a lass unparalleled

Welcome to Vivien-Leigh, an ever growing archive dedicated to appreciating and preserving Vivien Leigh’s legacy.

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"She devoted herself to being a theatre actress, and everybody always said, 'Oh, well, of course, he [Laurence Olivier] taught her.' She was too bloody beautiful. She'd had to have worn a mask." -Judy Campbell "She was often underrated because she was so beautiful. She was a consummate actress anyway, hampered by beauty- and as a person the complete romantic. She had this great talent for creating beauty around her, she made these exquisite gardens, dressed ravishingly, she had true breeding, and when she invited you to dinner, the food and everything was perfect...[yet] there was something tragic even when she was at her happiest. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised when I heard she died. And Kate Hepburn said, 'Oh, thank God!' because she’d suffered so much and was so miserable, really, from the time her marriage with Olivier broke up to the end of her life. Although most of the time you’d never suspect it. She was Rabelaisian, this exquisite creature." -George Cukor "Something else Vivien had to fight as an actress was her quite incredibly beauty. In Streetcar she wore an unflattering blonde wig, and covered her face with garish make-up; but I, who sat beside her on a bench for twenty minutes every night while she poured out Blanche’s story, could see through the make-up, and there were evenings when, knowing the script as well as she did, the only way I could pretend hearing it for the first time was to concentrate on the line from the bottom of her chin down to her throat. How I wished I was Michelangelo." -Bernard Braden

VIVIEN LEIGH in THAT HAMILTON WOMAN — 1941

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“Not long after Vivien’s death, Gertrude and Jack received letters from Consuelo Langton-Lockton, who had cast Vivien's horoscope as early as 1938. She was anxious to ‘expose herself’ as a channel for any messages Vivien’s spirit might wish to convey from across the divide….Vivien returned to her. This proved a highly emotional session, during which Vivien continually asked how Larry was…it was Olivier who was drawing her back to earth. She was begging for forgiveness and wanted Olivier to know she loved him still. The channel concluded, 'If he should 'go’, she will be waiting. Love is stronger than death- and things get sorted out on that side. Thank God.”

THE OLIVIERS in THAT HAMILTON WOMAN — 1941

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VIVIEN LEIGH in the titular role of THAT HAMILTON WOMAN — 1941

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VIVIEN LEIGH in the titular role of THAT HAMILTON WOMAN — 1941

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“I’m sure she was very sensual. She must have been passionate and was surely erotic. On the set I saw one thing that surprised me. Someone had an engraved antique cameo ring of an erotic subject...she was always so cool, so polite, so exquisite, so raffin`ee – and then suddenly she was told about the ring, and said ‘Let me look at it! Let me look at it!’ It was quite surprising that she looked at this rather explicit carving and took a strange, lascivious, and very obvious pleasure in looking at it. It was out of character with all this tremendous coolness. A frank, spontaneous ‘low-down’ reaction in front of the crew, when normally, her attitude was one of ladylike, exquisite discipline.” -Olivia de Havilland

VIVIEN LEIGH performing a double-double entendre in THAT HAMILTON WOMAN — 1941

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GONE WITH THE WIND (1939), dir. Victor Fleming

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“Vivien has a body of swansdown and the constitution of a GI on leave.” -Noël Coward

VIVIEN LEIGH in WATERLOO BRIDGE — 1940

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Elizabeth Taylor in Elephant Walk (1953)

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Vivien Leigh in a scene from Elephant Walk, originally filmed in Sri Lanka and later re-shot in Hollywood with Elizabeth Taylor following Vivien’s nervous breakdown. Ironic given the personal turmoil that befell Vivien during the making of the movie, she was initially attracted to the part because of its ordinary, undramatic nature:

“As soon as I saw that the planter’s wife was described as a normal, healthy girl I jumped at the role. Oh, the bliss of not having to go mad, commit suicide or contemplate murder.”

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ANNA KARENINA 1948 | Julien Duvivier

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Vivien Leigh at the opening of the theatre named in her honour in Auckland, New Zealand, February 17, 1962 [x]

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Vivien Leigh studying her script for Caesar and Cleopatra, 1943

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"Farewell. I do not think we shall meet again." Caesar and Cleopatra (1945)

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ANNA KARENINA 1948 | Julien Duvivier

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Fragments of outtakes from the scene where Robert Taylor’s character proposes to Vivien Leigh’s in 1940′s Waterloo Bridge. These frames didn’t appear in the final movie.

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[Vivien Leigh’s Cleopatra] is smoldering and sensual, wily and treacherous, but she is also intelligent, audacious and courageous. And when destiny turns against her she does not go down whimpering but with pride and glory, looking grand in her regal vestments, looking cool, grave and triumphant.

The New York Times, 1951

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“Gone With the Wind. It’s my bible and I’m going to play Scarlett if it’s the last thing I ever do.” -Vivien Leigh’s response to Angus McBean inquiring her on the book she ‘always carried around’.