orig. Vivian Mary Hartley
born Nov. 5, 1913, Darjeeling, India
died July 8, 1967, London, Eng.
British actress.
She made her film debut in 1934 and her London stage debut in The Mask of Virtue (1935). After a well-publicized search she was chosen for the role of Scarlett in Gone with the Wind (1939, Academy Award), which brought her great fame. Noted for her delicate beauty, she later starred in Waterloo Bridge (1940), That Hamilton Woman (1941), Anna Karenina (1948), and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), for which she won an Academy Award for her portrayal of the tragically delusional Blanche DuBois. From 1940 to 1960 she was married to Laurence Olivier , with whom she appeared in a number of successful London stage productions. She starred in a 1963 Broadway musical adaptation of Tovarich , a disastrous production for which Leigh nonetheless won a Tony Award.