Vivien Leigh
Also Known As: Вів'єн Мері Гартлі, Vivian Mary Hartley, Vivian Leigh, ویوین لی
Biography: Vivien Leigh (born Vivian Mary Hartley on November 5, 1913, in Darjeeling, British India) was an English actress renowned for her roles in Hollywood and British theater. She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress, portraying Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), both performances that solidified her place among the greatest actresses of classic cinema. Leigh was the only child of Ernest Hartley, a British broker, and Gertrude Yackjee, who had Anglo-Indian and Armenian ancestry. She spent her childhood between England and Europe, attending convent schools before enrolling at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London in 1932, setting the stage for her acting career. Her film debut came in Things Are Looking Up (1934), followed by roles in British films such as Fire Over England (1937), where she starred alongside Laurence Olivier. Their professional collaboration soon became a high-profile romance, capturing public fascination. Leigh’s breakthrough role was Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), a part for which she beat hundreds of actresses in a legendary casting search. The film became one of the most celebrated in cinematic history, and her performance earned international acclaim, securing her first Academy Award. Leigh continued to star in films such as Waterloo Bridge (1940) and That Hamilton Woman (1941), frequently working with Olivier, whom she married in 1940. Their union lasted 20 years, during which they became one of the most revered couples in theater and film, starring together in Shakespearean productions and three films. In 1951, she won her second Academy Award for A Streetcar Named Desire, where her portrayal of Blanche DuBois was deeply personal, reflecting her own struggles with mental health. Leigh suffered from bipolar disorder, which profoundly affected her career and personal relationships. She also battled chronic tuberculosis, first diagnosed in the mid-1940s, which ultimately led to her death on July 8, 1967, at the age of 53. After divorcing Olivier in 1960, she found companionship with actor John Merivale, who remained by her side until her passing. Despite periods of career instability, Leigh remains one of the most celebrated actresses of her time. In 1999, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked her as the 16th greatest female movie star of classic Hollywood cinema. She also won a Tony Award for Tovarich (1963), proving her talent extended beyond film. Her beauty, talent, and dedication made her an enduring icon, and her performances continue to be studied and celebrated worldwide.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Darjeeling, Bengal Presidency, British India [now West Bengal, India]
Adult: No
Birthday: November 05, 1913
Age: 111 years old
Gender: Female
Deathday: July 07, 1967
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Known For:
A Streetcar Named Desire
Overview: A disturbed, aging Southern belle moves in with her sister for solace — but being face-to-face with her brutish brother-in-law accelerates her downward spiral.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-09-19
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Gone with the Wind
Overview: The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.
Genres: Drama War Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-12-15
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Sir John Mills' Moving Memories
Overview: A film biography with a difference, Sir John Mills' Moving Memories charts the life of one of Britain's most distinguished actors. Compiled from interviews with the man himself and with his family and friends, it traces his career from humble beginnings to all-time great of British cinema. The many film clips reveal an electric screen presence and a willingness to undertake a range of difficult, challenging roles.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-08-01
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Ship of Fools
Overview: Passengers on a ship traveling from Mexico to Europe in the 1930s represent society at large in that era. The crew is German, including the ship's Dr. Schumann, who falls in love with one of the passengers, La Condesa. A young American woman, Jenny, is traveling with the man she loves, David. Jenny is fascinated and puzzled by just who some of the other passengers are.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-07-29
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Fire Over England
Overview: The film is a historical drama set during the reign of Elizabeth I (Flora Robson), focusing on the English defeat of the Spanish Armada, whence the title. In 1588, relations between Spain and England are at the breaking point. With the support of Queen Elizabeth I, British sea raiders such as Sir Francis Drake regularly capture Spanish merchantmen bringing gold from the New World.
Genres: History Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-03-05
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Caesar and Cleopatra
Overview: The aging Caesar finds himself intrigued by the young Egyptian queen. Adapted by George Bernard Shaw from his own play.
