Birthday of a neurotic woman, great and beautiful

November 5, 1913 in Darjeeling, India, in the family of the Indian cavalry officer Ernest Hartley a daughter was born, who was named Vivian Mary. Until 6 years, she lived, like a princess, in India with her mom and dad. And then her parents brought her to England and left her at the monastery school, where she was the youngest pupil. And even then, at the monastery school, she dreamed of becoming an actress.

At the end of the monastery school, at the age of 18, Vivian Mary, with the assistance of her father, entered the London Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. And at 19, she got married. Her husband, a lawyer, 13 years older, hoped that the officer’s daughter, who received a monastery education, would be an exemplary mother and housewife. Vivian Mary became a mother, at the age of 20 giving birth to a daughter, Suzanne. In connection with motherhood, Vivian had to quit acting training.

But the childhood dream of the scene haunted Vivian. Friends helped Vivian get an episodic role of a schoolgirl without mentioning in the credits in the 1935 film Things Are Looking Up. Naturally, such a role brought neither fame nor satisfaction, but thanks to her, Vivian acquired her own agent, who advised her to change her name to a stage name. Vivian decided to change her surname to "Leigh".

Vivian Leigh tried to get a few more movie roles, but failed. But then, in the same 1935, she got a role in the theatrical play The Mask of Virtue, directed by Sidney Carroll. For this role Leigh received excellent reviews, followed by interviews and newspaper articles. One of these articles was from Daily Express, in which the interviewer noted the actress’s ability to instantly change facial expressions. This was the first public mention of the rapid mood changes that later became characteristic of her. In one of the reviews, Vivian Leigh was called "the essence of English girlhood".

Soon the play The Mask of Virtue was removed from the scene. At the same time, in a newspaper publication about the removal of the play, Sidney Carroll made a typo, naming the actress "Vivien Leigh". Thus was born the name of the great Actress.

Thanks to the laudatory press, Vivien Leigh received several offers from filmmakers, including from Alexander Korda, who had recently refused her because of "lack of creative potential." But not only these proposals were the result of the successful theatrical role of Vivien Leigh. After one of the performances, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Baron Olivier Brighton, came to congratulate her. By that time Lawrence Olivier was a rather famous in England as a theater director and already played several movie roles.

A year later, in 1936, Vivien Leigh and Lawrence Olivier had already played together in the movie Fire Over England. And a year later they became lovers. Both were married and had one child each.

In 1938, Lawrence Olivier received an offer to star in the American film Wuthering Heights and left for the United States. Vivien Leigh, meanwhile, had read shortly before that Margaret Mitchell’s published novel, Gone With the Wind, which she found out was planning to film by a movie company of David Selznick. Leigh decided that she was best suited for the role of Scarlett O'Hara, and began to convince all her friends in this. Moreover, she traveled to the United States, ostensibly, to visit Lawrence. There she entered into an agency agreement with Myron Selznik, David's brother. Together with Myron and Lawrence Olivier, they convinced David Selznick that Vivien is the best candidate for the role of Scarlett. But even before meeting with David, she convinced Margaret Mitchell herself of this. And this is despite the fact that 1,400 American professional and non-professional actresses claimed this role. Subsequently, evil tongues said that Vivien Leigh was ready to crawl along the broken glass for the desired role.

As it turned out, she was absolutely right! For the role of Scarlett O'Hara, Vivien Leigh was awarded the Academy Award. Roger Ebert wrote in 1998 that "Leigh, the neurotic, drug-abusing beauty who was the despair of every man who loved her...was well matched in the ... most coveted movie role of the era".

In 1940, Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Leigh received a divorce from their spouses and got married. It would seem that the era of prosperity has begun: the glory of an Oscar-bearer, her husband is a famous theater and film director, and also the owner of his own theater. And the beginning of this era was marked by joint filming in the film of Alexander Korda That Hamilton Woman in 1941. It was in the role of Lady Hamilton that Vivien Leigh was first seen by Soviet moviegoers, since this film, at the urging of Winston Churchill, was actually presented to the Soviet Union and has been shown in the USSR since 1943.

Soviet moviegoers saw this actress and fell in love. A nostalgic and very popular song can serve as evidence of this. Do you know a lot of popular songs about movie heroines?!

But, starting at the age of 30, Vivien began to have serious health problems. Two pregnancies ended in miscarriages. Chronic tuberculosis was diagnosed. And finally, bipolar disorder was discovered. With this disease, a person instantly passes from one mood to the exact opposite, from complacency and joy to causeless anger and rage. And this was the most serious problem for Vivien, who was in manic love with the acting profession, since no one wanted to be her partner on the stage or set. She had to drop out of the creative process for a long time in order to heal. But it was not possible to recover completely. Only the position of her husband as a theater director supported her.

Such a case is known in the biography of Vivien Leigh. For some reason, the government decided to close and demolish the theater owned by Lawrence Olivier. The issue was to be discussed in the House of Lords, of which Olivier was a member. Olivier took Vivien with him to the meeting. And suddenly, in the midst of a discussion, from somewhere in the back rows, in violation of all written and unwritten rules and protocols, Vivien began to shout. The meeting was disrupted. Vivien with a scandal was escorted from the hall. Olivier received public condemnation. But the result was achieved: the theater was preserved.

Years passed. Attacks of disease became more frequent and prolonged. Periods of remission, on the contrary, are getting shorter. Lawrence devoted most of his time to his professional career. And her ex-husband, Lee Holman, and actor Jack Merivale, in love with the Actress, took care of Vivien. In 1958, an affair began between Vivien Leigh and Merivale. In 1960, Vivien and Lawrence divorced, and Olivier very soon got married again.

In 1967, during another exacerbation of chronic tuberculosis, the Actress died. She was only 53 years old.

Over 30 years of creative activity, Vivien Leigh has played roles in 38 theatrical performances, in 20 feature films, has been awarded 10 different film awards, including 2 Academy Award for best performance of the main female roles. And this despite the fact that most of her life she had to struggle with various diseases.

3 films out of 20, in which Vivien Leigh played, are included in the FilmGourmand's Golden Thousand. Due to her contribution to world cinema and her beauty, Vivien Leigh is included in the list of 100 most beautiful and sexy Actresses of the world cinema.

Today, as usual, we wanted to remind fans of the great Actress frames from the best films with her participation.