Vivien Leigh : A home-wrecking Cunt .... Vivien Leigh and Peter Finch

As Vivien presented it to Peter, it was an emergency situation and it was also an order. He was to read the script at once. He was to fly with her to Ceylon in a week’s time where they would begin shooting immediately.

Then, as an afterthought, she asked if he had any conflicting commitments. Peter’s mind was working almost as fast as Vivien’s. There was nothing he liked better than emergency situations to rise to. The Old Vic season in which he was playing Mercutio had ended three nights ago.

In less than an hour it was all settled, but Vivien stayed on talking with the Finches till dawn. Then she became hungry. To Tamara’s embarrassment there was nothing to eat.

'After complaining our flat was too stuffy, opening a few of our drawers to inspect their contents and commenting on our cheap curtain linings, Vivien suddenly announced she was leaving and wanted to walk to her home in Chelsea. It was 4 am, so Peter insisted on seeing her home. In flash they were gone, the world's most beautiful powerful screen actress and my husband', recalls Tamara

The last words spoken by Olivier to Peter at the airport before he and Vivien flew off together early in February for Ceylon were, “Take care of her.’’ Peter, knowing that Vivien had been very nervous about flying ever since 1946 when she was in a plane forced to crash-land in Connecticut, protectively put his arm around her and assured Olivier “Don’t worry, I will.”

One night von Kotze heard something about her that troubled him gravely. His assistant, George, arrived late in the hotel room they were sharing. He was shaking like a leaf. He was sixty-four, bald, a cockney and, says von Kotze, “utterly truthful’’. “He said,’’ remembered von Kotze, “that Vivien had stopped him in the passage of the hotel and tried to vamp him — that’s what he called it — ‘vamp’. He wasn’t pleased! He ran away from her.

Suddenly Sir Laurence Olivier arrived in Ceylon. It was hoped that his visit might relax and hearten Vivien but everyone could see that it was a strained time for them both. Olivier, feeling helpless, departed after a week.

Thank God! It's today's Vivian Leigh thread.

One night during Olivier’s stay, Peter and von Kotze, by now good friends, went for a walk. Peter had been silent for a long time yet there seemed to be something on his mind. He would stop occasionally as if he wished to say something and then, shaking his head, go on walking. All at once he turned to von Kotze and blurted out that his conscience was torturing him but that he was having an affair with Vivien.

He was well aware that he owed more to Larry than anyone in the world but ... For a moment Peter lapsed back into silence and a load of misery seemed to settle upon him. “But ...” he continued painfully, “I find Vivien totally fascinating .”

Nor could he ignore Vivien’s highly sophisticated attitude towards life. “I am an actress,” she once told a friend. “A great actress. Great actresses have lovers. Why not? I have a husband and I have lovers. Like Sarah Bernhardt.”

When Peter noticed Vivien behaving oddly, he would try to question her about it but she always evaded him by replying that she was perfectly well, that it was simply the heat and the humid climate and her difficulties in getting sleep that were distressing her. He knew that after a spell of tuberculosis during the war years she had subsequently been subject to occasional flare-ups, but when he suggested she see a doctor she categorically refused.

Her odd behaviour accelerated when Olivier left and finally, one day, when she followed Peter around the set calling him “Larry”, it was apparent to everyone in the company that she was hallucinating and that there was something very wrong with her that was not due just to exhaustion.

By now her condition was so bad that she was no longer able to work and it was decided to get her off the island as quickly as possible. Since no one in the company had the slightest idea what had come over Vivien or how to treat it, it was agreed to fly her to Hollywood where presumably with a few weeks’ rest

When the plane took off, Vivien suddenly unfastened her safety belt and stood up rigid — exactly as she had done seven years before when the plane she had been in crashed in 1946. She began screaming that the wing was on fire — as it had been then. Peter, the steward and the air hostess all tried to calm her but, strong in her panic, she threw them off. She became hysterical. She flew at her window like a trapped bird, beating on it with her fists, fighting to get out.

Then she tore at the neckline of her dress, ripping it down the middle. She scratched and clawed at everyone trying to restrain her. Finally they managed to sedate her.

Vivien’s behaviour upset all the passengers but it had its deepest and most lasting effect on Peter, who was at her side yet powerless to control her. During the remainder of the long, seemingly endless flight, as the sedation wore off and her panic rose and burst into hysteria again and again, Peter contracted her disease of fright. Henceforth, he was never to fly unless there was absolutely no way of avoiding it.

What was really the matter with Vivien? Peter didn’t have the least idea, even by the time they finally landed in Los Angeles. Nor did Tamara when she arrived with Anita soon after.

One day, while the film company was still in Ceylon, Olive Harding, Peter’s agent, had telephoned Tamara and, out of the blue it seemed, insisted that she go to Hollywood to join Peter when he arrived there. Moreover, said Olive, it was essential that Tamara take Anita as well.

Tamara and Anita travelled by way of the Queen Elizabeth, second class, and a very delayed, very slow flight from New York to Los Angeles.

At a quarter to seven in the evening, a tired, grubby Tamara and her crumpled child emerged from the car to be greeted joyfully by Vivien in a sari of scarlet and gold. Vivien told them that Peter was still working at the studio. She explained that the house was divided in half, that one side was her apartment and the other the Finches’.

Then she said to Tamara: “You have got to get yourself into a sari immediately. I’ve laid one out for you and I’ll come up with you to show you how to drape it.”

“I know how to drape a sari,” said Tamara. “We used to do it in ballet. But why?”

Vivien said, “Because at seven-thirty, seventy people are coming. I’m giving a party for you.”

Tamara hurried upstairs to get settled in her quarters. In Anita’s room, she opened the door of the closet and was overcome by the sight of twenty little children’s dresses hanging neatly in rows. They were presents from Vivien.

The next hours were fairly traumatic for Tamara. Dressed in her sari, she came downstairs to be met by a distraught Vivien who said she was feeling too ill and too unhappy to attend the party and was going to bed. And so Tamara, on her first night in Hollywood, found herself entertaining seventy people — such as the David Nivens, the Stewart Grangers, George Cukor— all complete strangers to her.

The party ended almost abruptly as it had started when Vivien suddenly appeared on the stairs in a terrible state. She was screaming, crying and sobbing because , she told Peter , she couldn't contact Larry on the phone in Italy where he was working. Various friends tried to calm her down, but she was hysterical.

She eventually had to be carried to her room by Peter and David Niven.

