Vivien Leigh

2

Plan

1. Childhood and education of Vivien Leigh.

2. Her life as actress.

3. What films did she take part “gone with the Wind”.

4. She disease of Vivien Leigh.

5. Hove did her life connect with Russian literature.

6. Her last appearances on the theatre stage.

7. Laurence Oliver and Vivien Leigh were both engaged in the stage production of Romeo and Juliet in 1940, which turned out to be a complete failure and was closed in12 days. After this production Vivien and Larry were broke as they had put all their in it.

8. Vivien Leigh had there wedding rings during her marriage to Laurence Olivier.

9. Larry bought a 13 century house that had once been owned by Henry V called Notley Abbey.

10. A 1957 London production of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus marked the last joint onstage appearance by the couple, who divorced in 1960.

Vivien Leigh

Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

Vivian Mary Hartley was born on November 5, 1913 in Darjeeling, India, where her father, Ernest, had moved to from Britain as a young man. Vivian was the Hartley's second child, and the only one to survive. During her early childhood, with her father's time in the Army, they seem to have been a happy and united family. But after the war the mother, Gertrude, wanted them to return to England. Gertrude was worried about Vivian's religious education, and a strict Catholic nanny was imported from England to replace an easy-going Indian amah. In 1920, Gertrude found a suitable boarding school in which to place Vivian. Despite Vivian's pleadings her father gave in and it was agreed that Vivian should enter the school in September. At just under seven she was the youngest child ever to be accepted there. Vivian spent some of the happiest years of her life at this school.

By the time the Hartleys had come back to England they decided to retrench a bit by taking a house in the West Country for the winter. Vivian now announced as a definite mature decision that she wished to become an actress, and her father, delighted, arranged for her to be enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) at the earlist possible moment which was May 1932. At a hunt ball she made a fateful encounter. It was with a 31 year old and thoroughly eligible bachelor barrister called Leigh Holman. He was gentle, dreamy and handsome in a cool, fair English sort of way. Certainly both were sure at once they were in love. And in May she embarked on the process of becoming a professional actress. Leigh Holman certainly regarded her time at RADA as a sort of artistic finishing school. She did well at RADA and played a variety of roles in school productions. But in July, Leigh proposed and Vivian accepted him without hesitation. They had a Roman Catholic marriage on December 20, 1932, honeymooned in the Bavarian Alps.

Vivian gave birth to her first child on October 12, 1933. The baby was a girl and Vivian named her Suzanne. Motherhood did not suit Vivian, and she was anxious to get back to acting. She got lucky. A new film, Things Are Looking Up, was going to be in production the following summer and Vivian got a role as a walk on.

As an aspiring actress, Vivian got herself an agent. One of his first suggestions was to change her name. Vivian Holman became Vivian Leigh (taking her husband's first name which made him pleased). Soon Vivian made two other films, Village Squire and Gentleman s Agreement. Vivian also got some stage roles in Green Sash and The Mask of Virtue which would be a landmark in Vivien's early career. The role Vivian sought required the actress to be stunningly beautiful. The producer of the play only needed one glance at Vivian to know that she should take the role. He suggested changing the 'a' in her name to an 'e,' so now she was Vivien Leigh.

The play opened on May 15, 1935 at the Ambassadors Theatre, and it was an instant success.

The Holmans and the Oliviers were soon introduced and shortly afterwards, Vivien and Larry began their affair. The relationship would continue until both are divorced from their respective spouses and later married in 1940.

It was Vivien's beauty that the critics mostly praised in her early years as an actress. Throughout her life, she would struggle trying to prove that she also had talent. While Vivien was occupied with Olivier and their secret romance, she filmed Fire over England, Dark Journey, and Storm in a Teacup. Vivien was always complimented on her appearance in these films and she received positive reviews for her acting. During these busy years, Vivien somehow managed to read a 1000-page book called Gone with the Wind. Like so many actresses of her time, Vivien wanted the role of Scarlett. When an opportunity to visit Larry in America came up, she took it. Vivien was hoping to also try out for the coveted role from Gone with the Wind. After a two-year nationwide talent search, including auditions by some of Hollywood's leading actresses, Leigh won the coveted role in December, 1938, after filming had already begun. With the premiere of the film a year later, Leigh became a major star, capturing an Academy Award for Best Actress. The rest is history and Vivien finally made a name for herself as the legendary Scarlett O'Hara. Her dream of being a world renowned star had become true.

Vivien found herself in a bind. The film that had made her a huge star was the epitome of all movies.

Nothing would be as great as her first Hollywood film.

However, Vivien landed a role in Waterloo Bridge co-starring Robert Taylor. After months of shooting in a stressful atmosphere of the Gone with the Wind, Vivien enjoyed making her next film. In fact, she remarked that Waterloo Bridge was her favourite film she had ever made. Meanwhile, Larry was filming Pride and Prejudice and preparing to stage Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet with Vivien.

The Oliviers were married, finally, on August 28, 1940 after both of their respective divorces were made final.

Meanwhile, Vivien had developed a lingering cough. At the urging of a dresser, Vivien went to see a doctor who revealed that Vivien had a tubercu-lar patch on her lung. After 6 weeks of treatment, the patch seemed to be healing, but the doctor insisted that she go to a sanitarium for 6 months to 1 year for continued treatment. This idea horrified Vivien, and instead she agreed to take a year off from work and retreat to Notley Abbey with a nurse. After being turned down to play Ophelia in Olivier's Hamlet, due to age, Vivien went into a depressive state. As Larry consumed himself with the production, Vivien was offered to play Anna in the remake of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Vivien admired Tolstoy and identified with Anna. Given these two factors and her ability to totally immerse herselfin a role, it is understandable that she fell into a state of depression as the film progressed

During the filming, it was learned that Larry was to be knighted for his services to stage and film. On July 8, 1947, Larry was knighted at Buckingham Palace.

Plagued by tuberculosis (which she began suffering from as early as 1945) and manic depression, Leigh appeared in only eight films after Gone with the Wind. In addition to That Hamilton Woman, she also starred in Waterloo Bridge (1940); Caesar and Cleopatra (1946); Anna Karenina (1948); The Deep Blue Sea (1955); The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961); and Ship of Fools (1965). Her best received film after Gone with the Wind was Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), co-starring Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Maiden.

Leigh first played the aging Southern belle Blanche Du Bois in a 1949 stage version of the Tennessee Williams play -she earned her second Academy Award for Best Actress for her emotionally wrenching performance in the film version.

During the 1960s, Leigh continued to make a series of impressive stage appearances, including her 1963 Broadway debut in Tovarich, for which she won a Tony Award for Best Actress. In later years, she grew unable to maintain a show for a long run, as her health led her to frequently miss performances. Leigh made her last stage appearance in a 1966 production of Ivanov, alongside her longtime companion, the actor Jack Merivale, with whom she had lived since her divorce from Olivier. Leigh died of tuberculosis in London on July 8, 1967.