She was a prolific stage performer, frequently in collaboration with her then-husband, Laurence Olivier, who directed her in several of her roles. During her 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.
Lauded for her beauty, Leigh felt that it sometimes prevented her from being taken seriously as an actress. However, ill health proved to be her greatest obstacle. For much of her adult life Leigh suffered from bipolar disorder. She earned a reputation for being difficult to work with, and her career suffered periods of inactivity. She also suffered recurrent bouts of chronic tuberculosis, first diagnosed in the mid-1940s. Leigh and Olivier divorced in 1960, and she worked sporadically in film and theatre until her death from tuberculosis in 1967.
Early life and acting debut
An Anglo-Indian, Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley in Darjeeling, Bengal, British India, to Ernest Hartley, an officer in the Indian Cavalry, and Anglo-Indian Gertrude Robinson Yackjee. Leigh's parents were married in Kensington, London, in 1912.In 1917, Ernest Hartley was transferred to Bangalore, while Gertrude and Vivian stayed in Ootacamund.Young Vivian made her first stage appearance at the age of three, reciting "Little Bo Peep" for her mother's amateur theatre group. Gertrude Hartley tried to instill in her daughter an appreciation of literature 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. An only child, Vivian Hartley was sent to the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Roehampton (now Woldingham School) in 1920 by her devoutly Catholic mother. One of her mates there was future actress Maureen O'Sullivan, two years her senior, to whom Vivian expressed her desire to become "a great actress".
Vivian Hartley was removed from the school by her father, who took her travelling in Europe; with schooling provided by schools in the areas they travelled, returning to England in 1931. She attended one of O'Sullivan's films playing in London's West End and told her parents of her ambitions to become an actress. Her father enrolled her at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.
Vivian Hartley met (Herbert) Leigh Holman in 1931. Leigh Holman was a barrister 13 years her senior. Despite his disapproval of "theatrical people", they were married on 20 December 1932, and she terminated her studies at RADA. On 12 October 1933, she gave birth to a daughter, Suzanne, but did not seem to settle to the normal domestic life role. Her friends suggested to her a small role in the film Things Are Looking Up, which marked her film debut. She engaged an agent, John Gliddon, who believed that the name "Vivian Holman" was not suitable for an actress. After rejecting his suggestion, "April Morn", she took "Vivian Leigh" as her professional name. Gliddon recommended her to Alexander Korda as a possible film actress, but Korda rejected her as lacking potential.
Cast in the play The Mask of Virtue in 1935, Leigh received excellent reviews followed by interviews and newspaper articles. One such article was from the Daily Express, in which the interviewer noted "a lightning change came over her face", which was the first public mention of the rapid changes in mood that became characteristic of her. John Betjeman, the future Poet Laureate, also wrote about her, describing her as "the essence of English girlhood". Korda attended her opening-night performance, admitted his error, and signed her to a film contract, with the spelling of her name revised to "Vivien Leigh". She continued with the play; but, when Korda moved it to a larger theatre, Leigh was found to be unable to project her voice adequately or to hold the attention of so large an audience, and the play closed soon after. In 1960, Leigh recalled her ambivalence towards her first experience of critical acclaim and sudden fame, commenting, "some critics saw fit to be as foolish as to say that I was a great actress. And I thought, that was a foolish, wicked thing to say, because it put such an onus and such a responsibility onto me, which I simply wasn't able to carry. And it took me years to learn enough to live up to what they said for those first notices. I find it so stupid. I remember the critic very well and have never forgiven him."
Meeting Laurence Olivier
Leigh with Laurence Olivier in Fire Over England (1937), their first collaboration
Despite her relative inexperience, Leigh was chosen to play Ophelia to Olivier's Hamlet in an Old Vic Theatre production staged at Elsinore, Denmark. Olivier later recalled an incident when her mood rapidly changed as she was preparing to go onstage. Without apparent provocation, she began screaming at him, before suddenly becoming silent and staring into space. She was able to perform without mishap; and, by the following day, she had returned to normal with no recollection of the event. It was the first time Olivier witnessed such behaviour from her.They began living together, as their respective spouses had each refused to grant either of them a divorce. Under the moral standards then enforced by the motion picture industry, their relationship had to be kept from public view.
