poster movie

Vivien Leigh

1913-11-05

The Biography

Vivien Leigh (born Vivian Mary Hartley, and also known as Lady Olivier after 1947; 5 November 1913 – 8 July 1967) was an English stage and film actress. She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress, for her iconic performances as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) and Blanche DuBois in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), a role she had also played on stage in London's West End in 1949. She also won a Tony Award for her work in the Broadway musical version of Tovarich (1963). After completing her drama school education, Leigh appeared in small roles in four films in 1935 and progressed to the role of heroine in Fire Over England (1937). Lauded for her beauty, Leigh felt that her physical attributes sometimes prevented her from being taken seriously as an actress. Despite her fame as a screen actress, Leigh was primarily a stage performer. During her 30-year career, she played roles ranging from the heroines of Noël Coward and George Bernard Shaw comedies to classic Shakespearean characters such as Ophelia, Cleopatra, Juliet, and Lady Macbeth. Later in life, she performed as a character actress in a few films. At the time, the public strongly identified Leigh with her second husband Laurence Olivier, who was her spouse from 1940 to 1960. Leigh and Olivier starred together in many stage productions, with Olivier often directing, and in three films. She earned a reputation for being difficult to work with, and for much of her adult life she suffered from bipolar disorder as well as recurrent bouts of chronic tuberculosis, which was first diagnosed in the mid-1940s and ultimately claimed her life at the age of 53. Although her career had periods of inactivity, in 1999 the American Film Institute ranked Leigh as the 16th greatest female movie star of classic Hollywood cinema. Description above from the Wikipedia article Vivien Leigh, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Vivien Leigh in

Movies

poster movie

Gone with the Wind

7.9 average rating
poster movie

A Streetcar Named Desire

7.605 average rating
poster movie

Waterloo Bridge

7.5 average rating
poster movie

Caesar and Cleopatra

6.1 average rating
poster movie

Ship of Fools

6.5 average rating
poster movie

Anna Karenina

6 average rating
poster movie

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

6.7 average rating
poster movie

That's Entertainment, Part II

6.8 average rating
poster movie

That Hamilton Woman

7 average rating
poster movie

That's Entertainment! III

6.9 average rating
poster movie

Fire Over England

6 average rating
poster movie

Lee Marvin: A Personal Portrait by John Boorman

0 average rating
poster movie

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year

7.5 average rating
poster movie

Storm in a Teacup

7.5 average rating
poster movie

Hollywood: The Selznick Years

3.3 average rating
poster movie

The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful

10 average rating
poster movie

Dark Journey

6.4 average rating
poster movie

St. Martin's Lane

7.2 average rating
poster movie

Hollywood: The Dream Factory

6 average rating
poster movie

21 Days Together

6.1 average rating