'Is she mad" Tamara asked Peter later as calm finally prevailed. "No, she's just strained, lonely and worried not hearing from Larry" Peter replied , "But this is not normal behavior' Tamara continued

"You don't understand, she's close to nervous breakdown' Peter explained " Please, look after her and help her. She's so glad you're here. She bought all Anita's clothes and arranged the party for you"

Anita recalls "Having been apart for so ling, Peter and I made passionate love that night, then settled limbs entwined, for the night, i felt loved and secure"

"But just as i was about to drop off, our bedroom door flew open and demented ooking Vivien Leigh, her robe thrown open to display her naked body rushed to our bed"

'Screaming obscenities, she tore off the bedclothes, When she released we were naked, she collapsed at the foot of the bed, shouting at Peter "you haven't told her, you haven't told her! How could you be sleeping with her , you monster, you're my lover"

'Peter, who had grabbed a robe, was shaking with anger, Peter tried to get Vivien to her feet but she was clinging to his legs. When he finally got her to stand up, she clung to his head and tried to kiss him. He pinned her against the wall and shouted " We agreed to keep Larry and tamara out of this last night. We agreed to keep it a secret, not to hurt anyone and finish it all"

"Vivien sobbed and swore and screamed she couldn't bear to see him so happy with me, that he should tell me our marriage was over. Eventually Peter dragged Vivien to her room"

"I lay awake all night, then as the sun was rising, i heard a light knock on the door. It was Vivien, asking me to go to her room where she explained it wasn't Peter she loved, it was Larry , who she felt was slipping away from her. She was jealous of what Peter and I had. She said she never meant to hurt me"

Her complicated explanations made me want to shout, that she had played with my husband,what did i care if Larry had become indifferent to her?"

"Within five minutes, Peter had washed and dressed and slipped away to the studio with a cheery goodbye, saying to me "look after her, will you? see you tonight" as if nothing had happened and all could be forgotten now he mad his choice clear to us both that he would stand by me'

I envied Vivien the power her vulnerability gave her, to be a helpless woman whom protects and looks after. Yet there i was deeply wounded, with a child to look after, tired, terrified my marriage was on the rocks, lonely, losing my confidence and it was somehow expected that i would cope."

The next day i went shopping for a new glamorous wardrobe and had my hair cut short the way actress Ava Gardner wore hers. I had decided to stay in Hollywood and assert my rights as a wife, and above all trying desperately to compete with the glamorous, cunning, skillful, charming, devastating Vivien Leigh.

Eventually, Peter put me out of my misery explaining how the affair had begun. He told me Vivien started it by coming into his bed when they were filming in Ceylon" “In the English theatrical world,” Peter had once told Tamara, “from time to time people have light affairs. And if it happens to me and we’re civilized and sophisticated and talk it over, it’s no more than a passing phase.”

I wanted to believe him and wanted to save our marriage so i tried to put the affair behind us.

We continued to live in the same compound as Vivien but her moods became increasingly unpredictable and made life hell. Peter took refuge in drink staying out until the early hours and i was left to cope with the pain of trying to deal with the aftermath of the affair and Vivien's erratic behaviour .

She was diagnosed a manic depressive and a nurse was employed to stop her from hurting herself and others. One day, she tried to attack me with a knife. She cut up all my clothes when i was out and attempted to throw herself from the window. On another occasion, she took overdose and tried to drown herself.

But she was not just a victim worthy of some pity. She could be incredibly cruel too. She laughed at my appearance, the length of my nose and told me that though Peter was mine for now, she would get him in the end.

But she was not just a victim worthy of some pity. She could be incredibly cruel too. She laughed at my appearance, the length of my nose and told me that though Peter was mine for now, she would get him in the end.

'Once i left for London, I was tortured by Vivien's comments about my looks, I underwent cosmetic surgery to make my nose smaller."

Back in Hollywood, For ten fearful days Tamara tried to calm Vivien, to attend to her wishes and accede to her demands. And still neither Peter nor Tamara fully understood what was the matter with her though Tamara noticed that one or two of Vivien’s friends who dropped by to visit either knew something they were not going to talk about or had witnessed her in this state before.

Tamara felt some sort of invisible protective circle around Vivien that she could not permeate. Finally Sylvia Fine, Danny Kaye’s wife and an old friend of the Oliviers, took Tamara aside. She explained about Vivien’s illness clearly and knowledgeably. She also gave Tamara a book on psychiatric diseases to supplement their discussion. Tamara, reading about the case-book symptoms of manic depression was astonished to find how exactly they fitted Vivien’s symptoms.

Now at last she understood why Olive Harding had insisted she journey out to Hollywood with their daughter — to look after Peter, to protect Peter and to save their marriage.

On the eleventh day she was due back at the studio. She assured the Finches that she felt fine and she and Peter were driven off to work. Vivien collapsed on the set and was taken to her dressing- room where she became even worse.

Peter came in to see if he could help but she rounded on him calling him “Larry” and then, in one of her frighteningly mercurial transformations she became Blanche du Bois yelling “Get out of here quick before I start screaming fire! ”

Her friend David Niven was sent for and he drove her back to the house.

Shortly afterwards Olivier, travelling from Ischia via London, arrived with his friend and manager Cecil Tennant. He soon heard from Vivien herself of her affair with Peter and understandably exhibited a certain chill towards him. Not so understandably he held him responsible for Vivien’s breakdown.

In the ensuing drama Tamara stood apart, upset and forgotten until Cecil Tennant, whom she had hitherto regarded as cold and reserved, devoted himself to her and became her comfort and support. Once she was startled to see tears in his eyes as she confided in him.

In due course the Oliviers and Cecil Tennant flew back to England. Vivien went into a hospital for nervous diseases in Surrey for three weeks and afterwards returned home to Notley Abbey.

Smoothly the twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth Taylor slipped into Vivien’s role in Elephant Walk.

With Vivien’s departure, the earthquake she had caused in the lives of the Finches seemed to subside. On the surface all was tranquil, yet Tamara was anxious to discover if Peter was still experiencing any tremors from the recent explosion. Several times she tried to bring up the subject of him and Vivien but with the same results as before. Eventually she gave up trying.

It was now six months since Vivien's breakdown and she was preparing to star in The Sleeping Prince play , An invitation came for us to attend the premiere.

Peter said it would be bad form not to go, He assured me that everything was in the past, forgotten and forgiven but his hand shook in mine as we entered Vivien's dressing room.

The room was crowded with friends and bursting with flowers and goodwill telegrams. Vivien, putting her hands on my shoulder addressed the crowd in a loud voice " I want you all to meet the most courageous girl i know, She had just done operation on her nose to try to look more glamorous ' her friends were embarrassed and when Peter hugged me, Vivien was upset."

Peter kissed Vivien in quick congratulations and rushed off to visit the rest of the cast. Tamara and Vivien, alone again as they had been in Hollywood, looked at each other.

What Tamara saw was a completely normal and extremely beautiful lady. What Vivien saw, she put into words., looking her straight in the eye, “I feel very sorry for you.”

If Vivien had happened to Peter, Peter had also happened to Vivien. But Vivien was of a different philosophic cast from Peter. In brief, if she wanted something to happen, she made it happen.

