Biography: Vivian Mary Hartley was born on November 5, 1913 in Darjeeling, India. Her parents, Ernest Hartley and Gertrude Yackjee spent a little time in Darjeeling with Vivien, before taking her back to England. There, she grew up alongside the actress Maureen O'Sullivan. In the early thirties, Vivian met Leigh Holman, quite a bit older than she, yet she married him anyway, at age eighteen. On October 12, 1933, Suzanne Holman was born.

Vivien's stage debut was in "The Green Sash", but it was her performance as Henriette Duquesnoy in "The Mask of Virtue" that earned her critical acclaim. Vivien began performing in many plays including "Richard III", "The Happy Hypocrite" and "Henry VIII". By this time, Vivien had developed a sort of mild obsession with the English theatre star, Laurence Olivier. They'd first met at the Savoy Grill, through much of her own arranging and in 1936, they were paired to do their first film, FIRE OVER ENGLAND. After the film, they signed on to do a second film called TWENTY-ONE DAYS.

Vivien's first film was THE VILLAGE SQUIRE in 1935. The same year she had minor roles in THINGS ARE LOOKING UP, LOOK UP AND LAUGH and THE GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT. Vivien kept working, and soon in 1937, she read the very popular Margaret Mitchell novel, "Gone With the Wind". She was engrossed in it. She decided the moment she read the novel that she would indeed play Scarlett O'Hara, two years before it actually happened.

Meanwhile, in Hollywood, Producer, David O. Selznick, was looking for his Scarlett. The search lasted two years, and was only brought to an end by a deliberate meeting of Vivien to Selznick. He knew immediately that she was to be his Scarlett. Vivien was screentested, and contracts were signed with the rest of the cast including Leslie Howard, Clark Gable and Olivia deHavilland. Filming began in January 1939; and was said to be quite long and excruciating. Vivien won an Academy Award in 1940. By late 1940, World War II was already raging in England, both Olivier and Leigh received divorces from their respective spouses. They registered for a marriage license and paraded to Santa Barbara. At one minute past midnight on August 30, 1940 (with Garson Kanin and Katharine Hepburn as witnesses) they were wed.

During the next few years Vivien starred in plays such as "The Doctor's Delimma" with bombs being dropped overhead. In 1944, Vivien was diagnosed with tubercular patch on her left lung while performing in Thornton Wilder's "The Skin of Our Teeth". To add to her medical distress, in 1946 (while filming CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA) she had a miscarriage. Due to her condition she became increasingly possessive of Olivier. She began to pride herself on Olivier's love, and despite her mood swings, she depended on him to make her live.

Vivien's illness was becoming somewhat of a second cousin to her, appearing out of nowhere and virtually taking over her body. She was put on medications, given electroshock therapy and ordered to months and months of bedrest at Notley Abbey. During her bedrest, she read Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" and was convinced (just as she was with the role of Scarlett O'Hara) that she would indeed play Blanche DuBois. After her recovery, Olivier began rehearsals for the play (in which she would star) that would run over three-hundred performances. In early 1950, when Elia Kazan decided to direct the film, Vivien was chosen to play Blanche. The film was a success and Vivien received the second of her Academy Awards in 1951; while performing "Caesar and Cleopatra" and "Antony and Cleopatra" in England.

Suddenly, Vivien had a second miscarriage, and her tuberculosis was getting worse (most likely due to her intake of alcohol and manic-depression). During the late fifties and early sixties, Vivien found a new companion in the actor Jack Merivale. It was a relief off Olivier's shoulders who was now free to divorce Vivien, and did so in 1960. Vivien began performing in a series of plays ranging from "Duel of Angels" to "Tovarich" (which she won a Tony for in 1963) to "Ivanov" with John Gielgud and Jack Merivale. She wasn't a film peasant either, she starred with Warren Beatty in THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE and won a French Étoile Crystal award for her performance in SHIP OF FOOLS in 1965.

In 1967, Vivien moved to her and Olivier's flat at 54 Eaton Square in Chelsea, London, and until the day she died, she kept Olivier's photograph on her bedside table. On July 7, 1967, Vivien Mary died from chronic-tuberculosis. It has been said that an old friend saw Olivier in the mid-eighties, close to some twenty-years after her death, watching one of her older films saying "this was true love."
 

This biography was written by Samantha, visit her homepage: Unforgettably Vivien Leigh