Genres: Drama History Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-12-11
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Anna Karenina
Overview: Stefan and Dolly Oblonsky have had a spat and Stefan has asked his sister, Anna Karenina, to come down to Moscow to help mend the rift. Anna's companion on the train from St. Petersburg is Countess Vronsky who is met at the Moscow station by her son. Col. Vronsky looks very dashing in his uniform and it's love at first sight when he looks at Anna and their eyes meet.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-01-22
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The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Overview: Critics and the public say Karen Stone is too old -- as she approaches 50 -- for her role in a play she is about to take to Broadway. Her businessman husband, 20 years her senior, has been the angel for the play and gives her a way out: They are off to a holiday in Rome for his health. He suffers a fatal heart attack on the plane. Mrs. Stone stays in Rome. She leases a magnificent apartment with a view of the seven hills from the terrace. Then the contessa comes calling to introduce a young man named Paolo to her. The contessa knows many presentable young men and lonely American widows.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-12-28
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That Hamilton Woman
Overview: The story of courtesan and dance-hall girl Emma Hamilton, including her relationships with Sir William Hamilton and Admiral Horatio Nelson and her rise and fall, set during the Napoleonic Wars.
Genres: Drama History Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-04-03
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Waterloo Bridge
Overview: On the eve of World War II, a British officer revisits Waterloo Bridge and recalls the young man he was at the beginning of World War I and the young ballerina he met just before he left for the front.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-05-17
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21 Days Together
Overview: After Larry Darrent accidentally kills his lover's blackmailing husband, someone else is arrested for the crime. When he is found guilty, Larry and Wanda have just three weeks together before he must give himself up or let an innocent man go to the gallows.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-01-07
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Dark Journey
Overview: Madeline Goddard, is a British double agent who meets and falls in love with a German spy Baron Karl Von Marwitz during World War I. This tale of espionage blends high adventure and romance making perfect order from wartime chaos and growing in faith from despair.
Genres: Thriller War Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-07-02
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Storm in a Teacup
Overview: A local politician in Scotland tries to break the reporter who wrote a negative story about him, and who is also in love with his daughter.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-02-25
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Hollywood: The Dream Factory
Overview: A documentary about the glorious history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and its decline leading to the sale of its back lot and props. By extension this provides a general history of Hollywood's Golden Age and the legendary studio system.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-01-10
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St. Martin's Lane
Overview: On the sidewalks of the London theater district the buskers (street performers) earn enough coins for a cheap room. Charles, who recites dramatic monologues, sees that a young pickpocket, Libby, also has a talent for dancing and adds her to his act. Harley, the theater patron who never knew Libby took his gold cigarette case, is impressed by Libby's dancing and invites her to bring Charles and the other buskers in his group to an after-the-play party. Libby comes alone. A theatrical career is launched.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-10-18
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A Yank at Oxford
Overview: A brash young American aristocrat attending Oxford University gets a chance to prove himself and win the heart of his antagonist's sister.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-02-18
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Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
Overview: A deliciously scandalous portrait of unsung Hollywood legend Scotty Bowers, whose bestselling memoir chronicled his decades spent as sexual procurer to the stars.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2018-07-27
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The Village Squire
Overview: Comedy about how a travelling film actor who arrives in a small village transforms a squire's production of "Macbeth" and subsequently weds his daughter.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-04-14
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Things Are Looking Up
Overview: Scatterbrain circus lady has to cover for her sour schoolmistress sister.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-06-09
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Look Up and Laugh
Overview: Gutsy lass Gracie rallies fellow stall-holders at Birkenhead Market to prevent its takeover and demolition by a department store chain. She invokes the Market's foundation by Royal Charter just before an inadvertent gas leak provides an explosive climax.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-08-13
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The Deep Blue Sea
Overview: A woman is unhappy in her marriage to a boring, stiff judge, so she takes up with a wild-living RAF pilot, who ends up being more than she can handle. (TCM.com)
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-11-01
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Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Overview: Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.
Genres: Documentary Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1983-02-25
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Larry & Vivien: The Oliviers in Love
Overview: A portrait of the 30 year relationship between Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. With comments by their friends and family.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2001-09-13
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Hollywood: The Selznick Years
Overview: Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in the 30s and 40s.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-12-31
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The Screen Director
Overview: A documentary short film depicting the work of the motion picture director. An anonymous director is shown preparing the various aspects of a film for production, meeting with the writer and producer, approving wardrobe and set design, rehearsing scenes with the actors and camera crew, shooting the scenes, watching dailies, working with the editor and composer, and attending the first preview. Then a number of real directors are shown in archive footage (as well as a predominance of staged 'archive' footage) working with actors and crew.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-03-12
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That's Entertainment! III
Overview: Some of MGM'S musical stars review the studios history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.
