Vivien Leigh

Vivien Leigh born Vivian Mary Hartley and also known as Lady Olivier after 1947 5 November 1913 8 July 1967 was an English stage and film actress She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress for her iconic performances as Scarlett OHara in Gone with the Wind 1939 and Blanche DuBois in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 a role she had also played on stage in Londons West End in 1949 She also won a Tony Award for her work in the Broadway musical version of Tovarich 1963 After completing her drama school education Leigh appeared in small roles in four films in 1935 and progressed to the role of heroine in Fire Over England 1937 Lauded for her beauty Leigh felt that her physical attributes sometimes prevented her from being taken seriously as an actress Despite her fame as a screen actress Leigh was primarily a stage performer During her 30year 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 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 adult life she suffered from bipolar disorder as well as recurrent bouts of chronic tuberculosis which was first diagnosed in the mid1940s and ultimately claimed her life at the age of 53 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 Description above from the Wikipedia article Vivien Leigh licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia