biography
| name: |
Leigh, Vivien
|
| |
originally Vivian Hartley
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pronunciation:
[lee]
| sex:
| female
|
| lived:
| (1913–67)
|
| biography:
| Actress, born in Darjeeling, NE India. She had a convent education, then studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London. She became an overnight sensation in the comedy The Mask of Virtue (1935). She married Laurence Olivier in 1940, and appeared opposite him in numerous classical plays, including Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra. She is best remembered for her Oscar-winning performance as Scarlett O'Hara in the film Gone With the Wind (1939). Other major starring roles followed, notably in Lady Hamilton (1941), Anna Karenina (1948), and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951, Oscar). Manic depression and ill health marred her career and her marriage, and she was divorced from Olivier in 1961. |
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