Vivien Leigh Brief Biography

Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier (5 November 19138 July 1967) was an English actress. She is best known for her performances as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for both. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her as the sixteenth greatest female movie star of all time.

Lauded for her beauty, Leigh felt that it sometimes prevented her from being taken seriously as an actress. Despite her fame as a screen actress, Leigh was primarily a stage performer. During her prolific 30-year stage career, she played roles ranging from the heroines of Noël Coward and George Bernard Shaw comedies to classic Shakespearean characters such as Ophelia, Cleopatra, Juliet and Lady Macbeth.

Vivien Leigh News

• Catholic church gets 'Gone with the Wind' rights windfall
• Kenneth Branagh nominated for Oscar for Laurence Olivier portrayal