that would change in 1948.

Shortly after their marriage, the unthinkable happened.  Due to their fame they decided to sink most of their money into a Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet.  And it seriously flopped.  She went into a deep depression and he did everything he could to make his lady love's load lighter.  She stayed in bed for weeks, it seemed, but rallied to start rehearsals for her next film.  Luckily, Olivier would be her costar.

I find That Hamilton Woman (1941) to be among Leigh's best performances.  She portrays actress Emma Hamilton who is remembered far more as the mistress to famed naval captain Lord Horatio Nelson.  Both were married to others and their relationship caused a scandal.  No wonder the Oliviers were both so good... it was a page out of their own lives.

Some have referred to them as the original celebrity couple... beautiful, talented and always in the news.  Of course together, whether married or not, she would come to be thought of as royalty herself which intensified when she became Lady Olivier after her husband's elevation to Lord.  Royals, in fact, were their friends.  Their scandalous love affair nearly rivaled the Duke and Mrs. Simpson's and certainly set the stage for the Liz and Dick saga in the early 60s, with many more to follow.  

Both of the Oliviers spent most of the next four years trodding the boards in one play after another, some with one another, some not.  They were big party-givers... Leigh adored them.  Everyone who was anyone wanted an invitation.  One never knew who one could rub shoulders with, perhaps even Churchill.  But Leigh was having more and more dark moments.  

An episode, however, could overtake her at any time and at one of her parties she could become slutty, cursing incessantly, even stripping off her clothes.  Trying to calm her down could be downright dangerous and often guests would say their farewells to Olivier or just quietly duck out.

She was exquisite to look at as one of the title stars of Caesar and Cleopatra (1943) but George Bernard Shaw, for the final time seeing one of his plays, publicly commented that she was not right for it.  I did not think Claude Rains was right for it.  A wonderful character actor he was, but a leading man?  I could never see it.  The production took nine months to complete, often hampered by bombing raids.  She was very depressed during the filming and suffered a breakdown after she had a miscarriage.  She managed to rally some when she had a fling with costar Stewart Granger.  From now on her fits and breakdowns would come more frequently.

After entertaining the troops in Africa, Leigh began feeling run down and was losing weight.  She also had a cough she couldn't shake, although she attributed that to the four packs of cigarettes she smoked a day.  Still, she did something she almost never did... she consulted a doctor.  Grim news came when he found a serious patch of tuberculosis on her lung.  He insisted that she enter a sanitarium for long-term treatment but she refused.  She did, however, return home and spent nine months (mostly) in bed.

In 1945 she told a devastated Olivier that she did not love him anymore.   She said she felt toward him as she would a brother.  She also said she had no intention of divorcing him.  To the world at large, no one would know or see that anything had changed.  She reminded him that they were damned good actors so they would act.  Both of their affairs would increase but hers were over the top.  Her sexual urges were uncontrollable... and dangerous.  She would have sex with total strangers, frequently with those she pursued in public parks.  She liked it rough... giving and getting.

In 1948 Leigh was signed to play Anna Karenina.  She thought she could bring a certain something to the durable role about a woman who leaves her husband and child for love of another man.  It was a good performance but filming was fraught with manic episodes that occasionally shut down production.

Also in 1948 the Oliviers were in Australia doing a play when their behavior received too much attention.  She was having a fit over not finding her shoes and when he couldn't stand it any longer, he slapped her in front of cast and crew and she slapped him back.  

While there Olivier hired Australian Peter Finch to join his theatrical company.  Olivier knew a great actor when he saw one. The ever-horny Finch and the sexually voracious Leigh began a passionate affair that lasted into the late 50s.  Apparently between the two men it was quite civilized.  Leigh told her chums that Finch was magical in bed.  She'd never known a man who could keep up with her.  Each also loved their violent role-playing.

Leigh loved playing tragic heroines and in 1949 Tennessee Williams sought her to star in the London production of A Streetcar Named Desire.  It was also playing on Broadway with Jessica Tandy, Brando, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden.  To add to Leigh's thrill of getting the role was her director... Olivier.  She hadn't been this excited since taking on Scarlett.  It was a glorious performance by all standards.  She hoped she'd get to play Blanche on film.

After being off screen for four years, she was signed for the Elia Kazan's 1951 production of Streetcar.  Nine people from the play repeated their roles.  Not all of the actors were particularly kind to Leigh.  She was an interloper, she was stuffy British and at first they were determined to not like her.  But all that changed despite her having a few episodes on the Hollywood set.  Others found her both tough and fragile, given the moment and all were entertained by her coquettish humor.

