50 Fun Facts About Vivien Leigh

Vivien Leigh won her two Best Actress Oscars for Scarlett O'Hara and which other character?

She had already played the part for 326 performances in the West End before making the 1951 film.

In which city of British India was Vivien Leigh born in 1913?

Her mother was of Armenian and Irish ancestry, and her father was a Scottish-born broker.

What was Vivien Leigh's surname at birth?

Her stage surname came from her first husband's middle name, Leigh.

Which future actress was Vivien Leigh's convent schoolfriend, to whom she confided her wish to be 'a great actress'?

They later appeared together in A Yank at Oxford, Leigh's first film to get noticed in America.

Leigh's first husband, whom she married in 1932 aged 19, worked in which profession?

Herbert Leigh Holman disapproved of 'theatrical people'; she left RADA soon after marrying him.

Which 1935 play brought Leigh her first rave reviews and a contract from Alexander Korda?

Korda had earlier rejected her as lacking potential; the playbill for this show changed the spelling of her name to Vivien.

Which future poet laureate described the young Vivien Leigh as 'the essence of English girlhood'?

A Daily Express interviewer at the same time noted the 'lightning change' in her face that foreshadowed her mood swings.

Leigh and Olivier began their affair while playing lovers in which 1937 film?

Both were married to other people; their spouses initially refused to divorce, so the relationship was kept from public view.

Leigh played Ophelia to Olivier's Hamlet in a 1937 Old Vic production staged where?

She was chosen despite her relative inexperience, at the castle where the play is set.

Which role in Wuthering Heights did Leigh turn down because she wanted to play Cathy instead?

Cathy went to Merle Oberon, and Leigh stayed in London while Olivier went to Hollywood as Heathcliff.

Who, per legend, introduced Vivien Leigh to Gone with the Wind's producer with 'Hey, genius, meet your Scarlett O'Hara'?

Myron was David's brother and Leigh's American agent, and represented Olivier too.

Selznick's shortlist for Scarlett was Leigh, Paulette Goddard, Jean Arthur and which fourth actress?

He had first dismissed Leigh as 'too British' after watching Fire Over England and A Yank at Oxford.

Which director, fired early in the Gone with the Wind shoot, did Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland secretly consult?

His replacement Victor Fleming quarrelled with Leigh frequently.

With which Gone with the Wind co-star, her partner in several emotional scenes, did Leigh clash?

She befriended Gable, his wife Carole Lombard and Olivia de Havilland.

How many Academy Awards did Gone with the Wind win?

Leigh also took the New York Film Critics Circle prize, though she insisted, 'I'm not a film star — I'm an actress.'

Where did Leigh and Olivier marry on 31 August 1940, with only their hosts and two witnesses?

Ronald and Benita Colman hosted; Katharine Hepburn and Garson Kanin were the witnesses.

Which actress got the lead in Hitchcock's Rebecca after Selznick judged Vivien Leigh's test wrong 'as to sincerity'?

Selznick noticed she showed no enthusiasm for the part until Olivier was confirmed as the male lead.

In the 1940 film Waterloo Bridge, Selznick replaced Olivier as Leigh's co-star with which MGM star?

Leigh got top billing and the film was a hit with critics and audiences.

The Oliviers' 1940 Broadway Romeo and Juliet flopped, costing almost all their combined savings of how much?

Brooks Atkinson wrote that the 'handsome young people' hardly acted their parts at all.

In That Hamilton Woman (1941), Leigh played Emma Hamilton opposite Olivier as which naval hero?

Churchill screened it for Roosevelt and later said of Leigh, 'By Jove, she's a clinker.'

Which statesman arranged a screening of That Hamilton Woman for Franklin D. Roosevelt?

The film was made to stir pro-British feeling in America and was a huge success in the Soviet Union too.

In 1944 Leigh was diagnosed with which disease, which eventually killed her in 1967?

She had fallen ill with coughs and fevers while touring North Africa entertaining troops.

Leigh was filming which 1945 Shaw adaptation when a miscarriage triggered her first major breakdown?

Olivier came to recognise the pattern: days of hyperactivity, then depression and an explosive breakdown she could not remember.

Leigh became Lady Olivier when her husband was knighted in which year?

She accompanied him to Buckingham Palace for the investiture.

In which city did Olivier slap Vivien Leigh during the 1948 Old Vic tour after she refused to go on shoeless?

She slapped him back, then went on in borrowed pumps; Olivier later said he 'lost Vivien' in Australia.

Who directed Leigh in the 1949 West End production of A Streetcar Named Desire?

