Vivien Leigh: A Biography

Vivien Leigh: A Biography
by Michelangelo Capua

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Book Summary Information

Author: Michelangelo Capua
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-05-06
ISBN: 0786414979
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: McFarland & Company

Book Reviews of Vivien Leigh: A Biography

Book Review: Vivien Leigh was a talented but tortured Beauty
Summary: 5 Stars

The author,Michelangelo Capua, researched his subject from her
birth in colonial India until her untimely death at 53 years.
An unusual beauty even at three years of age.She was the only
child born to an English father and mother of mixed backround, English and Indian.This was unacceptable when making Gone With The Wind,because the South had objections to an English actress playing Scarlet. However, when they were told Miss Leigh was of French and Irish descent,as was the character, they relented. As long as it was not a Yankee woman, to play the part that made her famous.
In her very early years she left India,to be educated in a Convent boarding school.She was only five or six years old.She became the pet of the sisters who taught her who let her keep a kitten,to take to bed.Vivien later stated these were her happiest days.Although, the bi-polar illness is believed to be chemical, the early separation, although she did not mention it,seemed very cruel.She loved her father but did not see him for years. Her mother visited once a year.Strange way to treat an only child that was doted upon.
During her teen years she went to finishing schools like all upper class English girls.Her mother began to notice a
change in her daughters behavior.Vivien was very restless, and acting inappropiate at the time with men.
Acting lessons at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts used
her great energy and she married Leigh Holman and gave birth
by age twenty to a daughter.She would not leave the RADA,
and her mother raised her child.
Vivien was a success in England, and fell in love with
another actor becoming famous.This became the great love
affair of Sir Laurence Olivier who also was married.
Vivien came to America specifically for the most coveted
role in the History of the film industry and she won it.
Because of the advent of world war ll,the movie became
a box office success seen by everyone. It had War. Romance,
Destruction of a Civilization and its re-bith.Vivien was an
overnight success and now she wanted her man,Larry.
He became divorced from his English wife and the two were
happy for awhile.
Both great actors,but troubled people they stayed in the
marriage for twenty years.Vivien suffered a miscarriage
and grieved and went into post-partum depression.
Her husband had problems with his gender, and was falling
in love with Danny Kaye, the entertainer.
Vivian won another oscar for playing Blanche DuBois, but
it cost her to drift into unreality.
Unable to make "Elephant Walk" in India(one wonders
about the significance if any),she returned to her home
called Notley Abbey.In later years,Larry and Vivien split.
She did return once to India for a pleasant visit.They
thought she was Scarlet.She made more movies and plays and
was friends with the upper class English.She was always
in frail health with a form of tuberculosis but she
enjoyed her grandsons,and continued to travel calling
herself, a citizen of the world.I think we all will remember
her as Scarlet,in "Gone With the Wind."

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Summary of Vivien Leigh: A Biography

"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.

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