On Oscar night it hung from a long gold chain and drew attention to the plunging bodice of Irene’s dress. Leigh appeared with Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan in A Yank at Oxford (1938), which was the first of her films to receive attention in the United States. [32] During this period, Leigh read the Margaret Mitchell novel Gone with the Wind and instructed her American agent to recommend her to David O. Selznick, who was planning a film version. [132] Discussing the subsequent film version, Pauline Kael wrote that Leigh and Marlon Brando gave "two of the greatest performances ever put on film" and that Leigh's was "one of those rare performances that can truly be said to evoke both fear and pity. 1983 MGM/UA copyrights. [3] Her father was born in Scotland in 1882, while her mother, a devout Roman Catholic, was born in Darjeeling in 1888 and may have been of Irish and either Armenian[4][5] or Indian ancestry. Almost everything was made from scratch.” Experts skilled in corset making, hoopskirt production, and pleating fashioned Scarlett’s wardrobe from bolts of pretty calico, jewel-toned silk velvets, and French petticoat lace—textiles explicitly produced in small, costly quantities by obscure mills Plunkett discovered, after intensive research. Pictures Inc.' label reads "Scarlett / … [57] Her top billing reflected her status in Hollywood, and the film was popular with audiences and critics. "[50] The film won 10 Academy Awards including a Best Actress award for Leigh,[52] who also won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind. Leigh’s piercing beauty prompted Myron Selznick, Olivier’s agent, to arrange for her to meet his brother, David. It was the first time Olivier witnessed such behaviour from her. She made tearful, long-distance telephone calls to him, suffered from exhaustion, hysteria, and what was later classified as a minor nervous breakdown. Without apparent provocation, she began screaming at him before suddenly becoming silent and staring into space. "[51], Gone with the Wind brought Leigh immediate attention and fame, but she was quoted as saying, "I'm not a film star—I'm an actress. Irene’s show commenced in Bullock’s lounge with a whisper: “Doesn’t she look smart?” Edna Woolman Chase, Vogue’s editor, had just arrived, eliciting the comment of approval from someone among the crowd of about one hundred well-dressed Hollywood wives. Adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel, this 1939 film stars the incandescent Vivien Leigh as the strong-willed plantation owner’s daughter Scarlett O’Hara and film legend Clark … She was the only child of Ernest Richard Hartley, a British broker, and his wife, Gertrude Mary Frances (née Yackjee; she also used her mother's maiden name of Robinson). [59][Note 3] Critics were hostile in their assessment of Romeo and Juliet. It’s only three in the morning.”, Fueled by more than adrenaline, Selznick was binging on methedrine and barbituates. She became Lady Olivier. Publicity still of Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Howard, and David O. Selznick going over script for "Gone with the Wind." David Niven said she had been "quite, quite mad". Leigh travelled to Los Angeles, however, to be with Olivier and to try to convince David Selznick that she was the right person for the part. She attended A Connecticut Yankee, one of O'Sullivan's films playing in London's West End, and told her parents of her ambitions to become an actress. Selznick made up for his bad behavior on Wind’s set by picking up the tab for the wardrobe custom-made by Irene Gibbons for Leigh and all the women appearing at the series of gala premieres and after parties feting Wind’s December 1939 release in Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles. [130] Film historian and critic Leonard Maltin described the film as one of the all-time greats, writing in 1998 that Leigh "brilliantly played" her role. This is Vivien Leigh, not Gene Tierne, Cool or creepy? [139] In 2013, 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. She turned it down flatly, and wound up making her American debut elsewhere. Despite her fame as a screen actress, Leigh was primarily a stage performer. We at Nate D. Sanders Auctions can obtain up to this amount or more for you: Vivien Leigh Gone With The Wind … John Gielgud directed Twelfth Night and wrote, "... perhaps I will still make a good thing of that divine play, especially if he will let me pull her little ladyship (who is brainier than he but not a born actress) out of her timidity and safeness. You will never work again on stage or screen. To get a realistic blaze and clear out … And so, too, Miss Leigh, will I.”. Vivien Leigh was convent-educated in England and throughout Europe and was inspired by her schoolmate Maureen O'Sullivan to embark on an acting career. [116] In his autobiography, Olivier described his "grievous anguish" as he immediately travelled to Leigh's residence, to find that Merivale had moved her body onto the bed. [78], The success of the tour encouraged the Oliviers to make their first West End appearance together, performing the same works with one addition, Antigone, included at Leigh's insistence because she wished to play a role in a tragedy. In 1994, 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. RADA-trained Leigh’s film career was minor, but she was a member of London’s Old Vic theater troupe and could hold her own onstage with her lover, the actor Laurence Olivier. Journeying home by limousine was no pleasure cruise. The next evening, December 15th, saw the premiere of Gone With the Wind. John Gliddon, Leigh’s agent, relayed the news, but she took it in stride. [9] Gertrude Hartley tried to instill an appreciation of literature in her daughter and introduced her to the works of Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling, as well as stories of Greek mythology and Indian folklore. In February 1938, Leigh made a request to Myron Selznick that she be considered to play the part of Scarlett O'Hara. Subsequently, she made her way to the stage in borrowed pumps, and in seconds, had "dried her tears and smiled brightly onstage". [71] This was the first of many major bipolar disorder breakdowns. Outraged by Cukor’s dismissal, Leigh threatened to resign, but relented after a meeting with her new agent, Myron Selznick. Vivien was different; ambitious, persevering, serious, often inspired. Selznick had abruptly fired Wind’s director, George Cukor, with whom he ceaselessly argued, appointing Victor Fleming as his successor. [99] They played to capacity houses and attracted generally good reviews, Leigh's health seemingly stable. 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