Leigh appeared with Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, and Maureen O'Sullivan in A Yank at Oxford (1938), the first of her films to receive attention in the United States. During production, she developed a reputation for being difficult and unreasonable; and Korda instructed her agent to warn her that her option would not be renewed if her behaviour did not improve. Her next role was in St. Martin's Lane (1938) with Charles Laughton.
Achieving international success
Olivier had been attempting to broaden his film career. He was not well known in the United States despite his success in England, and earlier attempts to introduce him to the American market had failed. Offered the role of Heathcliff in Samuel Goldwyn's production of Wuthering Heights (1939), he travelled to Hollywood, leaving Leigh in London. Goldwyn and the film's director, William Wyler, offered Leigh the secondary role of Isabella; but she refused, preferring the role of Cathy, which had been assigned to Merle Oberon.
Leigh in the trailer for Gone with the Wind (1939)
Filming proved difficult for Leigh. Cukor was dismissed and replaced by Victor Fleming, with whom Leigh frequently quarrelled. She and Olivia de Havilland secretly met with Cukor at night and on weekends for his advice about how they should play their parts. She befriended Clark Gable, his wife Carole Lombard, and Olivia de Havilland; but she clashed with Leslie Howard, with whom she was required to play several emotional scenes. Leigh was sometimes required to work seven days a week, often late into the night, which added to her distress; and she missed Olivier, who was working in New York. She said to Laurence Olivier on a long-distance call, "Puss, my puss, how I hate film acting! Hate, hate, and never want to do another film again!"
In 2006, Olivia de Havilland responded to claims of Leigh's manic behaviour during filming Gone with the Wind, published in a biography of Olivier. She defended Leigh, saying, "Vivien was impeccably professional, impeccably disciplined on Gone with the Wind. She had two great concerns: doing her best work in an extremely difficult role and being separated from Larry [Olivier], who was in New York."
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. Being a film star – just a film star – is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity. Actresses go on for a long time and there are always marvelous parts to play." Among the 10 Academy Awards won by Gone with the Wind was a Best Actress award for Leigh, who also won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress.
Marriage and joint projects
From Waterloo Bridge (1940)
Leigh hoped to co-star with Olivier and made a screen test for Rebecca, which was to be directed by Alfred Hitchcock with Olivier in the leading role. After viewing Leigh's screen test, Selznick noted that "she doesn't seem right as to sincerity or age or innocence", a view shared by Hitchcock and Leigh's mentor, George Cukor. Selznick observed that she had shown no enthusiasm for the part until Olivier had been confirmed as the lead actor so he cast Joan Fontaine. He refused to allow her to join Olivier in Pride and Prejudice (1940), and Greer Garson played the role Leigh had wanted for herself. Waterloo Bridge (1940) was to have starred Olivier and Leigh; however, Selznick replaced Olivier with Robert Taylor, then at the peak of his success as one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's most popular male stars. Leigh's top billing reflected her status in Hollywood, and the film was popular with audiences and critics.
She and Olivier mounted a stage production of Romeo and Juliet for Broadway. The New York press publicized the adulterous nature that had marked the beginning of Olivier and Leigh's relationship and questioned their ethics in not returning to England to help with the war effort. Critics were hostile in their assessment of the production. Brooks Atkinson for the New York Times wrote, "Although Miss Leigh and Mr. Olivier are handsome young people they hardly act their parts at all." While most of the blame was attributed to Olivier's acting and direction, Leigh was also criticised, with Bernard Grebanier commenting on the "thin, shopgirl quality of Miss Leigh's voice." The couple had invested almost their entire savings into the project, and the failure was a financial disaster for them.
They filmed That Hamilton Woman (1941) with Olivier as Horatio Nelson and Leigh as Emma Hamilton. With the United States not yet having entered the war, it was one of several Hollywood films made with the aim of arousing a pro-British sentiment among American audiences. The film was popular in the United States and an outstanding success in the Soviet Union. Winston Churchill arranged a screening for a party that included Franklin D. Roosevelt and, on its conclusion, addressed the group, saying, "Gentlemen, I thought this film would interest you, showing great events similar to those in which you have just been taking part." The Oliviers remained favourites of Churchill, attending dinners and occasions at his request for the rest of his life; and, of Leigh, he was quoted as saying, "By Jove, she's a clinker."
The Oliviers returned to England, and Leigh toured through North Africa in 1943. Leigh performed for troops before falling ill with a persistent cough and fevers. In 1944, she was diagnosed as having tuberculosis in her left lung and spent several weeks in hospital before appearing to have recovered. Leigh was filming Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) when she discovered she was pregnant, but she suffered a miscarriage. She fell into a deep depression that hit the low point when she turned on Olivier, verbally and physically attacking him until she fell to the floor, sobbing. This was the first of many major breakdowns she suffered related to bipolar disorder. Olivier came to recognise the symptoms of an impending episode – several days of hyperactivity followed by a period of depression and an explosive breakdown, after which Leigh would have no memory of the event, but would be acutely embarrassed and remorseful.
Leigh was well enough to resume acting in 1946, 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 successes.
In 1947, Olivier was knighted; and Leigh accompanied him to Buckingham Palace for the investiture. She became Lady Olivier; and, after their divorce, per the style granted the divorced wife of a knight, she became socially known as Vivien, Lady Olivier.
Leigh and Olivier arriving in Brisbane, Australia, June 1948
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.
As Blanche DuBois, from the trailer for the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).
When the West End production of Streetcar opened in October 1949, J. B. Priestley denounced the play and Leigh's performance; and the critic Kenneth Tynan commented that Leigh was badly miscast because British actors were "too well-bred to emote effectively on stage". Olivier and Leigh were chagrined that part of the commercial success of the play lay in audience members attending to see what they believed would be a salacious and sensationalist story, rather than the Greek tragedy that they envisioned; but the play also had strong supporters, among them Noël Coward who described Leigh as "magnificent."
After 326 performances, Leigh finished her run. However, she was soon engaged for the film version. Her irreverent and often bawdy sense of humour allowed her to establish a rapport with her co-star Marlon Brando; but she had difficulty with director Elia Kazan, who did not hold her in high regard as an actress. He later commented that "she had a small talent"; but, as work progressed, he became "full of admiration" for "the greatest determination to excel of any actress I've known. She'd have crawled over broken glass if she thought it would help her performance." Leigh found the role gruelling and commented to the Los Angeles Times, "I had nine months in the theatre of Blanche DuBois. Now she's in command of me." Olivier accompanied her to Hollywood where he was to co-star in William Wyler's Carrie.
The film won glowing reviews for her; and she won a second Academy Award for Best Actress, a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award, and a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. Tennessee Williams commented that Leigh brought to the role "everything that I intended, and much that I had never dreamed of"; but, in later years, Leigh would say playing Blanche DuBois "tipped me over into madness."
Struggle with illness
In 1951, Leigh and 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 reviews. They took the productions to New York, where they performed a season at the Ziegfeld Theatre into 1952. The reviews there were also mostly positive, but the critic Kenneth Tynan angered them when he suggested that Leigh's was a mediocre talent that forced Olivier to compromise his own. Tynan's diatribe almost precipitated another collapse; Leigh, terrified of failure and intent on achieving greatness, dwelt on his comments while ignoring the positive reviews of other critics.In January 1953, Leigh travelled to Ceylon to film Elephant Walk with Peter Finch. Shortly after filming commenced, she suffered a breakdown; and Paramount Pictures replaced her with Elizabeth Taylor. Olivier returned her to their home in England, where, between periods of incoherence, Leigh told him that she was in love with Finch and had been having an affair with him. She gradually recovered over a period of several months. As a result of this episode, many of the Oliviers' friends learned of her problems. David Niven said she had been "quite, quite mad"; and in his diary Noël Coward expressed surprise that "things had been bad and getting worse since 1948 or thereabouts."
