She starred opposite Robert Taylor in the successful 'Waterloo Bridge' (1940), a romantic melodrama. Its regular re-releases kept her famous.ĭivorced from their respective spouses, she and Olivier married in 1940. Almost at once, he and Selznick knew she, nearly unknown in America, was the Scarlett they had been seeking. During the burning-of-Atlanta scene, Myron introduced him to Leigh, saying she was his Scarlett. She accompanied Olivier, still married to actress Jill Esmond, to Hollywood where he would film 'Wuthering Heights.' Selznick began shooting in late 1938 without a Scarlett. She got agent Myron Selznick, producer David O. They became lovers while shooting Korda's 'Fire Over England' (1937), a popular Elizabethan drama in which she was first-billed.ĭespite very long odds, she was determined to play Scarlett, the most coveted role in film history. Impressed, Olivier, already successful, introduced himself. Film producer Alexander Korda signed her to a contract. Their daughter Suzanne was born two years later.Īfter studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, she made her 1935 London stage debut as Vivien Leigh in 'The Mask of Virtue.' Her beauty and performance were lavishly praised. In 1932, she married attorney Leigh Holman. She changed the spelling of her first name to make it more feminine.

She was educated at Sacred Heart Catholic Academies there, in England, France, Italy, and Austria.

Vivian Mary Hartley, born in Darjeeling, India, was the only child of well-off bourgeois parents. Tauris, $29) carefully separates facts from legend, which began with her star-making performance as Scarlett O'Hara in 1939's 'Gone With the Wind.' Alan Strachan's 'Dark Star, A Biography of Vivien Leigh' (I.B. Many people regard Vivien Leigh (1913-67) as a figure from Greek tragedy: beautiful, acclaimed, plagued by mental illness, abandoned by her husband of 20 years Laurence Olivier, and living a melancholy existence after their 1960 divorce.

Dark Star by Alan Strachan