Life and loves of Vivien Leigh revealed

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception


She was the double Oscar winning actress who captivated audiences with her roles in Gone With the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire.
And fans of British actress Vivien Leigh were just as intrigued by her private life as her performances thanks to her tumultuous marriage to actor Laurence Olivier.
Now a century on from her birth, people can gain a rare insight into the life and loves of the legendary star thanks to a new display at London's V&A museum.

Hoarder: Vivien Leigh kept a diary from the age of 16 and thousands of her letters from friends

Stage presence: The collection contains rare photographs of, and taken by, the actress

The V&A have acquired the archive of the British film and theatre actress from her grandchildren.
It covers all aspects of her career and personal life including her diaries, begun as a 16-year-old in 1929 and maintained until she died in 1967, aged 53, from tuberculosis.

 

The archive explores the grand love affair between Leigh and and second husband Olivier, and contains more than 200 letters, telegrams, photographs, newspaper clippings and postcards between 1938 and 1967.
Leigh and Oliver were the golden couple of the Forties and Fifties during their 20 year marriage.

Golden couple: With her husband of 20 years Laurence Olivier

Love of her life: Leigh and Olivier were on and off screen lovers 

During April-June 1939, whilst Olivier was playing in No Time for Comedy on Broadway in New York and Leigh was shooting Gone with the Wind in L.A, a total of 40 letters were exchanged between the couple.
As well as expressing their affection for one another, their letters contained their theatrical observations and plans on the foundation of the National Theatre.
Leigh also corresponded with some of the most eminent names in 20th-century history including Winston Churchill, Graham Greene and Noël Coward.
She meticulously kept more than 7,500 personal letters from friends and colleagues addressed to both her and Laurence Olivier. The archive uncovers correspondence with T. S. Eliot, Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe, Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother - who offers her thanks to the couple for remembering her.

Oscar-winning performance: With Clark Gable in Gone With The Wind

High praise: The actress with Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. Playwright Tennessee Williams wrote to her to say she portrayed 'the Blanche I had always dreamed of'

Attention to detail: A letter from the archives reveals how the actress had agonised over getting the part right

Legend of the silver screen: Who was Vivien Leigh?

• Born Vivien Hartley 1913 in Darjeeling, India (British India at the time)
• She married barrister Leigh Holman in 1932 and took his first name as her surname
• She had a daughter, Suzanne, with Leigh
• She studied at RADA and had her big break in a West End stage performance in Mask Of Virtue in 1935
• She won Oscars for her roles in Gone With The Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire
• She married Laurence Oliver in 1940
• They had no children as she suffered miscarriages during their marriage
• They divorced in 1960
• She gained a reputation as being difficult to work with as she suffered from bipolar
• She died of tuberculosis in 1967

Professional correspondence includes many letters from playwright Tennessee Williams. One addressed to Leigh in September 1950 enthuses about her role of Blanche DuBois (for which she won an Oscar).
He wrote: 'It is needless to repeat here my truly huge happiness over the picture and particularly your part in it. It is the Blanche I had always dreamed of and I am grateful to you for bringing it so beautifully to life on the screen.'
It's praise the actress must have been delighted to receive as another letter reveals how she wrote to film director Elia Kazan during preparation for the role worrying about getting it 'right'.
She wrote: 'You do know that when I said over the phone I'm worried about the way I'll look, 'I didn't mean good I meant right'.'
Before divorcing Olivier from in 1960, the couple entertained a wide circle of guests at Notley Abbey, the home in Buckinghamshire they created in 1943.
An impressive list of signatures ranging from Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Sir Alec Guinness to Bette Davis, Orson Welles, Judy Garland and Rex Harrison is recorded in their visitors' book which is part of the archive.
A changing selection of material from the archive will be on display in the V&A's Theatre and Performance Galleries this autumn.
As well as personal diaries and photographs, it will include Leigh's annotated film and theatre scripts, press clippings and her numerous awards.

Historic: A volume of press cuttings about Vivien Leigh's role in Gone With The Wind

Insight: Leigh kept a diary throughout her life and programmes from her stage productions

There are also photographs including albums of large format stills from Gone with the Wind and Romeo and Juliet that have never before been publicly displayed, and an extensive collection of stereoscopic transparencies taken by Leigh herself whilst on tour in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
Martin Roth, director of the V&A said: 'Vivien Leigh is undoubtedly one of the UK's greatest luminaries of stage and screen and along with Laurence Olivier, remains a true star of her time.
'We are thrilled to acquire her archive intact in this centenary year of her birth and to be able to make it available to the public for the first time. It not only represents Vivien Leigh's life and career, but is also a fascinating insight into the theatrical and social world that surrounded her.'

For more information visit www.vam.ac.uk