Much later Tamara was to say, “I couldn’t fight Vivien. It would have been like trying to fight the Queen of England.”

I can't help it, I still feel pity for Vivien Leigh. Modern medications could probably have saved her, but alas. At least they didn't lobotomize her, like poor Frances Farmer.

But the next day she telephoned to invite us both to Notley Abbey. Peter insisted we went as not to offend Sir Laurence, Vivien shone as hostess and it was hard to believe she had ever been ill.

However, it wasn't long before Vivien opened fire and began waging all-out war for Peter. Telephone calls from Vivien to Peter began to happen with increasing frequency at the Finches’ flat. If Tamara answered and Peter was not in, boldly but sweetly Vivien would leave a message.

The Olivier car and chauffeur began appearing outside Dolphin Square waiting to bear Peter off for weekends at Notley Abbey where, apparently, he was persona grata again.

Once or twice, late at night in their flat, the Finches would awaken to the sound of the door bell ringing. And ringing. “Don’t answer,” Peter would say. “It’s Vivien.” “She’ll wake up Anita,” Tamara would worry. “Go back to sleep,” he would reply. They would hear Vivien shouting for Peter for a while. Then silence.

Peter was drinking again. Heavily. Every quarrel Peter and Tamara had over Vivien ended in the same way. Peter stormed out of the door — vanished. Sometimes he stayed away for a night, sometimes for two nights, sometimes for two weeks.

Even if lithium or another mood stabilizing drug had been available to Vivien, there is still the issue of compliance.

Vivien did undergo electroconvulsive treatment which Olivier suggested altered her personality to such an extent that he no longer recognized her as the woman he once knew and loved.

Like life, Vivien Leigh had happened to him and he could not make her unhappen. Nor did he want to. It was fruitless to hope to change what was unchangeable .The passion, the excitement that he and Vivien had shared during their brief intimacy had badly shaken him, had unleashed his old wildness and desires.

“After you’ve been to bed with Vivien,’’ he was to say recklessly to Bridget Boland much later, “nothing else matters.’’

‘If ever there was a flawed masterpiece it was Vivien,’^ Peter Finch told Trader Faulkner.

Maxine Audley knew Finch:Peter was kind of helpless — putty in her hands. He would do anything she wanted. If she rang him up he would drop everything and go to her. But he was a fairly weak character — an angel, a darling man, no evil in him — but he was content to just love life and eating and drinking and sleeping with lovely ladies. She could do anything with him.'

Finch maintained that the affair only began in Ceylon, and Trader Faulkner has said that Vivien was ‘the greatest influence’ in his life, that when the situation became really grave he threatened suicide in order to ‘blot out the whole bloody business once and for all’,"^ and that after Vivien his life began to spiral downwards.

More and more Peter was staying at his mother’s house in Bury Walk in Chelsea. He slept on the sofa. Vivien and his mother had become friends and confidantes so she and Peter could meet there. By now Vivien and Peter’s romance had become almost the sole topic of gossip and speculation in the theatrical profession.

Everyone had their own theories, beliefs and opinions. “Everyone was saying ‘Poor Larry’ or ‘Poor Vivien’ — or even ‘Poor Peter’ — but no one was saying poor me,’’ Tamara recalled wryly.

But though the acting profession never stopped talking about Vivien and Peter, incredibly the Press never started. It was the best kept romantic secret in England since Edward and Mrs Simpson. Was it because of the respect the Press felt for the Oliviers, the Golden Couple? It seems doubtful.

The Vivien-Peter romance was played out at Notley and Stratford always under Olivier’s nose.

“More or less removed from the events of ordinary life”, the lovers were never removed from the God-like presence of Olivier. The best you could say about them was probably the worst you could say about them; they did nothing behind Olivier’s back. It was never a case of the mice playing while the cat was away. The cat watched

She was vile, I feel worse for her victims than I do her. Leigh strikes me as a malignant narcissist masquerading as a helpless wounded bird. I think she also was a borderline, and those types do a huge amount of damage to those around them, all while playing the helpless victim.

Vivien was a cunt. End of story.

She sucked everyone into her drama.

Vivien's Bipolar disorder was not an excuse for her cuntty cruel actions. Period

I've never understood straight men's fascination with "hot and crazy " women, though I don't know how much of this is a stereotype.In every photo I have seen of Vivien she has cruel,narrowed eyes. I guarantee you that there were actress /model types of that time who were just as beautiful as Vivien, if not more so, who didn't have half as much baggage. Why weigh yourself down with a hate filled and psychotic drama queen?

Evidently there is some confusion about her maternal ancestry. I read on Wikipedia that she was either of Irish and Armenian or Indian ancestry on one side. But it's not clear which. Odd.

R21, one of the symptoms of mania is hypersexuality. While Olivier evidently could not or would not cope with the sexual demands Vivien made upon him, other men were happy to take his place, craziness be damned.

And the Stratford company watched too. And the weekend guests at Notley Abbey. These watchers of the “triangle” in fact became slightly dizzy trying to work out the equation.

First: what did Olivier feel about all this? From his behaviour, it looked as though he did not care — as though he scarcely noticed Vivien and Peter together. Had the actor taken over the man? Or was he temporarily putting first things first to do on stage what Kenneth Tynan was to call “shaking hands with greatness”, that glorious Stratford season? Or, as an actor-manager, was it his main concern also to see that everyone else in the company gave of their best and if Peter made Vivien happy, got her to rehearsals, got her through performances, he would make the best of it? He was not pleased, he was not complaisant. All he could do was to try to contain the scandal; to keep it in the family.

And what about Vivien? Some said what she wanted was Olivier and Peter; that she was trying to have the best of both worlds. Yet, divided in her affections, and torn within by simultaneously opposing forces, she often became ill again.

Peter was cast as the snake in the Garden of Eden. Perhaps he was miscast. For however often the spectators witnessed Vivien going from difficult to arbitrary and then into an attack , they never stopped to wonder how much more harrowing it might be for Peter at much closer quarters.

Life with Vivien at that point could be harrowing but Peter stayed close to her. To understand why, one must look into his past.

So all through the summer and autumn Vivien and Peter held hands at Notley Abbey and at Stratford. They walked around Stratford holding hands. They held hands at dinner parties. Together they cavorted on the grounds of Notley Abbey.

To onlookers, they seemed like two naughty children, misbehaving, teasing, tormenting, testing the benevolence of their Deity — The Great God Olivier — trying to see how far they could go before his patience was exhausted.

Hamish Hamilton remembered Olivier telling him ‘what it did to him to go into her dressing-room and see the photograph of that god-damned Finch on her dressing- table’.

During these Stratford months Finch had moved into Notley, where, during the week, he lived alone, contentedly recovering from an illness. To many it seemed that Vivien was conducting her affair with Finch right under Olivier’s nose. When Finch appeared at Stratford the other members of the cast dreaded being caught in the interplay between Vivien, Finch and Olivier.