Olivier and Leigh in the 1955 production of Titus Andronicus
Leigh took the lead role in the Noël Coward play South Sea Bubble, but she became pregnant and withdrew from the production. Several weeks later, she miscarried and entered a period of depression that lasted for months. She joined Olivier for a European tour with Titus Andronicus, but the tour was marred by Leigh's frequent outbursts against Olivier and other members of the company. After their return to London, her former husband, Leigh Holman, who continued to exert a strong influence over her, stayed with the Oliviers and helped calm her.
In 1958, considering her marriage to be over, Leigh began a relationship with the actor Jack Merivale, who knew of Leigh's medical condition and assured Olivier he would care for her. In 1959, she achieved a success with the Noël Coward comedy Look After Lulu, with The Times critic describing her as "beautiful, delectably cool and matter of fact, she is mistress of every situation."
In 1960, she and Olivier divorced; and Olivier married actress Joan Plowright. In his autobiography, he discussed the years of problems they had experienced because of Leigh's illness: "Throughout her possession by that uncannily evil monster, manic depression, with its deadly ever-tightening spirals, she retained her own individual canniness – an ability to disguise her true mental condition from almost all except me, for whom she could hardly be expected to take the trouble."
Final years and death
Leigh photographed in 1958
In May 1967, she was rehearsing to appear with Michael Redgrave in Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance when she suffered a recurrence of tuberculosis. Following several weeks of rest, she seemed to recover. On the night of 7 July 1967, Merivale left her as usual, to perform in a play, and returned home around midnight to find her asleep. About thirty minutes later, he returned to the bedroom and discovered her body on the floor. She had been attempting to walk to the bathroom and, as her lungs filled with liquid, collapsed. Merivale contacted Olivier, who was receiving treatment for prostate cancer in a nearby hospital. 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. Olivier paid his respects, and "stood and prayed for forgiveness for all the evils that had sprung up between us", before helping Merivale make funeral arrangements.
She was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium; and her ashes were scattered on the lake at her home, Tickerage Mill, near Blackboys, East Sussex, England. A memorial service was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields, with a final tribute read by John Gielgud. In the United States, she became the first actress honoured by "The Friends of the Libraries at the University of Southern California". The ceremony was conducted as a memorial service, with selections from her films shown and tributes provided by such associates as George Cukor.
Critical comments
Vivien Leigh was considered one of the most beautiful actresses of her day, and her directors emphasised this in most of her films. When asked if she believed her beauty had been a setback to her acting, she said, "People think that if you look fairly reasonable, you can't possibly act, and as I only care about acting, I think beauty can be a great handicap, if you really want to look like the part you're playing, which isn't necessarily like you."George Cukor commented that Leigh was a "consummate actress, hampered by beauty", and Laurence Olivier said that critics should "give her credit for being an actress and not go on forever letting their judgments be distorted by her great beauty." Garson Kanin shared their viewpoint and described Leigh as "a stunner whose ravishing beauty often tended to obscure her staggering achievements as an actress. Great beauties are infrequently great actresses — simply because they don't need to be. Vivien was different; ambitious, persevering, serious, often inspired."
Leigh explained that she played "as many different parts as possible" in an attempt to learn her craft and to dispel prejudice about her abilities. She believed that comedy was more difficult to play than drama because it required more precise timing and said that more emphasis should be placed upon comedy as part of an actor's training. Nearing the end of her career, which ranged from Noël Coward comedies to Shakespearean tragedies, she observed, "It's much easier to make people cry than to make them laugh."
Her early performances brought her immediate success in Britain, but she remained largely unknown in other parts of the world until the release of Gone with the Wind. In December 1939, the New York Times wrote, "Miss Leigh's Scarlett has vindicated the absurd talent quest that indirectly turned her up. She is so perfectly designed for the part by art and nature that any other actress in the role would be inconceivable", and as her fame escalated, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine as Scarlett. In 1969, 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 presence." Leonard Maltin described the film as one of the all-time greats, writing in 1998 that Leigh "brilliantly played" her role.
