INTRODUCTION

HER STORY

QUOTES

For the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind (1939) Leigh earned a then astronomical $ 15,000.

Her given name was changed from Vivian to Vivien when she was 21 after her first success on stage in The Mask of Virtue.

She hated kissing Clark Gable during the shooting of Gone With The Wind (1939) because of the foul odour emanating from his dentures.

The moral turpitude rider that David Selznick inserted into Vivien's Gone With The Wind (1939) contract had the intended effect of forcing Laurence Olivier to move out of their shared residence.  He moved in with Leslie Howard.

When asked to take over Joan Crawford's role in Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), Vivien is reputed to have said, "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'."

Vivian was 19 when she gave birth to her only child, daughter Suzanne.  She wasted no more than 5 words to describe the event in her diary entry that day, "Had a baby - a girl."  Not at all impressed with the business of giving birth she would later confess to a friend, "Never again - it is a messy business."

Victor Fleming's nickname for Vivien on Gone With The Wind (1939) was Fiddle-dee-dee.

Her father, Ernest Richard Hartley, was a British cavalry officer and stockbroker.

Her scandalous love affair with Laurence Olivier was second in notoriety only to that of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Vivien was affected by bipolar disorder for most of her adult life.  Her moods always followed the same pattern – several days of hyperactivity followed by a period of depression and an explosive breakdown, after which she would have no memory of the event, but would be acutely embarrassed and remorseful.

When Olivier was knighted in 1947, Vivien became Lady Olivier, a title she continued to use after their divorce, until she died.

Of Laurence Olivier she was quoted as saying that she "would rather have lived a short life with Larry than face a long one without him."

Sotheby's in New York sold her Oscar for Gone With The Wind (1939) to a private collector in December of 1993 for $563,000.

Vivien wasn't present at the ceremony when she won her second Oscar - for A Streetcar Named Desire (1952).  Greer Garson accepted on her behalf.

In 1985 a portrait of her was included in a series of postage stamps, along with Alfred Hitchcock, Charles Chaplin, Peter Sellers and David Niven to commemorate "British Film Year."

Vivian adored cats, especially Siamese cats.  At one point she owned no less than 16.  Her last Siamese cat, Poo Jones, was the only creature present when Vivien passed away.

In later years, Leigh would say that playing Blanche DuBois in A Steetcar Named Desire (1952) "tipped me over into madness."

Vivien was a heavy smoker. It is said that during filming of Gone With The Wind (1939) she was smoking almost four packs a day. Her favorite brand was Players.

When she was found dead from tuberculosis in her London apartment in 1967, the lights in London's theater district were blacked out for an hour in tribute to the actress.

Made her first stage appearance at the age of three, reciting Little Bo Peep for her mother's amateur theatre group.