Tennessee Williams and producer Irene Mayer Selznick cast her after seeing The School for Scandal and Antigone.

How many West End performances did Leigh give in A Streetcar Named Desire before making the film?

J. B. Priestley denounced the play and her performance, while Noël Coward called her 'magnificent'.

Which director of the 1951 Streetcar film preferred Jessica Tandy but came to admire Vivien Leigh's grit?

He said she would have 'crawled over broken glass' to improve her performance.

Besides the Oscar and BAFTA, Leigh's Streetcar performance won her the Volpi Cup at which film festival?

Tennessee Williams said she brought the role 'everything that I intended, and much that I had never dreamed of'.

What did Leigh reportedly turn down, worth $5,000 a week, to entertain troops in North Africa in 1943?

She fell ill with a persistent cough on that tour, the first sign of the tuberculosis diagnosed the next year.

Which actress replaced Leigh on Elephant Walk after her 1953 breakdown in Ceylon?

She confessed to Olivier that she had been having an affair with co-star Peter Finch, which had begun in 1948.

Which actor, her Elephant Walk co-star, had an on-off affair with Leigh from 1948?

David Niven said she had been 'quite, quite mad' during the 1953 episode.

Which of Vivien Leigh's harshest critics later called his attacks on her one of his worst errors of judgment?

After her death he decided her seductive Lady Macbeth 'made more sense than the usual battle-axe'.

After alternating their two Cleopatra plays in London in 1951, the Oliviers took both to which New York venue?

Reviews were mostly good, but Kenneth Tynan's claim that her mediocre talent forced Olivier to compromise nearly caused another collapse.

Who directed Vivien Leigh and Olivier in Twelfth Night at Stratford in 1955?

That season also included Macbeth and Titus Andronicus, and Gielgud read the final tribute at her memorial service.

After the Oliviers divorced in 1960, whom did Olivier marry?

Leigh, by then in a relationship with actor John Merivale, said she would rather have had a short life with Larry than a long one without him.

Which actor became Leigh's companion from 1960 until her death, promising Olivier he would care for her?

He toured Australia, New Zealand and Latin America with her, where she enjoyed good reviews away from Olivier's shadow.

Leigh won a Tony Award in 1963 for Best Actress in a Musical for which Broadway show?

It was her only musical, coming after decades of Shakespeare, Shaw and Coward on stage.

Leigh's final film, in 1965, was which Stanley Kramer ensemble drama?

During a rape scene she hit Lee Marvin so hard with a spiked shoe that it marked his face; she won the L'Étoile de Cristal for the role.

Which Albee play was Leigh rehearsing with Michael Redgrave when her lung disease returned in 1967?

She died at her Eaton Square flat on 8 July, having collapsed as her lungs filled with fluid.

How old was Vivien Leigh when she died in 1967?

Olivier, being treated for prostate cancer nearby, came to the flat and 'prayed for forgiveness for all the evils that had sprung up between us'.

How did central London's theatres mark the announcement of Leigh's death?

A Catholic service followed at St Mary's, Cadogan Street, and a memorial at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Where were Leigh's ashes scattered, in line with her will?

She was cremated at Golders Green; the home was Tickerage Mill near Blackboys, East Sussex.

Where did the AFI rank Leigh in 1999 among the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood?

She thought her beauty was a handicap: 'People think that if you look fairly reasonable, you can't possibly act.'

Which actress played Vivien Leigh in the 2011 film My Week with Marilyn?

Morgan Brittany played her three times in the 1970s and 80s, and Katie McGuinness in Netflix's Hollywood.

Leigh's 1985 British Film Year stamp set also featured Chaplin, Sellers, Niven and which director?

She appeared on stamps again in 1996 with Olivier and in 2013 for the centenary of her birth.

What did three-year-old Vivian recite in her first stage appearance for her mother's amateur group?

Her mother Gertrude also fed her Andersen, Lewis Carroll, Kipling, Greek myths and Indian folklore while the family lived in India.

Which 1938 film with Robert Taylor was the first of Leigh's to draw attention in the United States?

Her behaviour on the set was so difficult that Korda warned her option would not be renewed unless she improved.

Which Noël Coward comedy did Leigh leave in 1956 after becoming pregnant?

She miscarried weeks later and sank into months of depression, which clouded the Oliviers' European tour of Titus Andronicus.

Which agent decided 'Vivian Holman' was no name for an actress, leading to her stage name?

Gliddon then recommended her to Alexander Korda, who initially rejected her as lacking potential, before The Mask of Virtue changed his mind.