Her performance in the West End production of A Streetcar Named Desire, described by the theatre writer Phyllis Hartnoll as "proof of greater powers as an actress than she had hitherto shown", led to a lengthy period during which she was considered one of the finest actresses in British theatre. 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."
Kenneth Tynan ridiculed Leigh's performance opposite Olivier in the 1955 production of Titus Andronicus, commenting that she "receives the news that she is about to be ravished on her husband's corpse with little more than the mild annoyance of one who would have preferred foam rubber." He was one of several critics to react negatively to her reinterpretation of Lady Macbeth in 1955, saying that her performance was insubstantial and lacked the necessary fury demanded of the role; however, after her death he revised his opinion, describing his earlier criticism as "one of the worst errors of judgment" he had ever made. He came to believe that Leigh's interpretation, in which Lady Macbeth uses her sexual allure to keep Macbeth enthralled, "made more sense [...] than the usual battle-axe" portrayal of the character. In a survey of theatre critics conducted shortly after Leigh's death, several named it as one of her greatest achievements in theatre.
In 1969, a plaque to Leigh was placed in the actors' church, St Paul's, Covent Garden; and, in 1985, a portrait of her was included in a series of postage stamps, along with Alfred Hitchcock, Charles Chaplin, Peter Sellers, and David Niven to commemorate "British Film Year".
The British Library in London purchased the papers of Laurence Olivier from his estate in 1999. Known as The Laurence Olivier Archive, the collection includes many of Vivien Leigh's personal papers, including numerous letters she wrote to Olivier. The papers of Vivien Leigh, including letters, photographs, contracts, and diaries, are owned by her daughter, Mrs Suzanne Farrington. 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. It is now held as part of the record of the history of the performing arts in Australia.
Theatre
Theatre roles Opening date Title Role Location Playwright Director Other main cast members
25 February 1935 The Green Sash Giusta "Q" Theatre, London Debonnaire Sylvester and T. P. Wood Matthew Forsyth Kathleen Boutall and David Horne
15 May 1935 The Mask of Virtue Henriette Duquesnoy Ambassadors Theatre, London Carl Sternheim and Ashley Dukes Maxwell Wray Jeanne de Casalis, Maud Tree and Frank Cellier
17 February 1936 Richard II Queen Anne Oxford (OUDS) William Shakespeare John Gielgud and Glen Byam Shaw David King-Wood and Florence Kahn
8 April 1936 The Happy Hypocrite Jenny Mere His Majesty's Theatre, London Clemence Dane, Richard Addinsell and Max Beerbohm Maurice Colbourne Ivor Novello and Viola Tree
22 June 1936 Henry VIII Anne Boleyn Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park William Shakespeare Robert Atkins Gyles Isham and C. N. Anson
5 February 1937 Because We Must Pamela Golding-Ffrench Wyndham's Theatre Ingaret Giffard Norman Marshell Margaret Emden and Enid Lindsey
11 March 1937 Bats in the Belfry Jessica Morton Ambassador's Theatre, London Diana Morgan and Robert MacDermot A. R. Whatmore Evelyn Ankers Ivor Barnard and Charles Hawtrey
June 1937 Hamlet Ophelia Kronborg Castle, Elsinore William Shakespeare Tyrone Guthrie Laurence Olivier, John Abbott, and Anthony Quayle
27 December 1937 A Midsummer Night's Dream Titania Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park William Shakespeare Jeanne de Casalis Tyrone Guthrie Robert Helpmann and Ralph Richardson
13 September 1938 Serena Blandish Serena Blandish Gate Theatre S. N. Behrman and Enid Bagnold Esme Percy David Tree and John Teed
