Vivien Leigh Quotes

(when asked to take over Joan Crawford`s role in Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)) "No, thank you. I can just about stand looking at Joan Crawford`s face at six o`clock in the morning, but not Bette Davis."

Green Eyes

Cat like smile

Raised right eyebrow

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 fact, most in the film industry felt that Goddard was a sure bet for the part. However, four days after the screen test, Vivien was informed that she had landed the coveted slot.

Although few remember it now, at the time her casting was controversial, as she was British and many fans of the novel it was based on felt the role should be played by an American.

In addition, the shoot wasn`t a pleasant one, as she didn`t get along with her co-star, Clark Gable.

The rest, as they say, is history.

The film became one of the most celebrated in the annals of cinema.

Not only did it win Best Picture during the Academy Awards, but Vivien won for Best Actress.

Already she was a household name. In 1940, she made two films, Waterloo Bridge (1940) and 21 Days (1940), though neither approached the magnetism of GWTW.

That same year saw Vivien marry Olivier and the next year they appeared together in That Hamilton Woman (1941).

By the time of the filming of Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), her life had begun to unravel. She had suffered two miscarriages,

contracted tuberculosis, and was diagnosed as a manic depressive.

However, she gave another excellent performance in that film and her public was still enthralled with her, although the film was not a financial success.

She rebounded nicely for her role as Blanche DuBois for her second Oscar-winning performance in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) opposite Marlon Brando in 1951.

She wasn`t heard from much after that.

She made a film in 1955 (The Deep Blue Sea (1955)). In 1960, her marriage fell apart, as Olivier left her to marry actress Joan Plowright.

She appeared on-screen again until 1961 in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961), co-starring Warren Beatty.

Won Tony Award-Best Musical Actress (1963) "Tovarich"

Ranked #48 in Empire (UK) magazine`s "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. (October 1997)

Suffered from manic depression.

Mother of Suzanne Farrington.

Lived with John Merivale from 1959 to her death in 1967.

A heavy smoker, Leigh was smoking almost four packs a day during filming of Gone with the Wind (1939).

Gertrude Hartley, while awaiting the birth of her child in Darjeeling, spent 15 minutes every morning gazing at the Himalayas in the belief that their astonishing beauty would be passed to her unborn child.

After cremation at Golders Green, London, her ashes were scattered on the mill pond at her home, Tickerage Mill, at Blackboys in Sussex.

Scarlett O`Hara might have been played by an actress called `April Morn`, a stage name she briefly considered before settling on Vivien Leigh.

Laurence Olivier`s first wife, Jill Esmond, named Vivien as co-respondent in her February 1940 divorce from Olivier on grounds of adultery.

Vivien would name Joan Plowright - Olivier`s next and last wife - as co-respondent in her 1960 divorce from Olivier, also on grounds of adultery.

The producer of the 1935 play "The Mask of Virtue" suggested to her that she change the `a` in her first name to an `e` from "Vivian" to "Vivien."

According to legend, Myron Selznick introduced Vivien to his brother - Gone with the Wind (1939) producer David O. Selznick - with the words, "Hey, genius! Meet your Scarlett."

Married Laurence Olivier at San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara on August 31st, 1940, with Katharine Hepburn as maid of honor; they honeymooned on actor Ronald Colman`s yacht.

A lover of cats, especially Siamese.

Claimed that when she tested for Gone with the Wind (1939), the costume was still warm from the actress who preceded her.

Was offered the supporting role of Isabella in Wuthering Heights (1939), but decided to gamble and hold out for the lead role of Cathy.

Director William Wyler thought she was crazy to pass up the opportunity, telling her, "You will never get a better part than Isabella for an American debut

Shortly after, she landed the plum role of Scarlett O`Hara.

Pictured on one of four 25¢ US commemorative postage stamps issued 23 March 1990 honoring classic films released in 1939.