With all his responsibilities it is not surprising that Olivier became tired. The situation was not helped when Vivien took to telephoning him at strategic intervals during his brief hours of rest between performances.

When the Stratford season was over, they even ran off together.It was Christmas time and they ran off to the South of France. Vivien’s hideaway was no secret from Olivier, who flew to Paris on 20 December and presently arrived with Ginette Spanier and Paul-Emile Seidmann for moral support.

The Seidmanns and Alan Webb tactfully retired to bed soon after dinner, leaving Olivier, Finch and Vivien to their discussions. However, late in the night, they heard raised voices and went down to investigate. Far from encountering an ugly scene, they saw Olivier and Finch tearing off their ties: ‘Dear boy, I forgot to get you a Christmas present. . Vivien was to be seen observing these exchanges, grinning as contentedly as a kitten.

On Christmas Eve, after eight days at the villa, Vivien, Olivier and the Seidmanns set off to San Vigilio.They stayed again in their favourite hotel, the lakeside Locanda, enjoying the more temperamental hospitality of Leonard Walsh.

Inevitably the question of Finch arose and the point was put to Vivien: ‘You cannot do this to him. He is Sir Laurence Olivier, our greatest actor.’ But Vivien was unmoved. Perhaps she thought of her mother and Tommy. The example she cited was an unfair one: ‘Why not? Diana always had two men.’

There was a considerable difference between Diana Cooper’s innocent literary friendship with Conrad Russell, and Vivien’s affair with Peter Finch.

But even that humiliation did not push him over the edge. He continued to bear with Vivien. Anthony Quayle said the season was nightmarish. Two weeks after their supper together, Coward met her again and she was worse. Gielgud saw Olivier and Vivien together at much the same time. Their two accounts together give a fair idea of the state of affairs. Coward is blunt, and Gielgud more perceptive.

Coward thought Olivier wonderful , and Vivien frankly not very good. "Vivien was in a vile temper and perfectly idiotic. Larry was bowed down with grief and despair and altogether it was a gloomy little visit. Personally I think that if Larry had turned sharply on Vivien years ago and given her a clip in the chops, he would have been spared a mint of trouble. The seat of all this misery is our old friend, feminine ego. She is, and has been, thoroughly spoiled. She also has a sharp tongue and a bad temper. This, coupled . . . with an inner certainty that she can never be as good an artist as Larry, however much she tries, has bubbled up in her and driven her on to the borderline. Fond as I am of her and sorry as I feel for her, I would like to give her a good belting, although now I fear it might push her over the edge and be far, far too late."

Gielgud, when he saw Vivien at that time said " offstage she is avid, malicious, and insatiable, a bad look out for the future and for poor Larry who is saint-like with her and playing most beautifully as well."

The Oliviers returned to Notley Abbey but by now, Sir Laurence had had enough. He brooded for a fortnight and then decided things could not be allowed to continue. Peter was summoned by royal command to the Abbey.

The stated purpose of the meeting was for all three of them to talk things over seriously and come to a clear understanding, and that Vivien was to choose between them. The discussion was to be conducted in a calm, quiet and — above all — dignified manner.

In the baronial dining hall at Notley Abbey, Olivier, Vivien and Peter sat down together to a resplendent dinner which they interlaced with fine vintage wines. Conversation was general and genial. When the meal was over, Olivier tossed his napkin on the table and said, “Let us now all retire to the library and thrash this thing out.”

Vivien rose. “This has nothing to do with me,” she announced pertly. “This is between you two. You must decide who is to have me.” And with that, she left.

So Peter and Olivier retired to the Abbey’s imposing book-lined library...At three a.m. the great double doors of the library were flung open. There in a nightdress stood Vivien,, threatening. “Well?“Which one of you is coming to bed with me?”

“And so that was how it ended — you and Vivien?” asked Bertie Whiting in Rome when Peter had finished his tale. “I suppose so ... Yes, ... I suppose so. Vivien stayed with Larry.”

For Tamara, however, this was not a marvellous time. Their meetings became more and more rare and more and more unsatisfactory until Tamara reached a painful decision. She had always loved him and always would; she could never forget their past happiness; he was the love of her life; but she knew from the way he was behaving, roaring around town, completely neglecting her and Anita, financially as well as in every other way, that by constantly evading her he was forcing her hand. She would ask him for a divorce or a separation.

Only she had to find him first to tell him. Whenever she rang his mother’s house and spoke to either his mother or to Flavia, they were vague. He was out. He was lunching with this one, he had a meeting with that one, they didn’t know when he’d be back.

Finally she got her message across and Tamara and Peter met one morning in Bury Walk.

Peter told Tamara that his affair with Vivien had changed him, that he could not go back, that he was flowing away from his old life with Tamara ...

"Peter and I may have been just a passing drama in Vivien Leigh's life but we both paid a high price for her capricious affections" Tamara said

After Vivien's divorce from Olivier and living with actor Jack Merivale. Says Merivale, “The highest commendation Vivien bestowed upon people or things was that very English adjective ‘proper’. Looking at a custom-built Rolls she would say, ‘That’s a proper car.’ About Peter Finch she always said, ‘That’s a proper man.’ ”

Olivier privately blamed Finch ever after for Vivien's breakdown and was capable of cursing the man's name long after his death in 1977, "Fuck him, We used to fuck three times a day until Peter Finch came along. I'm glad he's dead.".

Interesting video, Peter Finch's first wife Tamara and their daughter Anita, Olivier's son Tarquin, friends of both Peter and Vivien confirming what was said in the book.

While Peter Finch was hardly hideous he was nowhere near the beauty Olivier was.

Vivian must have been blind as well as crazy.

The eternal question is " Why most men are attracted to crazy bitches?"

Peter Finch quotes on Vivien Leigh and Larry Olivier :

“I'm well aware that I owed more to Larry than anyone in the world”

“Is it my fault that Viv picked on me to cling to? I was just trying to act in Larry’s best interests. Would he rather have her fall into the clutches of some assistant cameraman?”

"I loved Vivien. But once she set her sights on you, you were a gonner, mate... her affection was lethal."

'Sex was a sickness with her. It was not only a powerful stimulant for her, but as addictive as any drug. I was a young man then, and it was like Christmas every day - but poor Larry. Poor Larry. She must have been killing him.'

The halo Vivien had received from GWTW made her shone like a diamond to everyone in that era. That she was of exceptional beauty and charisma also helped, of course. All these blind people to the nasty baggages she carried with her.

Peter Finch pictured with Vivien Leigh and Sir Laurence Olivier, 1948.

