The Guardian: Director Mike Leigh likely to retire after his next film due to illness
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Vivien Leigh
Vivian Mary Olivier, known professionally as Vivien Leigh and styled as Lady Olivier after 1947, was a British actress. After completing her drama school education, Leigh performed on stage before receiving small roles in four films in 1935, eventually progressing to the role of heroine in Fire Over England (1937). She went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, for her performances a…
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entertainment · British actress (1913–1967) · film actor · stage actor · actor · also Vivien Leigh, Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier, Leigh, Lady Olivier
Born 5 November 1913 · Died 8 July 1967 · Q129429
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2026· 1 entry
2022· 1 entry
The Guardian: Truly Madly review – the deadly desire of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier
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2021· 1 entry
The Guardian: From the archive: looking back at the fiery life of Vivien Leigh
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2017· 1 entry
The Guardian: From Evelyn Waugh to Elizabeth I: Vivien Leigh's eclectic library up for auction
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2016· 2 entries
The Guardian: From Maxine Peake to Vivien Leigh: Streetcar's Blanche Dubois – in pictures
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The Guardian: Vivien Leigh and designer reunited in exhibition from star's archive
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2015· 1 entry
The Guardian: Laurence Olivier’s steamy love letters to Vivien Leigh see light of day
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2013· 4 entries
The Guardian: Vivien Leigh – a life on screen
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The Guardian: Vivien Leigh, the greatest beauty of her time: from the archive blog
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Leigh was among the ten people selected by the Royal Mail for their "Great Britons" commemorative postage stamp issue
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An archive of Leigh's letters, diaries, photographs, annotated film and theatre scripts and her numerous awards was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London
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1999· 1 entry
The American Film Institute (AFI) ranked Leigh as the 16th-greatest female movie star of classic Hollywood cinema
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1998· 1 entry
That Leigh "brilliantly played" her role
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1994· 1 entry
The National Library of Australia purchased a photograph album, monogrammed "L & V O" and believed to have belonged to the Oliviers, containing 573 photographs of the couple during their 1948 tour of Australia
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1985· 1 entry
A portrait of her was included in a series of United Kingdom postage stamps, along with Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, Peter Sellers and David Niven to commemorate "British Film Year"
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1969· 2 entries
A plaque to Leigh was placed in the Actors' Church, St Paul's, Covent Garden, London
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Critic Andrew Sarris commented that the success of the film had been largely due to "the inspired casting" of Leigh, and in 1998, wrote that "she lives in our minds and memories as a dynamic force rather than as a static
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1968· 1 entry
Leigh became the first actress honoured in the United States by "The Friends of the Libraries at the University of Southern California"
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1967· 1 entry
Died 1967-07-08.
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1963· 2 entries
Awarded Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical (1963).
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Won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in Tovarich
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1960· 2 entries
Leigh recalled her ambivalence towards her first experience of critical acclaim and sudden fame, commenting that "some critics saw fit to be as foolish as to say that I was a great actress
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Who knew of Leigh's medical condition and assured Olivier that he would care for her
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1959· 1 entry
When she achieved a success with the Noël Coward comedy Look After Lulu
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1956· 1 entry
Leigh took the lead role in the Noël Coward comedy South Sea Bubble, but withdrew from the production when she became pregnant
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1955· 2 entries
Saying that her performance was insubstantial and lacked the necessary fury demanded of the role
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Leigh starred in Anatole Litvak's film The Deep Blue Sea; co-star Kenneth More felt he had poor chemistry with Leigh during the filming
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1953· 1 entry
Leigh recovered sufficiently to play The Sleeping Prince with Olivier, and in 1955 they performed a season at Stratford-upon-Avon in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Macbeth and Titus Andronicus
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1952· 1 entry
Awarded Academy Award for Best Actress for A Streetcar Named Desire (1952).
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1951· 1 entry
In London, Leigh and Laurence Olivier performed two plays about Cleopatra, William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, alternating the play each night and winning good revie
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1948· 1 entry
And waxed and waned for several years, ultimately flickering out as her mental condition deteriorated
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1947· 1 entry
Olivier was knighted and Leigh accompanied him to Buckingham Palace for the investiture
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1946· 1 entry
Starring in a successful London production of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth; but her films of this period, Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) and Anna Karenina (1948), were not great commercial successes
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1944· 1 entry
Was diagnosed as having tuberculosis in her left lung and spent several weeks in hospital before appearing to have recovered
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1943· 1 entry
As part of a revue for the armed forces stationed in the region
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1940· 1 entry
Awarded Academy Award for Best Actress for Gone with the Wind (1940).
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1935· 2 entries
And received excellent reviews, followed by interviews and newspaper articles
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Eventually progressing to the role of heroine in Fire Over England (1937)
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1934· 1 entry
Studied at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1934).
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1917· 1 entry
Ernest Hartley was transferred to Bangalore as an officer in the Indian Cavalry, while Gertrude and Vivian stayed in Ootacamund
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1913· 1 entry
Born 1913-11-05.
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1882· 1 entry
While her mother, a devout Catholic, was born in Darjeeling in 1888 and of Armenian and Irish ancestry
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1843· 1 entry
And worked as a clerk for the East India Railway, and Mary Teresa Robinson, who was born to an Irish family killed during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and grew up in an orphanage, where she met Yackjee; they married in 1
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