The stamp features Clark Gable and Leigh as Rhett Butler and Scarlett O`Hara from Gone with the Wind (1939).

The other films honored were Beau Geste (1939), Stagecoach (1939), and The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Her favorite role was that of Myra Lester, which she played in Waterloo Bridge (1940).

She took her then husband`s first name (Leigh) as her last name when she began acting professionally.

Son-in-law`s name is Robin Farrington.

Has three grandsons: Neville Farrington (b. December 4 1958), Jonathan Farrington (b. May 13 1961) and Rupert Farrington (b. Aug 31 1962)

Godmother of actress Juliet Mills.

Measurements: 32A/B-23-33 (during Gone with the Wind (1939)). (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Reportedly used one of her two Oscars to doorstop her bathroom.

Kept Laurence Olivier`s photograph beside her bed and on her dressing table even after they divorced.

Until her death she was addressed as "Lady Olivier."

She desperately wanted to play the second Mrs. De Winter in Rebecca (1940) opposite her husband Laurence Olivier

but producer David O. Selznick thought the role would dilute her value as a Scarlett O`Hara type and cast Joan Fontaine instead.

His decision severely strained her professional relationship with Selznick; neither she nor Olivier ever appeared in one of his films again.

Fontaine won her first Academy Award nomination in the role.

Had an affair with actor Peter Finch that nearly ended her marriage to Laurence Olivier.

The movie The V.I.P.s (1963) is based on an incident from Leigh`s and Olivier`s marriage, when she was about to leave him for Finch but Olivier wooed her back.

Although she was a British subject for her whole life, her ancestry was French and Irish.

Won Broadway`s 1963 Tony Award as Best Actress (Musical) for "Tovarich."

Was named #16 Actress on The American Film Institutes 50 Greatest Screen Legends

Is portrayed by Morgan Brittany in The Scarlett O`Hara War (1980) (TV) and by Mel Martin in Darlings of the Gods (1989) (TV)

She was supposed to star in the Paramount film Elephant Walk (1954) with Peter Finch and Dana Andrews, but after appearing in a few scenes she was replaced by Elizabeth Taylor.

The reasons for Leigh`s dismissal were rumored to be her difficult nature, having just been diagnosed as a manic-depressive.

Further complications may have erupted because of an affair she had with co-star Finch while she was still married to Laurence Olivier, and Leigh and Olivier were still married in 1954.

She has at least 3 great granddaughters: Amy, Sophie and Ashua

Laurence Olivier wrote in his autobiography, "Confessions of an Actor," that sometime after World War II, Leigh announced calmly that she was no longer in love with him, but loved him like a brother.

Olivier was emotionally devastated.

What he did not know at the time was that Leigh`s declaration -- and her subsequent affairs with multiple partners -- was a signal of the bipolar disorder that eventually disrupted her life and career.

Leigh had every intention of remaining married to Olivier, but was no longer interested in him romantically.

Olivier himself began having affairs (including one with Claire Bloom in the 1950s, according to Bloom`s own autobiography)

as Leigh`s eye and amorous intentions wandered and roamed outside of the marital bedchamber.

Olivier had to accompany Leigh to Hollywood in 1950 in order to keep an eye on her and keep her out of trouble, to ensure that her manic-depression did not get out of hand and disrupt the production of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).

In order to do so, he accepted a part in William Wyler`s Carrie (1952) that was shot at the same time as "Streetcar".

The Oliviers were popular with Hollywood`s elite,

and Elia Kazan and Marlon Brando both liked "Larry" very much

(that was the reason that Brando gave in his own autobiography for not sleeping with Leigh,

whom he thought had a superior posterior--he couldn`t raid Olivier`s "chicken coop"

as "Larry was such a nice guy".)

None of them knew the depths of the anguish he was enduring as the caretaker of his mentally ill wife.

Brando said that Leigh was superior to Jessica Tandy -- the original stage Blanche DuBois -- as she WAS Blanche. Ironically,

Olivier himself had directed Leigh in the part on the London stage.

