Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh
Vivian Mary Hartley, later known as Vivien Leigh and Lady Olivier, was an English stage and film actress. She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress for her performances as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Windand Blanche DuBois in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire, a role she had also played on stage in London's West End in 1949. She also won a Tony Award for her work in the Broadway version of Tovarich...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMovie Actress
Date of Birth5 November 1913
CityDarjeeling, India
Some critics saw fit to say that I was a great actress. I thought that was a foolish, wicket thing to say because it put such an onus and such a responsibility onto me, which I simply wasn't able to carry.
I have just made out my will and given all the things I have and many that I haven't.
Dear Lord, I'm so grateful I'm still loved.
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.
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.
I know I am right for Scarlett. I can convince Mr. Selznick.
I loved fencing and dancing and elocution.
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.
My parents were absolutely delighted that I knew what I wanted to do.
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.
A lucky thing Eva Peron was. She died at 32. I'm already 45.
I realize that the memories I cherish most are not the first night successes, but of simple, everyday things: walking through our garden in the country after rain; sitting outside a cafe in Provence, drinking the vin de pays; staying at a little hotel in an English market town with Larry, in the early days after our marriage, when he was serving in the Fleet Air Arm, and I was touring Scotland, so that we had to make long treks to spend weekends together.
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.
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.