Vivien Leigh Documentary - Legends

in March of 1932 she met a barrister Lee Holman by December of the same year they were married she thought that by leaving home and by becoming a housewife becoming his wife and that that would be a satisfying escape from home into a into a bright new world but it wasn't quite enough Vivian had blossomed into a rare beauty and was turning the heads of all of those who met her she took up acting and pursued her career with determination in 1933 she gave birth to a daughter Suzanne even Vivian won't admit that she was by no means a good mother at all she almost gave birth to a child without any of the normal maternal instincts being sort of engaged in 1936 she embarked on a passionate love affair with a dashing actor Laurence Olivier cast opposite each other in fire over England they played out their affair both on and off the set Olivia was married to the actress Gillette's Monde who was about to give birth to his son Tarquin lived in always covered herself with dense cascades of perfume and when my birth started by mother rang the studio and said it started and they had been in a clinch scene on set as well as elsewhere I'm sure and of course living all her scent was on him and my mother was giving birth to me it must have been about the most cruel way of giving birth to the child of the Manuel Mara - they were scott Fitzgerald's beautiful people attractiveness is a human quality that helps tremendously in the theater and in television and in films and I mean if you've got a talent that matches it I mean it's absolutely galvanic she looked absolutely ravishing and she had a kind of controlled sexiness which was far sexier than anything that the Americans at that time were doing because although she was a ravishingly beautiful woman she always felt that her beauty was a handicap that people only saw the beauty and they neglected the talent when they looked at her in 1937 Vivian left Lee Holman for Olivier deeply in love they moved into a charming cottage in Chelsea and set about making a home together in 1938 Olivier set sail for America to film was ring Heights Vivian swiftly followed him determined to get an audition for Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind the prudishness of Hollywood at that time demanded that they be perceived as having separate residences Coster didn't and the secrecy added to the sort of magic and one tired old agent went to see them one weekend and he said God even the front door makes me feel sexy even makes me want to have my wife against all the odds Vivian landed the plum role at a century Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind I think he was thrilled she got the part it was the most sought-after part ever and she knew she was going to get it she absolutely knew nobody else thought so she said you'll see I'll get it Vivian was headstrong she acted on impulse she had no sense of consequence which is what exactly is done by Scarlett O'Hara in the book and in the film she goes out of her way at whatever cost to herself and others to get what she wants and if she has to cry over it well she'll cry tomorrow for tomorrow is another day [Applause] Vivien Leigh was the first British actress to win an Oscar he was seething with jealousy he was hoping to get the Oscar for playing Heathcliff and on the way home he told me he was so desperately jealous he really wanted to hit her on the head with the auspice in 1940 Larry and Vivian got married in a civil ceremony in California meanwhile war had broken out in Europe and they were keen to get back to England they played opposite each other in the patriotic film Lady Hamilton in 1944 she went with a number of other actors including John Gielgud to entertain troops and provide three months there they were in that heat drinking that water and they're all awful food and she was not robust and she lost a lot of weight and immediately went back into filming and she conceived a child with Larry and went straight into moving during the filming of this scene Vivian tripped and fell the shot to her frail system caused her to miscarry the Queen Vivienne's soldiered on with filming under a cloud of depression her change mood produced some of her best acting in the final scenes of the film where Cleopatra had become hardened and more dignified at around this time the oliviers bought not Lea be a medieval mansion in Buckinghamshire when they were acting which was more often than not in plays they were drive down after the show on Saturday and the guests would all arrive round about midnight and then sit dance were very nice dinner and probably spent most of the time up having a whale of a time it was a very star place to be was they stylish they gave very good parties but not the Abbey and in London and the problem was that Larry would need sleep at night and she would keep the party going to five o'clock in the morning or longer to breakfast time because she could go by without sleep he told me that when she was on her upward surge it was like a racing driver going full-speed and changing the engine down to third gear so making the engine go far far and then there's a second gear this is extraordinary energy and he said her defiance against the world was very moving and it was sort of he admired her gutsiness and he said it was a cupid sexy vivianne had suffered from tuberculosis since she was a child with the pressures of filming and all night partying the illness came back with a vengeance in May 1945 she was forced to spend nine months convalescing one night after a great sort of party next day she was so ill that doctors were summoned and I happened to be the only other woman on that particular occasion and we had Danny Kaye and we had Orson Welles and various people and to lunch you know she couldn't come downstairs because she was ill after her recovery she took on the role of Anna Karenina she felt she could bring some truth to the role of a woman who had left her home husband and child for love during the filming of Anna Karenina Vivien had shown worrying signs of mental instability the miscarriage and tuberculosis combined with Vivian's manic energy conspired to send her off balance it became clear that she was suffering from manic depression at one time in desperation she said why can't I have a respectable illness like cancer which some extent people understood people simply didn't understand manic depression I mean they'd don't totally understand it now but they understand it a lot better than they did in those days I mean they just thought she was behaving badly despite her illness Vivian played Blanche DuBois in a streetcar named desire fact and fiction became dangerously blurred in a story of a woman on the verge of madness every single role that women played passed into her character to some extent and there's no doubt that when Vivian was launched of what that was very alarming indeed because Vivian of course suffered from a form of mental instability and so when one of these great torturous roles took her but then she was really hard to live with she really was Blanche DuBois most of her life and launched Dubois he's is is what is barking basically I mean she's a she's you know on the way to the madhouse and I mean Vivian did in a funny way depend