Peter Finch quotes on Vivien Leigh and Larry Olivier :

“I'm well aware that I owed more to Larry than anyone in the world”

“Is it my fault that Viv picked on me to cling to? I was just trying to act in Larry’s best interests. Would he rather have her fall into the clutches of some assistant cameraman?”

"I loved Vivien. But once she set her sights on you, you were a gonner, mate... her affection was lethal."

'Sex was a sickness with her. It was not only a powerful stimulant for her, but as addictive as any drug. I was a young man then, and it was like Christmas every day - but poor Larry. Poor Larry. She must have been killing him.'

I'm sorry - any single one of those quotes makes him sound like a twat. All of them together? "Now presenting! The world's smallest violin being played by a tiny little bitch!"

Viv and Peter running off together was the inspirations for the movie The VIPs. It adds a very nice layer of meaning to what is otherwise disregarded as just another Liz and Dick movie.

I've never seen her as the stunning beauty that so many do. Attractive yes, but not beautiful. Clearly there is something that I am not seeing.

The eternal question is " Why most men are attracted to crazy bitches?"

The same reason, one would assume, that most women are attracted to abusive assholes.

Peter Finch was quoted after Vivien death :

"I remember her most now — walking like an eager boy through temples in Ceylon — walking in the wind near Notley. I always see her hurrying through life. I miss the fact that she is not somewhere in London or Greece or New York, among her friends talking volumes - with those bright eyes always in laughter.

Vivien Leigh and Peter Finch watching a local fisherman repairing an outrigger canoe on Mount Lavinia Beach in Ceylon

R45 I agree, It's pretty much equivalent to "Why girls are attracted to Bad boys"

Peter Finch got more handsome as he got older

If Vivien was that much attracted to Peter Ficnh, tried to run away with him and that ridiculous stuff, I wonder why Vivien hadn't got together with Peter after her divorce/separation from Larry Olivier?! Instead she lived with Jack Merivale which was pretty much like a servant to her than a partner.

Probably the thrill was gone, after she snatched/stole Finch away from his wife.

R18 R19 Totally Agree

R55 By that time, I think Peter Finch had moved on, he married his 2nd wife, Yolande Turner in 1959. Although, I think if Vivien still wanted him on a whim or something, he would have gone to her running .

Peter Finch opinion on Marriage

From Vivien Leigh to Eletha Baret (Ficnh's third wife)

Peter Finch seems like a weak character.

Yeap

[quote]'Once i left for London, I was tortured by Vivien's comments about my looks, I underwent cosmetic surgery to make my nose smaller."

Getting plastic surgery because a jealous, mentally ill woman said something about your face is insane.

I saw Elephant Walk. Although in the sixties the overly tanned, kind of greasy, prematurely-made up Elizabeth Taylor had lost most of her charm, I love her to pieces in the fifties. Gorgeous, unpretentious (on camera), and tons of energy and humor. So in Elephant Walk there's this gorgeous young woman who is a lot of fun and marries Peter Finch; they move to ... India? and he's not sleeping with her or things get psychologically fraught. It just comes off stupid because Elizabeth Taylor in the movie is uncomplicated, sexy and funny, and what the hell is her husband's problem? Whereas if it were still Vivien in the role, the psychodrama might have made more sense. So the movie was absurd and just on personality alone Taylor was the only thing good about it.

Almost every star was greasy, prematurely-made up in the 60s. Remember poster child of elegance, Audrey Hepburn? This is her in that time period.

R62, in normal circumstances, yet, but Tamara did have a Maria Callas sized nose as well as something of thin lips, and the Vivien / Peter Finch affair was a huge, massive, fucked up deal. Women put up with so much shit then. I know second class on an ocean liner is nothing to sneeze at but if it were Peter he'd have been in first class. There's a whole bunch of stories from the classic era where the wife ends up tending to and sympathetic to the other woman in some way - I guess it's a way of claiming dignity and some sort of power, but it's sick stuff. I think Tamara gave up her career for Finch, and it was probably horrific to give up her own spotlight only to find she was the discarded little frau in favor of the glamorous movie star. She's a performer. She's insecure. What didn't matter in Europe (her nose) made her feel ungainly and unbeautiful in Hollywood, particularly as Vivien was older than both she and Peter, a tortured, impossible mess, yet able to "take" Tamara's husband.

I sometimes read about over the top shit in Hwood, such as a wife crossing the ocean and then flying into LA only to be confronted with a party featuring seventy strangers. I honestly believe there are a million wives who would say, "get the fuck out of there, there is no party and I'm going to bed." But the one who sucks it up and martyrs herself is the one who gets her story told.

11 September 2017

Tamara Tchinarova Finch , who has died aged 98, was one of the last surviving dancers of the historic Ballets Russes and married the film actor Peter Finch, whom she divorced after he began an affair with Vivien Leigh.

Dancing alongside the famous “baby ballerinas” when she was just 12, she was one of the group of Russian dancers who would found the Australian ballet after being stranded there by the outbreak of the Second World War.

Tamara Evsevyevna Rekemchuk was Bessarabian, born on July 18 1919 in an area that would be repossessed, first by Romania at the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and then by Soviet Ukraine in 1945.

Exile and political persecution were common to both sides of her family. Her...

R65 While reading this, I only wish if Tamara had kicked her husband and Vivien's asses and went to the likes of Hedda Hopper and spilled the dirt and embarrassed the hell out of Finch and Vivien.

Everybody around Vivien were giving her pass for every fucked up thing she did, Not because she was mentally ill, but because she was beautiful, charismatic and charming. Some people are like that, and people will accept any shitty things they do whether they were ill or not...

Vivien can still be seen in a number of long shots in "Elephant Walk."

Vivien Leigh's behavior can be explained easily: she was profoundly mentally ill. Amazing that such a beautiful, talented woman should be afflicted with such a curse. Fate can be so unkind.

Tamara Tchinarova ballet dancer whose life was turned upside down by Vivien Leigh

A casual conversation in Sydney between two actors, one famous, the other on the brink of fame, changed everything for the ballet dancer, Tamara Tchinarova.

Her life in Australia came to an end when Sir Laurence Olivier and his wife, Vivien Leigh, were on tour in Australia with the Old Vic. Invited to a performance of Moliere's play, The Imaginary Invalid, they saw Tchinarova's husband, Peter Finch, perform the lead role.

Olivier was impressed. He told Finch "If you ever come to London, look me up". Leigh was also excited, telling Tchinarova "you bring that clever husband of yours to London. You must promise".

There was no turning back. By November 1948 Finch and Tchinarova were in London. Finch was soon in demand on the stage and the screen and Tchinarova's years as a principal dancer with Australian ballet companies had ended. As she wrote in her memoir, Dancing Into the Unknown, she decided to be "completely involved in Peter's work".

Although her marriage to Finch ended in the late 1950s, she continued to call herself Tamara Tchinarova Finch until the end of her life.

