Vivien Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley in Darjeeling, India. At a very young age she showed an ability to act, but she could only engage in it at age 18 when she enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
At age 19, she married Leigh Holman, who was a lawyer and that was her name she used to make up his stage name. A year after marriage, Vivien was still a student and had a daughter named Suzanne.
Then in mid-1930, Vivien arrives to meet with Laurence Olivier and thus began one of the most passionate affairs of that time. Olivier was married during this time for Jill Osmond, but that did not stop Olivier and Vivien to know their business.
During this period, the two lovers have often acted together on stage and screen and this time they had left their spouses to be together. Olivier then signed for Wuthering Heights and Leigh was asked to play the role of Cathy in the film. However, his application was rejected because it was not well known in America.
Leigh ended up having his most famous role – Scarlett O’Hara – in the movie Gone with the wind and the film was released the same year as Wuthering Heights. Leigh film was a box office success and this little known actress has won the award for best actress in 1939.
In 1940, Olivier and Leigh got married at last. Then WWII happened and Vivien mainly worked on plays in and around London. During this period she became insomniac and his step-son Tarquin Olivier had to stay up the night with her.
In 1994, during the filming of Caesar and Cleopatra, Vivien realized she was pregnant, but unfortunately she had a miscarriage after a fall on the entire film. His step-son attributes his manic-depressive to the loss of the baby. In 1945, Leigh was also diagnosed with tuberculosis, which has not helped the situation.
During this period, manic-depression was not understood and that further Leigh received shock therapy for her disorder. His mental state associated with physical illness has begun to play havoc in his personal life and that affected her marriage, leading to a divorce in 1960. In addition, she also started drinking heavily.
Although Leigh had bipolar disorder and tuberculosis, she continued to play and won his second Oscar for his role in the film A Streetcar Named Desire.
In 1967, Leigh died from tuberculosis.
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