on the kindness of strangers which is the great line in that play because in a funny way that the friends finally had to give up on her and she would sort of take strangers into their hearts and sometimes into her bed in 1953 Vivian joined the charismatic actor Peter Finch since Srilanka to film Elephant Walk irresistible drawn towards each other the two embarked on a torrid affair Sri Lanka and Peter Finch were an explosive combination I don't think anything happened between Peter Finch and Vivian until 1953 when they did Elephant Walk there was an instant galvanic attraction physical attraction between Vivien Leigh and Peter Finch and then of course she had this terrible breakdown Vivian was in a dangerous state she was staying out all night and for the first time forgetting her lines in desperation Olivier was sent for his son Tarquin saw him off at the airport something I wanted to tell you Vivian has had a terrible attack and I've got to go out to Sri Lanka and bring her back and the film was going to stop and I could have to recast it and there's got a cost to produce a lot of Mary money and I'll be in the middle of all that and I'm not looking forward to it one bit now the disease manic depression means whom you most love the disease makes you show hatred for and he said from her behavior it's obvious you must love me to death in a highly vulnerable state Vivien arrived to a bank of newspaper reporters and photographers she was sent to hospital and given ECT in which electric currents are sent through the body she was to suffer the treatment many more times the were times when she would literally go onstage and under the stage makeup there would be burn marks on the side of her head and it's completely grotesque now of course these things can be controlled by lithium and by and large manic depressives don't go through anything like what she went through I went to see her when she'd recovered and she just said Oh kind it's so nice when it's over that was the only time she really ever referred to it because of course when it was building up although she knew it she couldn't control it back in England Vivian continued her affair with Peter Finch he came down and luckily the terrible Finch yes I never liked him as outraged having affair with Vivian it was absolutely horrendous he was very amusing he told a good story good raconteur fulfilled Vivian's needs she was very demanding lady and when Larry was acting acting acting and burning up energy he didn't always have a great deal of energy left and she needed it in 1957 the Olivier stood Eastern Europe with titus andronicus Colin Clark was a stage manager at Vivian's chaperon she came along on the titus andronicus to allah for the ride and she thoroughly enjoyed herself he was the most sought-after guest in all the cities we went to Paris and Vienna and Venice she had a full social life and by bad luck one of her cycles of mental ill-health was coming around so she started to go run pretty crazy really when we went to yoga Savia Vivian's mental problems were coming to a crisis point and she really could hardly get onto stage she was so disturbed and so sort of confused and she loved Yugoslavia she decided and she didn't want to leave it so when the time came to leave she wouldn't get on the train and I suppose we'd spent about 20 minutes while the train was held up and in May in the police chief he just picked her up and plunked on the train and she went pow and she socked him right in the eye a great big China although they presented a united front to their public the Olivier marriage was a sham I remember going up this weekend we were having afternoon tea and Olivia came in he was leaving you know he was coming he'd come to collect something and it was like being in a mortuary with the fridge door open you know you really felt you were in the presence of corpses his-and-hers the corpse of what had been for ten years idyllic in 1960 Vivian was back in America performing in jewel of angels she rang her favorite journalists David Lewin in a state I said Vivian it must be pretty important she said yeah it is I've just had this letter from Larry and she produced I'll never forget it it was in Larry's handwriting and he said dear Vivian I am bored with the legend of the O's I said what are you gonna do she said I'm gonna leave it I don't know what Larry Boy thinks he's doing but if he's feels like this in a month's time then I'll give him the divorce he wants Larry had started an affair with Joan Plowright who he married in 1961 Vivian became involved with an actor Jack Maryvale they had known each other for years and Jack was a willing protector he was a wonderful companion very handsome nice fellow he didn't have very much energy she once said to me he's one of those long pale green things it's always been after their sleep Vivian and Jack set up home together in Eaton square in Belgravia she went on to produce great performances in films like the Romans spring of mrs. stone the story of a middle-aged woman who falls for a young gigolo played by Warren Beatty Vivian was using film almost as therapy by that time mrs. stone is passing through the middle age of the emotions Vivien Leigh herself was passing through the middle age of the emotions and for the first time in her life was without her great partner Laurence Olivier so again something of Vivian's strange mental state entered into her performance as Karan stolen in the spring of 1967 tuberculosis Vivian's old ghost returned to haunt her a secretary rosemary Geddes was concerned that she wasn't looking after herself she started to cough a lot you know but of course she was always afraid of it coming back and didn't want to go to the doctors for ages and then in the end she was persuaded to go and her lungs were x-rayed and she was found to have another ferrer for the tuberculosis and the doctor advised that she went into hospital but she wouldn't go she didn't want to go she got up and walked around she was supposed to be in bed most at the term but she did get up and walk around a lot and I could see she wasn't getting any better on July the 7th 1967 at the age of 53 she was found dead in her bedroom Olivier was among the first to be called years later his son found him watching Vivian on film he saw on television late one night Vivian in Romans sprig of mrs. stone and I was staying with him at the time and he was in such a state of tears we couldn't sleep at all and day later he was still in tears and you know God what could have gone wrong she was so talented as an actress and so beautiful and that voice I'd forgotten how lovely her voice was she was the love of his life is no question I wasn't altogether surprised when I heard that Vivian had died I'd seen it quite recently I bent over to where she and Jack Maryborough were living and he'd looked after Vivian for many years and being very good at looking after but I'd rather since he'd got bored of them the Vivian felt I'd realized that I got the impression that she felt her that's it the Rideau a tombe the curtain has fallen time to go time to get off the stage [Music]

Channel: Marmar

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Length: 16min 50sec (1010 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 18 2018