Finch's career as an actor took flight in London and Hollywood but his affair with Vivien Leigh meant an end to his marriage to Tchinarova. Tchinarova discovered the affair when she travelled from London to Los Angeles to be with Finch who was filming in Hollywood with Leigh in the movie, Elephant Walk. When Tchinarova arrived she found Leigh was living in the same house as Finch and had organised a welcome dinner party for Tchinarova.

The party went horribly wrong. The 70 guests, mainly directors and actors, included Elia Kazan and the British actors, David Niven and Stewart Granger.

Leigh didn't join the party. She remained in her bed upstairs, trying, without success, to call her husband, Olivier, who was in Italy. She was sobbing so loudly she could be heard by the guests.

Finch ran up and down to her room to check on Leigh's condition until she made a melodramatic entry, running down the stairs in tears as she cried and called out Olivier's name.

Tchinarova and Finch separated in 1956 and were divorced in 1959.

Finch, who married two more times, died of a heart attack in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1977, a year after starring in the film, Network, known for the catchline "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore".

In the early 1960s Tchinarova began a career as an interpreter, first at a British Trade Fair in Moscow then for various dance companies, including the Australian Ballet when it toured to Russia.

R71 I don't think Vivien's jealousy, home-wrecking ways and cruelty were related to her Bipolar disorder, I think these traits were part of her personality.

R73, oh of course her behavior was affected by her mental illness. How could it not be?

I didn't realize this was Tamara Tchinarova; I just saw her in the documentary Ballet Russes a couple weeks ago. I don't believe she was interviewed but could be wrong on that.

Oh look, another thread pushing the narrative that Vivien was a monster - A MONSTER I TELL YOU!

Fuck Tamara Tchinarova Finch. Where's her blame that her husband Peter couldn't keep his dick out of Vivien?

I'll take Leigh over that balletic cunt any day.

GO VIVIEN!

[quote]“Is it my fault that Viv picked on me to cling to? I was just trying to act in Larry’s best interests. Would he rather have her fall into the clutches of some assistant cameraman?”

Insufferable.

Of course, a lot of the problem with all of these scenarios is that Leigh was part a group of self-satisfied artists and actors. They were all too far up their own asses to think of anything except themselves and their work and their little in-group, which is why they would say Vivien was just spoiled, or just needed to be slapped, or is completely evil yet still magnificent because she was THE Vivien Leigh.

No regular, everyday person would have been treated the way she was. Absolutely every one of them enabled her, because they were so concerned with her own artistic, libertine bona fides that they couldn't dare think that someone as splendid as THEIR Vivien Leigh would have something so common as a mental illness. No, it was all tragic melodrama.

Peter Finch: An adulterous asshole that treated his wife like dirt....Peter and Tamara

Fixed it for you OP.

“I've never seen her as the stunning beauty that so many do. Attractive yes, but not beautiful. Clearly there is something that I am not seeing.”

Totally agree, I don’t see her as a great beauty like Ava Gardner, I don’t think Leigh was very attractive.

Compared to Tamara, Vivien's a goddess.

And Ava Gardner couldn't act. But at least she had that MAGIC PUSSY!

Yeah, your right, Vivien's not very attractive.

Fuck Gardner. She stunk up every movie she was in.

^you're

Sooooo unattractive.....

Wasn't Finch's widow a Black-European woman?

That was Althea, a different wife.

^^^ oops. I meant African-European.

R84 Peter Finch married 3 times, Tamara was the first then a white south African woman and the third/last was a black Jamaican woman

Omigod, Peter Finch was a n#@$&r lover!

What would my racist lover Howard Hughes think?

So answering my own question, the Widow Finch is a Black woman.

R89: Ava had more than a drop of Black blood flowing through her veins. More than likely Hughes did as well.

R79 Yeah, Vivien was just too plain. How did she ever become a movie star?

R90 And a lot of KKK members have black blood in them too. Your point?

[quote]R5 then [inflight] she tore at the neckline of her dress, ripping it down the middle. She scratched and clawed at everyone trying to restrain her. Finally they managed to sedate her.

Well, I’d have liked to see THAT...I must say!

R92: irony exceeds your comprehension, apparently.

R91 she wasn't exactly plain, but not the great beauty she is often made out to be

In the early 1960s Finch had an affair with Shirley Bassey while she was married. She had a daughter and believes that Finch was her father. Her daughter died in what might have been a suicidal drowning.

Finch was an ass. And he got an Oscar because he died. Robert De Niro should have won for "Taxi Driver." His performance was a million times better.

R96 that is very interesting. I had no idea about Shirley's daughter.

[quote]Vivien Leigh : A home-wrecking Cunt

I hate people who do that

r99

Agreed

David Niven wrote of a breakdown suffered by Leigh in one of his autobiographies. It was a harrowing experience and even though he didn't mention her by name, it came out later that it was Vivien in the midst of an episode. When I first read the book, I came to the conclusion that it might be Judy Garland he was writing about because the descriptions of the antics taking place seemed to fit Judy more than anyone else I heard was a mental case.

To be fair, a lot of what Niven wrote came under some skeptical scrutiny long after the book was published. Niven was found to stretch the truth concerning a lot of his memories.

R101, the scene with Vivien that Niven describes is really harrowing. There are other accounts of the same incident (I believe Stewart Granger also tried to intervene) so I believe Niven on this one.

R101 I always felt far more sympathy for Judy Garland than I did Vivien. Judy seemed troubled and deeply vulnerable , and abandoned by everyone when she most needed them. Vivien,on the other hand, comes across as a malicious, mean spirited and entitled brat who was relentlessly indulged until she became a monster.

He was sexy in THE NUN’S STORY, believable to tempt Audrey from religious life.

R91 oh you WERE being ironic, I thought you were just being a cunt because I dragged Ava. It's so hard to tell on DL. It's hard to know tone and inflection.

Back to what's important - Ava was beautiful, Vivien was ethereal. I wish Vivien had made more films. Ava probably should have made less.

But then it's hard to compete with the woman who played both Scarlett O'Hara and Blanche DuBois. Her Blanche is even creepier when you pretend that's what happened to Scarlett after Rhett left her. Scarlett had to go live with Carreen and her abusive husband - Suellen being an old maid of course.

Also The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone is jolting and effective because it's basically a Vivien playing her self. An aging beauty that has to pay for love.

R103 Interesting, I had the opposite take. Reading a couple of Vivien's bios, she came off has having good intentions but the madness would derail her.

I read Heartbreaker by John Meyer (brilliant book) about a year period in Garland's life right before she married that last one, and she seemed cruel and uncaring about people's feelings.

But I love them both. Well adjusted people don't become super legends.

Judy wasn't so bad much of the time, and could be quite loyal and caring for long stretches of time before having meltdowns of various types. It made her a less than ideal mother, but not necessarily a terrible coworker or friend.