9 May 1940 Romeo and Juliet Juliet 51st Street Theatre, New York City, also San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C. William Shakespeare Laurence Olivier Laurence Olivier, Dame May Whitty, Edmond O'Brien and Cornel Wilde
4 March 1942 The Doctor's Dilemma Jennifer Dubedat Haymarket Theatre George Bernard Shaw Irene Hentschell Cyril Cusack (later John Gielgud) and Austin Trevor
24 April 1942 The School for Scandal
(two scenes — one charity performance) Lady Teazle Haymarket Theatre Richard Brinsley Sheridan Cyril Maude
Spring, 1943 for 3 months Spring Party — A Revue Herself and Scarlett O'Hara Tour of North Africa entertaining troops works by Lewis Carroll and Clemence Dane John Gielgud Beatrice Lillie, Dorothy Dickson and Leslie Henson
15 May 1945 The Skin of Our Teeth Sabina Phoenix Theatre Thornton Wilder Laurence Olivier Cecil Parker and Joan Young
11 September 1946 The Skin of Our Teeth (revival) Sabina Picadilly Theatre Thornton Wilder Laurence Olivier George Devine and Esther Somers
14 February 1948 to 1 November 1948 (1) Richard III
(2) The School for Scandal
(3) The Skin of Our Teeth (1) Lady Anne
(2) Lady Teazle
(3) Sabina Tour of Australia and New Zealand : Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, Christchurch (1) William Shakespeare
(2) Richard Brinsley Sheridan
(3) Thornton Wilder Laurence Olivier Old Vic Theatre Company including Laurence Olivier and Peter Cushing
26 January 1949 (1) Richard III
(2) Antigone (1) Lady Anne
(2) Antigone opened at the New Theatre (1) William Shakespeare
(2) Jean Anouilh Laurence Olivier Old Vic Theatre Company including Laurence Olivier and Peter Cushing
11 October 1949 A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche DuBois Aldwych Theatre Tennessee Williams Laurence Olivier Bonar Colleano, Renée Asherson, Bernard Braden and Theodore Bikel
10 May 1951
the two plays alternated nightly
Caesar and Cleopatra Cleopatra St James' Theatre George Bernard Shaw Michael Benthall Laurence Olivier
11 May 1951
the two plays alternated nightly
Antony and Cleopatra Cleopatra St James' Theatre William Shakespeare Michael Benthall Laurence Olivier
19 December 1951
the two plays alternated nightly
Caesar and Cleopatra Cleopatra Ziegfeld Theatre, New York City George Bernard Shaw Michael Benthall Laurence Olivier, Robert Helpmann, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Harry Andrews
20 December 1951
the two plays alternated nightly
Antony and Cleopatra Cleopatra Ziegfeld Theatre, New York City William Shakespeare Michael Benthall Laurence Olivier, Donald Pleasence, Harry Andrews, Robert Helpmann and Wilfrid Hyde-White
5 November 1953 The Sleeping Prince Mary Morgan Phoenix Theatre Terence Rattigan Laurence Olivier Laurence Olivier and Martita Hunt
12 April 1955 Twelfth Night Viola Stratford-upon-Avon William Shakespeare John Gielgud Laurence Olivier, Keith Michell, Mervyn Blake and Angela Baddeley
7 June 1955 Macbeth Lady Macbeth Stratford-upon-Avon William Shakespeare Glen Byam Shaw Laurence Olivier, Maxine Audley, Keith Michell and Geoffrey Bayldon
16 August 1955 Titus Andronicus Lavinia Stratford-upon-Avon attributed to William Shakespeare Peter Brook Laurence Olivier, Maxine Audley, Frank Thring and Anthony Quayle
25 April 1956 South Sea Bubble Lady Alexandra Shotter Lyric Theatre Noël Coward William Chappell[disambiguation needed] Ian Hunter, Arthur Macrae, John Moore and Joyce Carey
6 May 1957 Titus Andronicus Lavinia Tour of Paris, Vienna, Belgrade, Zagreb, Warsaw, followed by Stoll Theatre, London attributed to William Shakespeare Peter Brook Laurence Olivier, Anthony Quayle and Maxine Audley
24 April 1958 Duel of Angels Paola Apollo Theatre Jean Giraudoux and Christopher Fry Jean-Louis Barrault Claire Bloom (later replaced by Ann Todd and Mary Ure), Derek Nimmo and Peter Wyngarde
