Vivien Leigh

1913 - 1967  (53 years)    Has 2 ancestors and one descendant in this family tree.

• Name	Vivien Leigh
  Birth	5 Nov 1913	Darjeeling, West Bengal, Bhārat Gaṇarājya
  Gender	Female
  Prominent People	Great Britain
  actor
  Death	7 Jul 1967	London, Middlesex, England
  Person ID	I373613	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	7 Apr 2002

  
  

  Father	Ernest Hartley   d. Yes, date unknown
  Mother	Gertrude   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F148247	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Herbert Leigh Holman
  Marriage	20 Dec 1932
  1 child
  Divorce	Feb 1940
  Children	1. Living
  Family ID	F148245	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	7 Apr 2002

  
  

  Family 2	Laurence Kerr Olivier,   b. 22 May 1907, Dorking, Surrey, England d. 11 Jul 1989, Steyning, Sussex, England (Age 82 years)
  Marriage	31 Aug 1940
  2 children
  Divorce	02 Dec 1960
  Family ID	F148242	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Jan 2014

  
  

  Family 3	John Merivale,   b. 1 Dec 1917, Toronto, Ontario, Canada d. 6 Feb 1990, London, Middlesex, England (Age 72 years)
  Marriage	1959
  Family ID	F148246	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	7 Apr 2002

  
  

• Event Map	Click to hide
  		Prominent People - actor - - Great Britain Death - 7 Jul 1967 - London, Middlesex, England  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Photos

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• Notes

  In Hollywood, in 1964, Vivien Leigh gave elegant dinners in the big house she had rented from London. ...She was no longer Laurence Olivier's wife, but she wanted to remain Lady Olivier...At the end of these evenings the phonograph played the theme from "Gone With the Wind." Because of the outbreak of World War I, she is 6 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 8-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 in 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 when she is 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 is 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 the film, "Fire Over England", that is shown in British and American movie theaters in 1937. In 1938, Hollywood wants Laurence to play Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights". Vivien, who has just recently read "Gone With The Wind", 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 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" 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 1990s magic of 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". She wouldn't have returned to America to make that film had not Laurence been going over there to do a film based on Theodore Dreiser's novel "Sister Carrie". The film was called "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" (1962).