The problems would come when her illnesses clashed with people who were too intense (Glenn Ford, for example, who burned himself out trying to save her 24/7 even when she was having good days) or people without sympathy (Peter Lawford, Mel Torme) who tormented her because "she was just spoiled."

Vivien Leigh doesn't seem to have had many good moments in her life once she became ill, which I think is the big difference between her and Judy. I suspect she was also a hell of a lot scarier than Judy ever was, too.

While her illness was at its nadir during the 1940s and 50s Vivien suffered symptoms that were cause for concern as far back as the production of GWTW but unfortunately people around her didn't necessarily know what to make of this. Leigh had a secretary/assistant on that film who was also employed as her keeper. She found Vivien when Vivien overdosed on sleeping pills.

It's possible that such behavior was viewed at the time as evidence of someone who was moody and high-strung rather than indicative of a serious psychological disorder, and as previous posters have said it seems like Vivien got a pass because of her beauty and charisma.

R107 I thought that Judy and Glenn fords relationship only lasted for 5 months

R103 Agree, I have more sympathy for Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe... they were vulnerable , mentally distressed but with No malice in them. However, Vivien Leigh always seemed selfish, jealous, malicious even during her Normal periods and people around her didn't care because of her enormous charisma, beauty and charming magnetism, they accepted anything from her and went out of their way to protect and forgive her.

She made "Gone With the Wind," "Streetcar," and "That Hamilton Woman." She won two Oscars. So let's just shut up about her a good long while.

R111 Yeah, Vivien mad these movies and won 2 Oscars, But Still she was a home-wrecking cunt.

R96 True

Bassey's first marriage was to Kenneth Hume in 1961. The couple separated in 1964 and divorced in 1965 in the wake of the singer's affair with actor Peter Finch. Bassey then announced to the press that she and Finch would not be marrying, telling the press: "It simply wouldn't work out. Just now I am not ready for marriage to anyone. I feel I have to be free."

A year later, Hume sued the actor and another man, John McAuliffe, for being "indiscreet" with the singer. Both Finch and McAuliffe were cited as co-respondents in the Hume–Bassey divorce.For her part, Bassey was named as co-respondent in 1965 when Finch's wife, South African actress Yolande Turner, divorced the actor

Bassey's first husband suggested that Samantha, born during the couple's marriage, was the result of an affair between Bassey and Peter Finch. In 1965, according to an article in Jet, "There is a big dispute in London over who is the father of tempestuous singer Shirley Bassey's baby. Although one-time boyfriend Australian actor Peter Finch agreed that the child may not belong to Shirley's divorced husband, Kenneth Hume, Finch insists she does not belong to him ... "

In 1985, Samantha, age 21, was found dead in the River Avon in Bristol, England. Bassey has always maintained that the death of her daughter was not a suicide.[3] On 24 March 2010, Avon and Somerset Police confirmed they were undertaking fresh inquiries into the death, and specifically claims that the convicted killer Michael Moffat was involved in her death.[86] However, in October 2010 it was reported that the investigation came to an end and concluded that there "is no evidence of any criminal act involved" in Novak's death.[87]

In a 2009 interview, Bassey stated that she and her son, Mark, had reconciled.[3] Bassey has four grandsons through her surviving daughter, Sharon Novak.[88] Bassey resides in Monaco.[89]

It did, r109. I'm not sure why you think I said otherwise.

R113 That Shirley Bassey was a strange kettle of fish

R113 Shirley Bassey dumped Peter Finch after he became obsessed with her and wanted marriage, She said "i ran away and hid from him and it hurt him badly'"....He went nuts for a while after that and his drinking spiraled out of control until he got hepatitis so he slowed down his drinking.

His relationship with Shirley Bassey initiated his jungle fever, he only wanted to date black women after that. He said black women were frightfully relaxing while white women were all wound up.

Shirley Bassey with Peter Finch at London Airport, England

[quote] He said black women were frightfully relaxing while white women were all wound up.

I wonder what Peter would have made of the 21st century.

R118 LMAO, Peter probably would have liked it, He loved his 3rd wife so much because he said she was so primitive and loud. He had a black girlfriend that punched him in the eye during one fight and he liked it.

R119 did he and his third wife have any children?

R119 Yes, one daughter named Diana, It was said he was so excited when he had her (despite having 3 kids already from previous marriages) because he now has Black Finch.

He also adopted Eletha's son from previous relationship

Peter with his 3rd wife Eletha and her son whom Peter adopted.

R121 that's a very cute photo

It was said that on some occasions the guests at Notley Abbey would hear Vivien and Peter Finch fucking upstairs (apparently Vivien was a screamer), while the party was going on and Larry and his guests trying their best pretending not to hear what was going on upstairs. It was very odd situation.

"I always felt far more sympathy for Judy Garland than I did Vivien."

Then you don't know much about Judy Garland. She was a monster who sucked the life out of people, a hopeless drug addict who blamed everybody else (her mother, Louis B. Mayer, MGM, Sid Luft) for her her troubles. Vivien Leigh never behaved as badly as Judy Garland.

R125 " Vivien Leigh never behaved as badly as Judy Garland."

R125 I disagree. Judy Garland had legitimate reasons to feel angry, Vivian had none. Half of Leighs problems were due to the fact that people continued to spoil and enable her, no matter how heinous and sociopathic her behavior was. Yes, Judy had her problems but she could still project warmth. Vivien was shrill and malicious.

R127 Agree, I always got a cold entitled vibe from Vivien Leigh which made it hard for me to sympathize with her.

Roger Furse's quote on Vivien Leigh :

" I don't suppose up to the sad breakup with Larry, She had ever had a serious "No" said to her since she was born"

R129 Very revealing statement ... I think she was really miserable after Larry finally having enough and leaving her for good, I think it was unthinkable to her that he would leave her someday, I believe it humbled her in some way.

I mean, having someone saying big "NO" to her, after all these years of being spoiled and indulged in everyway, that must have shaken her.

"Judy Garland had legitimate reasons to feel angry, "

Like what? Do you buy into her twisted idea that nothing was ever her fault? Judy Garland liked to present herself as this poor, abused person but she wasn't. She, in fact, very spoiled and catered to, having become a major star at the age of 16. She was NOT like the sweet, vulnerable characters she played onscreen; in real life she was willful and stubborn and determined to have her own way. Towards the end of her life most people had distanced themselves from her, not wanted to deal with her insane self absorption. Vivien Leigh had her problems but was nowhere near as monstrous as Judy Garland.

R131 I agree

Vivien’s former co-star and lover, Peter Finch remembers the parties at Notley in Gwen Robyns’ Light of a Star:

An attitude circulated that these weekend parties were in some way exclusive gatherings of a small and somewhat superior theatrical clique. It was never like that.

