Vivien Leigh(1913-1967)
- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
If a film were made of the life of Vivien Leigh, it would open in India
just before World War I, where a successful British businessman could
live like a prince. In the mountains above Calcutta, a little princess
is born. Because of the outbreak of World War I, she is six years old
the first time her parents take her to England. Her mother thinks she
should have a proper English upbringing and insists on leaving her in a
convent school - even though Vivien is two years younger than any of
the other girls at the school. The only comfort for the lonely child is
a cat that was in the courtyard of the school that the nuns let her
take up to her dormitory. Her first and best friend at the school is an
eight-year-old girl, Maureen O'Sullivan who has been transplanted from Ireland. In
the bleakness of a convent school, the two girls can recreate in their
imaginations the places they have left and places where they would some
day like to travel. After Vivien has been at the school for 18 months,
her mother comes again from India and takes her to a play in London. In
the next six months Vivien will insist on seeing the same play 16
times. In India the British community entertained themselves at amateur
theatricals and Vivien's father was a leading man. Pupils at the
English convent school are eager to perform in school plays. It's an
all-girls school, so some of the girls have to play the male roles. The
male roles are so much more adventurous. Vivien's favorite actor is
Leslie Howard, and at 19 she marries an English barrister who looks very much
like him. The year is 1932. Vivien's best friend from that convent
school has gone to California, where she's making movies. Vivien has an
opportunity to play a small role in an English film, Things Are Looking Up (1935). She has
only one line but the camera keeps returning to her face. The London
stage is more exciting than the movies being filmed in England, and the
most thrilling actor on that stage is Laurence Olivier. At a party Vivien finds
out about a stage role, "The Green Sash," where the only requirement is
that the leading lady be beautiful. The play has a very brief run, but
now she is a real actress. An English film is going to be made about
Elizabeth I. Laurence gets the role of a young favorite of the queen
who is sent to Spain. Vivien gets a much smaller role as a
lady-in-waiting of the queen who is in love with Laurence's character.
In real life, both fall in love while making this film, Fire Over England (1937). In
1938, Hollywood wants Laurence to play Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (1939). Vivien,
who has just recently read Gone with the Wind (1939), thinks that the role of Scarlett
O'Hara is the first role for an actress that would be really exciting
to bring to the screen. She sails to America for a brief vacation. In
New York she gets on a plane for the first time to rush to California
to see Laurence. They have dinner with Myron Selznick the night that his
brother, David O. Selznick, is burning Atlanta on a backlot of MGM (actually they
are burning old sets that go back to the early days of silent films to
make room to recreate an Atlanta of the 1860s). Vivien is 26 when
Gone with the Wind (1939) makes a sweep of the Oscars in 1939. So let's show 26-year-old
Vivien walking up to the stage to accept her Oscar and then as the
Oscar is presented the camera focuses on Vivien's face and through the
magic of digitally altering images, the 26-year-old face merges into
the face of Vivien at age 38 getting her second Best Actress Oscar for
portraying Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). She wouldn't have returned to
America to make that film had not Laurence been going over there to do
a film, Carrie (1952) based on Theodore Dreiser's novel "Sister Carrie." Laurence
tells their friends that his motive for going to Hollywood to make
films is to get enough money to produce his own plays for the London
stage. He even has his own theater there, the St. James. Now Sir
Laurence, with a seat in the British House of Lords, is accompanied by
Vivien the day the Lords are debating about whether the St James should
be torn down. Breaking protocol, Vivien speaks up and is escorted from
the House of Lords. The publicity helps raise the funds to save the St.
James. Throughout their two-decade marriage Laurence and Vivien were
acting together on the stage in London and New York. Vivien was no
longer Lady Olivier when she performed her last major film role,
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961).