9 July 1959 Look After Lulu Lulu d'Arville Royal Court Theatre, then New Theatre Georges Feydeau translated by Noël Coward Noël Coward Anthony Quayle, Richard Goolden and Michael Bates
19 April 1960 Duel of Angels Paola Helen Hayes Theatre, New York City Jean Giraudoux and Christopher Fry Robert Helpmann Peter Wyngarde, Jack Merivale and Mary Ure
Old Vic Overseas Tour
- Australia and New Zealand
12 July 1961 to 17 March 1962 (1) Twelfth Night
(2) Duel of Angels
(3) The Lady of the Camellias (1) Viola
(2) Paola
(3) Marguerite Gautier Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne
Her Majesty's Theatre, Brisbane
Theatre Royal, Sydney
Theatre Royal, Adelaide
Her Majesty's Theatre, Perth
Opera House, Wellington
Theatre Royal, Christchurch
Her Majesty's Theatre, Auckland (1) William Shakespeare
(2) Jean Giraudoux
(3) Alexandre Dumas, fils all directed by Robert Helpmann repertory company including Jack Merivale
Old Vic Overseas Tour
- Latin America
29 March 1962 to 16 May 1962 (1) Twelfth Night
(2) The Lady of the Camellias (1) Viola
(2) Marguerite Gautier Mexico City, Mexico
Caracas, Venezuela
Lima, Peru
Santiago, Chile
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Montevideo, Uruguay
São Paulo, Brazil
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1) William Shakespeare
(2) Alexandre Dumas, fils both directed by Robert Helpmann repertory company including Jack Merivale
18 March 1963 Tovarich Tatiana Broadway Theatre, New York City Jacques Deval, Robert E. Sherwood, David Shaw, Anne Crosswell and Lee Pockriss Peter Glenville Jean-Pierre Aumont
6 April 1965 The Contessa Contessa Sanziani closed after previews in Newcastle, Liverpool and Manchester Paul Osborn and Maurice Druon Robert Helpmann David Knight and Joseph Furst
3 May 1966 Ivanov Anna Petrova Tour of United States and Canada, followed by season at Shubert Theatre, New York City Anton Chekhov, adapted John Gielgud John Gielgud John Gielgud, Ronald Radd and Jack Merivale
[edit] Film
Film roles[2] Year Title Role Director Other main cast members
1935 The Village Squire Rose Venables Reginald Denham David Horne and Leslie Perrins
1935 Things Are Looking Up School girl Albert de Corville Cicely Courtneidge
1935 Look Up and Laugh Marjorie Belfer Basil Dean Gracie Fields
1935 Gentlemen's Agreement Phil Stanley George Pearson Frederick Peisley and Anthony Holles
1937 Fire Over England Cynthia William K. Howard Flora Robson, Raymond Massey, Leslie Banks
and Laurence Olivier
1937 Dark Journey Madeleine Goddard Victor Saville Conrad Veidt
1937 Storm in a Teacup Victoria Gow Ian Dalrymple and Victor Saville Rex Harrison, Cecil Parker and Sara Allgood
1938 A Yank at Oxford Elsa Craddock Jack Conway Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore,
Maureen O'Sullivan and Edmund Gwenn
1938 Sidewalks of London Libby Tim Whelan Charles Laughton and Rex Harrison
1939 Gone with the Wind Scarlett O'Hara Victor Fleming Clark Gable, Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland
1940
(filmed in 1937) 21 Days Wanda Basil Dean Laurence Olivier
1940 Waterloo Bridge Myra Mervyn LeRoy Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson and Virginia Field
1941 That Hamilton Woman Emma Hamilton Alexander Korda Laurence Olivier, Alan Mowbray, Sara Allgood and Gladys Cooper
1945 Caesar and Cleopatra Cleopatra Gabriel Pascal Claude Rains, Stewart Granger and Flora Robson
1948 Anna Karenina Anna Karenina Julien Duvivier Ralph Richardson
1951 A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche DuBois Elia Kazan Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden
1955 The Deep Blue Sea Hester Collyer Anatole Litvak Kenneth More
1961 The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone Karen Stone José Quintero Warren Beatty and Lotte Lenya
1965 Ship of Fools Mary Treadwell Stanley Kramer Simone Signoret, José Ferrer and Lee Marvin
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