Peter Finch was discovered by Laurence Olivier in 1948 when Olivier and his theatrical company,

which included wife Leigh,

were conducting a tour of Australia,

Olivier signed the young Aussie to a personal contract

and kept her out of worse trouble and Olivier

from even worse embarrassment.

she was grateful for Finch as he occupied Leigh`s hours and kept her out of worse trouble

Their on-again, off-again affair reportedly reached a crisis point on the movie Elephant Walk (1954),

when they had renewed their affair.

However, the instability of their relationship allegedly triggered a nervous breakdown in Leigh, and Olivier had to step in to take care of her.

Her performance as Scarlett O`Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) is ranked #3 on Premiere Magazine`s 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

Eventually, Vivien needed shock therapy to control her manic depression. Sometimes she would go on stage just hours after her treatments, without missing a beat in her performance.

Gave birth to daughter Suzanne during her marriage to Herbert Leigh Holman.

Was obsessed with hiding her large hands. Gloves were a favorite cover-up, she owned more than 150 pairs.

Her father was a full-blooded Englishmen, while her mother was of French and Irish descent.

Despite her legendary stature, Leigh made fewer than twenty films in her career.

Was close friends with Rachel Kempson, the mother of Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave.

Measurements 34A/23/34.

Great grandchildren are: Ashua, Amy, Sophie and Tessa.

The great grandchildren, the girls in particular, bear a striking resemblance to Suzanne.

Was the first British actress to win an Academy Award.

She won the Best Actress Oscar for Gone with the Wind (1939) in February 1940.

As of 2008, she is only one of six actors who have a 2-0 winning record when nominated for an acting Oscar.

The others are Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937); Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)

and Airport (1970); Sally Field for Norma Rae (1979) and Places in the Heart (1984);

Kevin Spacey for The Usual Suspects (1995)

and American Beauty (1999);

and Hilary Swank for Boys Don`t Cry

and Million Dollar Baby (2004).

When making Gone with the Wind (1939), super macho director Victor Fleming wanted Scarlett, for at least once in the film, to look like his hunting buddy Clark Gable`s type of woman.

So, when wearing the stunning low-cut burgundy velvet dress with rhinestones that Scarlett wears to Ashley Wilkes` birthday party in the second half of the film, to achieve the desired cleavage for Fleming, Walter Plunkett had to tape Vivien Leigh`s breasts together.

(talking to critics about her reviews for "The Mask of Virtue" (1935), her second play on the London stage) It`s much easier to make people cry than to make them laugh.

Some critics saw fit to say that I was a great actress. I thought that was a foolish, wicked thing to say because it put such an onus and such a responsibility onto me, which I simply wasn`t able to carry.

Scorpios burn themselves out and eat themselves up and they are careless about themselves - like me. I swing between happiness and misery and I cry easily. I am a mixture of my mother`s determination and my father`s optimism. I am part prude and part non-conformist and I say what I think and don`t dissemble. I am a mixture of French, Irish and Yorkshire, and perhaps that`s what it all is.

(talking to critics about her reviews for "The Mask of Virtue" (1935), her second play on the London stage) It`s much easier to make people cry than to make them laugh.

(on Alexander Korda) Alex was like a father to us - we went to see him with every little problem we had. We usually left convinced that he had solved it - or that we`d got our own way.

All day long you`re really leading up to the evening`s performance. To time everything correctly, you have to take care of yourself-which is a very difficult thing to do, because it`s highly emotional

Am I finished with Hollywood? Good heavens, no! I shall certainly go back there if there is a film to make.

Actresses go on for a long time and there are always marvelous parts to play.

(on Warren Beatty) He has the kind of magnetic sensuality you could light torches with. o

I loved fencing and dancing and elocution.

Every single night I`m nervous. You never know how the audience is going to react.

Sometimes I dread the truth of the lines I say. But the dread must never show.

