From unforgettable fame to who they are today — the full story, with rare photos.
The Face Everyone Knew
Vivian Mary Olivier , known professionally as Vivien Leigh and styled as Lady Olivier after 1947, was a British actress. After completing her drama school education, Leigh performed on stage before receiving small roles in four films in 1935, eventually progressing to the role of heroine in Fire Over England . She went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, for her performances as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind and Blanche DuBois in the film adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she had played on stage in London’s West End in 1949. For the latter role, she also won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, and later won a Tony Award for her work in the Broadway musical version of Tovarich .
Rise to Stardom
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. 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. Widely lauded for her beauty, Leigh felt that her physical attributes sometimes prevented her from being taken seriously as an actress.
Life at the Top
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 life she had recurrent bouts of chronic tuberculosis, which was first diagnosed in the mid-1940s and ultimately led to her death at age 53.
Photos via Wikimedia Commons (public domain / Creative Commons).