Winner of the Society for Theatre Research Book Prize 2020 Vivien Leigh was perhaps the most iconic actress of the twentieth century. As Scarlett O'Hara and Blanche Du Bois she took on some of the most pivotal roles in cinema history. Yet she was also a talented theatre actress with West End and Broadway plaudits to her name. In this ground-breaking new biography, Alan Strachan provides a completely new full-life portrait of Leigh, covering both her professional and personal life. Using previously unseen sources from her archive, recently acquired by the V&A, he sheds new light on her fractious relationship with Laurence Olivier, based on their letters and diaries, as well as on the bipolar disorder which so affected her later life and work. Revealing new aspects of her early life as well as providing glimpses behind-the-scenes of the filming of Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire, this book provides the essential and comprehensive life-story of one of the twentieth century's greatest actresses.

Draws on in-depth research and new interviews to present a narrative account of the actress's life that covers her early childhood in India, her celebrated love affair with Laurence Olivier, and her early death at age fifty-three.

"Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm" Margaret Mitchell opened Gone with the Wind with this description of Scarlett O'Hara, but her words can hardly be applied to Vivien Leigh, the British actress who gave an unforgettable performance as the Southern belle. Leigh possessed a beauty that men seldom failed to recognize and a charm that caught many, but her life was far from being all beauty and charm. This biography of the beautiful and tortured actress, from her birth and childhood in exotic India to her premature death in 1967, gives special attention to her development and career as a stage and film actress (which culminated in one Tony award and two Oscars). Her ambitious personality and her manic-depressive illness, including the sexual compulsion that haunted her life, her romantic and tragic marriage to Laurence Olivier, and her performances in, for instance, Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire, are all detailed.

Reframing Vivien Leigh takes a new look at the laboring life one of the twentieth century's most iconic stars. Author Lisa Stead reframes the dominant narratives that have surrounded Leigh's life and career, offering a new perspective on Vivien Leigh as a distinctly archival subject. The book examines the collections and curatorial practices that have built up around her, exploring material documents collated by her own hand and by those who worked with her. The book also examines the collection practices of those who have developed deep, long-standing fandoms of her life and work. To do so, the book draws upon new oral history work with curators, archivists and fan collectives and examines a variety of archived correspondence, items of dress and costume, script annotations, photography, press clippings, props and memorabilia. It argues that such material has the potential to produce a new interpretation of Leigh as a creative laborer. As such, the book casts new light on the labor of archiving itself and the significance of archival processes and practices to contemporary feminist film historiography.

Vivien Leigh is best known as the former Mrs. Laurence Olivier; the beautiful but willful Scarlett O'Hara; and the fading southern belle with a tenuous grip on reality, Blanche Du Bois. In life and on the screen, these were her public roles. Walker's excellent biography fills the gaps, giving insights into her private life-into what it must have been like to be Vivien Leigh. Walker (author of Garbo: A Portrait, CH, Mar '81; Dietrich, 1984; and Bette Davis: A Celebration, 1986) is a careful researcher who managed to win the confidence of the right people. His interview subjects include Vivien Leigh's only daughter, Suzanne Farrington; her first agent, John Glidden; and her last husband, Jack Merivale. Vivien is personal without being excessively gossipy, and informative without being pedantic. Walker's book should delight film-goers, theater-goers, and readers curious about prominent people. Leigh's achievements were many, but her personality had its darker side; even her 20 years as half of Britain's reigning theatrical couple ``the Oliviers'' took its toll on her physical and mental health. Amply supplied with photographs of the actress at all stages of her life, Vivien is an engaging book about an engaging figure. Undergraduates and general readers.- J.L. Cohen, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST A New York Times Bestseller "A "well rounded and entertaining" (New York Times) Hollywood biography about the passionate, turbulent marriage of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. In 1934, a friend brought fledgling actress Vivien Leigh to see Theatre Royal, where she would first lay eyes on Laurence Olivier in his brilliant performance as Anthony Cavendish. That night, she confided to a friend, he was the man she was going to marry. There was just one problem: she was already married—and so was he. TRULY, MADLY is the biography of a marriage, a love affair that still captivates millions, even decades after both actors' deaths. Vivien and Larry were two of the first truly global celebrities – their fame fueled by the explosive growth of tabloids and television, which helped and hurt them in equal measure. They seemed to have it all and yet, in their own minds, they were doomed, blighted by her long-undiagnosed mental-illness, which transformed their relationship from the stuff of dreams into a living nightmare. Through new research, including exclusive access to previously unpublished correspondence and interviews with their friends and family, author Stephen Galloway takes readers on a bewitching journey. He brilliantly studies their tempestuous liaison, one that took place against the backdrop of two world wars, the Golden Age of Hollywood and the upheavals of the 1960s — as they struggled with love, loss and the ultimate agony of their parting.