Am I finished with Hollywood? Good heavens, no! I shall certainly go back there if there is a film to make.

I`m not a film star, I am an actress. Being a film star is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity.

Comedy is much more difficult than tragedy-and a much better training, I think. It`s much easier to make people cry than to make them laugh.

I need something truly beautiful to look at in hotel rooms.

I have just made out my will and given all the things I have and many that I haven`t.

People think that if you look fairly reasonable, you can`t possibly act, and as I only care about acting, I think beauty can be a great handicap.

I don`t know what that Method is. Acting is life, to me, and should be.

I`ve always been mad about cats.

When I was at school at Paris, I had special lessons from Mademoiselle Antoine, an actress at the Comedie Francaise, and I was taken to every sort of play. I felt very grand.

My parents were French and Irish and our family even has Spanish blood-and I do so love the United States and consider myself part American.

Actresses go on for a long time and there are always marvelous parts to play.

I know I am right for Scarlett. I can convince Mr. Selznick.

My first husband and I are still good friends and there is no earthly reason why I should not see him. Larry and I are very much in love.

Life is too short to work so hard.

English people don`t have very good diction. In France you have to pronounce very particularly and clearly, and learning French at an early age helped me enormously.

I`m not young. What`s wrong with that?

One is just an interpreter of what the playwright thinks, and therefore the greater the playwright, the more satisfying it is to act in the plays.

(on Alexander Korda) "Alex was like a father to us - we went to see him with every little problem we had. We usually left convinced that he had solved it - or that we`d got our own way."

I`m a Scorpio, and Scorpios eat themselves out and burn themselves up like me.

I think any classical training in the theatre is of enormous value.

A lucky thing Eva Peron was. She died at 32. I`m already 45.

Classical plays require more imagination and more general training to be able to do. That`s why I like playing Shakespeare better than anything else.

I never found accents difficult, after learning languages.

I am going to be a great actress.

My parents were absolutely delighted that I knew what I wanted to do.

Shaw is like a train. One just speaks the words and sits in one`s place. But Shakespeare is like bathing in the sea - one swims where one wants.

(on Warren Beatty) He has the kind of magnetic sensuality you could light torches with.

I`ve been a godmother loads of times, but being a grandmother is better than anything.

I think Edith Evans is the most marvelous actress in the world and she can look beautiful. People who aren`t beautiful can look beautiful. She can look as beautiful as Diana Cooper, who was the most beautiful woman in the world.

All day long you`re really leading up to the evening`s performance. To time everything correctly, you have to take care of yourself-which is a very difficult thing to do, because it`s highly emotional

You know the passage where Scarlett voices her happiness that her mother is dead, so that she can`t see what a bad girl Scarlett has become? Well, that`s me.

When I come into the theatre I get a sense of security. I love an audience. I love people, and I act because I like trying to give pleasure to people.

I always know my lines.

I`m not afraid to die.

Dear Lord, I`m so grateful I`m still loved.

Streetcar is a most wonderful, wonderful play.

I adore dancing.

I never sleep for more than five hours, hardly ever

Dickens. All during the war when I was traveling on these blackout trains, because I used to go back to see my husband on weekends, I read the whole of Dickens. And I think that that was one of the most thrilling experiences.

My friends, when I was young, were always older than I was, and I`ve always liked them. And I love old men and old ladies, really. But I`ve known more elderly men, like Max Beerbohm, like Beranard Berenson, like Somerset Maugham, Winston Churchill--I`d put him first, anyway--what they say is so wise and so good. They know what they`re talking about.

I hope I`ve one thing that Scarlett never had. A sense of humor. I want some joy out of life. And she had one thing I hope I never have. Selfish egotism.

I`m not a film star, I am an actress. Being a film star--just a film star-- is such a false life, lived for fake values, and for publicity. Actresses go on for a long time and there are always marvelous parts to play.

It`s much easier to make people cry than to make them laugh.