The playwright, who had his own problems with mental illness, said that Leigh brought everything to the role that I intended and much that I had never dreamed of.  Nonetheless, it harmed her to play such a role.  Playing Blanche forced Leigh to look at herself a little closer and she didn't like what she saw and didn't handle it well.  Both character and actress were on the edge of a breakdown.  She would later say the filming tipped her over into madness.  Olivier, who was also making a film in Hollywood, visited the set (and reportedly had a fling with Brando) and said he thought the role ruined her.  

Tough critic Pauline Kael said Leigh's and Brando's performances were two of the greatest ever put on film.  Leigh would declare Brando is the second best actor I've ever known.  She would win her second Oscar, as richly deserved as the first one.  Olivier, whose jealousy of her first Oscar win was formidable, relaxed some after he won for Hamlet in 1948.  But here now was her second Oscar and he could hardly stand it no matter how deserving he thought it was.

She was signed by Paramount to star in Elephant Walk (1954).  It is a fairly unremarkable film except that it does have some thrilling  scenes with stampeding pachyderms, especially inside a mansion. Leigh was excited to be off to Ceylon mainly because she would play the wife of Finch.  But as had been happening a lot, they didn't get on so well and her mental illness and resultant behavior erupted to such an extent that the studio fired her and Elizabeth Taylor assumed the role.  Once home Leigh had a series of shock treatments and would have them many more times.  The Finch romance would also soon end.  He couldn't take any more of the madness.

She made the British film The Deep Blue Sea (1955)  Guess what it's about?  A middle-aged woman in a passionless marriage leaves her husband for a younger man.  Costar Kenneth More publicly said he didn't want to play opposite her and she got wind of it, leading to a frosty working relationship and a so-so film.

In 1959 she was offered a role opposite Laurence Harvey in Room at the Top but she was not feeling well enough to work.  Simone Signoret played it and won an Oscar.  Also in 1959 she moved in with actor John Merivale.  He had known her for years.  I suspect his love was mixed in with feeling sorry for her and the need to protect her from herself.   The move came with Olivier's blessings.  He was getting to the point that he couldn't take it anymore either.

Leigh and Olivier were divorced in 1961.  He had been having an affair with actress Joan Plowright and married her two months after the divorce from Leigh became final.  It would be his longest marriage.  Leigh would keep his photo by her bedside for the rest of her life.  In England, at least, she would forever be addressed as Lady Olivier... she insisted on it. 

Also in 1961 it was back to movie-making after six years with another offer from Tennessee Williams.  He let all of his personal demons loose to write The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and knew again that Leigh was perfect to play Karen Stone.  He liked to say that Karen was passing through the middle age of emotions.  It concerns a well-to-do recent widow who rents a luxurious Rome apartment and takes up with a gigolo (an embarrassing Warren Beatty performance) whom she hardly knows.  After it ends she is poised to take up with just any man who comes along.  

The film didn't do all that well at the box-office but I liked it and thought she was great.  Her various illnesses, her excessive smoking and her drinking had taken a toll on her beauty.  She was older-looking than we'd seen her on screen before but still attractive.

She didn't work for another four years when Stanley Kramer asked her to join the large cast of Ship of Fools (1965).   Leigh, Signoret, Lee Marvin, Jose Ferrer, Oskar Werner, Elizabeth Ashley and George Segal were among the passengers on a ship heading to Germany from Mexico in the early 30s.  It had its soap opera leanings but the superb actors kept it all afloat.

As usual Leigh had some tense moments.  She had hallucinations, much diva behavior and the cast thought she'd gone berserk.  Most of her scenes were with Marvin and she lambasted him for his boozy breath.  Ultimately they became friends.  Although top-billed, she did not have as large a part as some others.  She does have a scene where she does a mean jitterbug.  It would be her final film.

In 1967 Vivien Leigh collapsed and died at her home from an attack of tuberculosis.  Scarlett and Blanche could be seen anytime but beautiful Vivien, Lady Olivier, was no more.  She was 53 years old.

Jack Merivale was grief-stricken although surely something in him must have been relieved that the madness was over.  Olivier was also grief-stricken and helped Merivale with funeral arrangements.  Apparently Olivier stood at one point in her bedroom and prayed for forgiveness for all the evils that had sprung up between us.  Five weeks earlier he had written her a letter which he signed sincerest love darling, your Larry.

He said later in life, still married to Plowright, that Leigh was the great love of his life.  As he lay on his deathbed in 1989, he asked someone to play one of her movies for him.

It was quite a life, wasn't it?  Still, I can't resist saying oh fiddle dee dee.


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