Genres: Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-07-01
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Melanie Remembers: Reflections by Olivia de Havilland
Overview: This documentary is featured in the 4-disc Collector's Edition DVD set, released in 2004, for Gone with the Wind (1939).
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2004-11-09
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Gentlemen's Agreement
Overview: A young doctor realises that his father is a quack and changes places with a down-and-out.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-01-01
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Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
Overview: This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel, Fay Bainter, Mickey Rooney, Thomas Mitchell, Sinclair Lewis, and more, with host Bob Hope.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-07-31
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Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Overview: Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-08-06
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Hollywood: Style Center of the World
Overview: This short promotes the premise that movies often create a demand for the fashions seen in them. It starts with a vignette in rural America. A mother and daughter go to town to buy a new dress. In the dress shop window is a designer dress worn by Joan Crawford in a recent movie. We then go to Hollywood and visit Adrian, MGM's chief of costume design, and see how multiple copies of a single clothing pattern are produced. The film ends with short segments of several MGM features.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-05-29
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That's Entertainment, Part II
Overview: Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
Genres: Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-05-16
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The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
Overview: This documentary revisits the making of Gone with the Wind via archival footage, screen tests, insightful interviews and rare film footage.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-10-01
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Glorious Technicolor
Overview: The history of color photography in motion pictures, in particular the Technicolor company's work.
Genres: Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-12-07
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Jornal Português (1938-1951)
Overview: The newsreel series Jornal Português (1938-1951) was produced for the Secretariat of National Propaganda (SPN/SNI) by the "Portuguese Newsreel Society" (SPAC), under the technical supervision of António Lopes Ribeiro. It was conceived and employed as part of the propaganda machinery of Salazar's regime. Screened in cinema theatres prior to the main feature film, each issue of Jornal had approximately ten minutes in length and covered a variety of official government acts, national political news, major sports events and other assorted social and cultural affairs. Jornal Português is not only an indispensable document for the history of Estado Novo's propaganda, but also an unparalleled audiovisual archive of 1940s Portugal.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: pt
Release Date: 2005-12-12
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The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful
Overview: A documentary reflecting on women in film and the entertainment industry through the ages led and hosted by some of its most beloved female icons.
Genres: Documentary History TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-03-17
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1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
Overview: This documentary focuses on 1939, considered to be Hollywood's greatest year, with film clips and insight into what made the year so special.
Genres: Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2009-07-02
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The Skin of Our Teeth
Overview: Production of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-winning play about mankind's triumph over chaos, which wildly altered dramatic conventions in freely shifting between modern-day New Jersey and the ice age. Meet George and Maggie Antrobus (married only 5,000 years); their two children, Gladys and Henry (perfect in every way!); and their maid, Sabina (the ageless vamp) as they overcome ice, flood, and war — by the skin of their teeth.
Genres: TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-01-01
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Vivien Leigh: Scarlett and Beyond
Overview: The life and career of two-time Oscar winner Vivien Leigh, who battled tuberculosis and manic-depression but always remained a star.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-10-22
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Vivien Leigh, autant en emporte le vent
Overview: In "Gone with the Wind" she was an unforgettable Scarlett O'Hara. Beauty, two-time Oscar winner, celebrated Hollywood star and great Shakespearean interpreter - Vivien Leigh was all that. Behind the celebrity, however, was a fragile person. Her bipolar disorder clouded her success and her private happiness.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2020-01-03
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Lee Marvin: A Personal Portrait by John Boorman
Overview: John Boorman met Lee Marvin in London when the latter was making The Dirty Dozen and immediately they struck up a friendship. Shortly afterwards they made two films together, the first of which was Point Blank, during which Boorman found that he learnt a lot about screen acting and how to direct from the contributions and support from Marvin. Later they worked together on Hell in the Pacific. With his friendship providing an insightful collection of memories of Marvin, Boorman leads this intimate documentary on the life of Lee Marvin.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-01-01
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The Extraordinary Seaman
Overview: Marooned sailors discover a World War II ship haunted by its late captain.
Genres: Adventure War Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-05-14
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