I think Larry would have appreciated their being on their own a little more. But Vivien was one of those people who must have people around her. They were not wild parties nor in any way particularly unusual–Larry, I remember, spent his time enjoying his hobby of tree pruning. I spent one glorious afternoon employed on nothing more glamourous that cleaning out a stretch of clogged up river. "

Peter Finch staring at a picture of Larry Olivier in Antigone (1949)

R135 Peter was so fascinated that he fucked Larry's wife !!

R90, is that why Lena Horne was in love with her?

Vivien Leigh never got over Olivier leaving her. But he was running for his life. He said later that it like trying to save a drowning person who was clutching and flailing and pulling you down with them; you had to let go to save yourself. I think Arthur Miller said something similar about Marilyn Monroe. He too left his severely mentally ill wife to save himself.

R138 "Vivien Leigh never got over Olivier leaving her"

It was probably the Only time in her life to Not get her way.

Miss. Leigh regrets, she's unable to lunch today-

I like these VL is a home - wrecking cunt threads because I have never read these up close and personal descriptions of her. The closest was in the David Niven book. Most of VL's biographers side track this and attribute it to her "spells of bad behavior".

And like R138 recounts Olivier only addressed her mental illness and that he had to get out to survive.

I imagine the reason she was so successful in her seductions was because she was so aggressive and direct. A lot of straight guys are relieved to not have to be the aggressor.

As to why Finch played along was that he saw it as a career move. It seems that is the way he described it to his wife.

She probably was deeply hurt by Olivier's defection. Which is why she chose a lap dog like Merivale to hook up with. While he seems like a lovely person he could use the career boost and would never leave her.

R141 I don't think Peter Finch saw his affair with Vivien as a career move, he really loved her, as some friend said, he was helpless, putty in her hands, doing whatever Vivien wanted. His 2nd wife Yolande Turner, said that Vivien was his greatest passion and almost the death of him.

Why do you think Vivien didn't hook up with Finch after the separation from Olivier?! after all, they had a history together.

R21 - plenty of people *could* resist Vivien, David Niven being one, apparently, even though he was the world's biggest whore. The people she couldn't affect don't get publicity. It's the people who get sucked in that we hear about, and the tendency is to say she's powerful or irresistible, when the truth is the relationship says more about her victim than it does about her.

There were way too many wives like Tamara at that time. They'd be in a power marriage or part of a power couple, along comes another woman and the wife just befriends the other woman, cooperates, doesn't draw any lines, goes along with what the husband wants, etc. That's the down side. I'm sure it was a big ego thing to be the wife of a big shot, but so many of these women who come off as self-assured, great hostesses, etc., just fall apart when their husband strays and don't seem to have any power over the situation. They refuse to walk.

Vivien's parents sent her way to a convent school when she was barely past being a toddler. That had to have affected her self esteem.

R143 interesting that David Niven turned her down. I wonder if he sensed that she wasn't worth the trouble..

R145

Vivien wanted a Man!

She didn't want an ineffectual, epicene weed like Niven

R146 lMAO

R143 "I'm sure it was a big ego thing to be the wife of a big shot"

Peter Finch wasn't a big shot by any means, at that time, he was talented and charismatic but not some hot superstar or something. Finch/Tamara were Not a power couple at all. His success (at least in Europe) didn't take off until a movie called A Town like Alice in 1956, when he was separated from Tamara.

Also Tamara had known Peter since he was just an Australian bum really in 1941 , stood by him and married him when he was struggling, So her reasons to go along with her husband/Vivien ridiculous humiliating affair had nothing to do with ego thing or being part of power couple, I think she was just like many other women especially at that time who wanted to save her marriage and keep her man at any price.

R144, Maureen O'Sullivan (Mia Farrow's mother) was at the same convent school. While she was a bit daffy and I think drank more than a little in her later years, she was not the spoiled flying asshole Vivian became. She was voted second most prettiest, or something like that, with Vivien first.

Olivia deHavilland, who never became a mother herself, was startled when Leigh described the process of having a baby "humiliating."

There are a lot of beautiful women. I think one of the things that got Vivian what she wanted was beauty plus nerve. A lot of people don't have the nerve to resist someone else's nerve, if that makes sense. There are a lot of people who want to be taken charge of and have their lives defined and directed. Even successful people. Vivien found those types and used them.

From Sir Larry : The Life of Laurence Olivier book :

A member of the Streetcar cast relates, "Pete had become a great pal of Larry's. One of the reasons Larry liked him so was because Pete didn't play the sycophant. I mean, Pete knew that Larry was responsible for his sudden success, but he didn't go around licking Larry's feet in gratitude"

In a way he was much more independent and brash than Larry, and Larry admired that in him. And what Pete admired about Larry was his style and authority. Anyway, Pete became part of Larry's inner circle. He was almost like a younger brother—Larry trusted him because he was always so direct in his dealings with everyone.

"Well, Vivien became jealous of their relationship, and she got it into her head that she had to destroy it. How was she going to do this? She decided to work her sexual charms on Pete and then let Larry know that his friend had betrayed him. Pete had become quite a blade around London. Larry knew that he was in and out of a dozen beds, and that he had no scruples about who he slept with."

Vivien left for Ceylon late in January 1953, accompanied by Finch. He would later say to me, in defending himself against accusations that he had betrayed his benefactor Olivier, "Listen, Larry should never have let Viv go in the first place. He did it because he needed the money and Viv was getting a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Is it my fault Viv picked on me to cling to? I was just trying to act in Larry's best interests. I told him that. Would he rather have her fall into the clutches of some grip or assistant cameraman? I did what I did to save Larry from embarrassment. Viv too."

At the end of February, Olivier received an urgent call from producer Asher in Ceylon: Vivien had cracked up, what should he do? Olivier caught the first available plane and arrived in Ceylon to find Vivien perfectly normal: the crisis had passed. Although troubled to learn that she had been sharing her hotel suite with Finch, he accepted Finch's explanation that he had merely moved in to protect Vivien from hurting herself, and that nothing amorous had gone on between them. "Shit," Finch said to Olivier, "she calls me 'Larry' half the time."

Olivier returned to London after five days in Ceylon. A week later the Elephant Walk company flew to Los Angeles to continue production at the Warner Brothers studio. In April, while Olivier was on a working holiday in Ischia, planning a new stage production as part of the coming summer's coronation celebrations,* he received another emergency call.

this one from his friend Danny Kaye in Los Angeles. Vivien had suffered a violent breakdown, Kaye told him. She had been put to bed, heavily sedated, on a psychiatrist's orders. The doctor wanted to put her into a psychiatric hospital, but he needed Olivier's permission since Vivien was totally irrational. Olivier refused permission. He asked Kaye to "hold the fort" until he could get there.

It took him three days to travel to Los Angeles. When he arrived, accompanied by his friend and agent Cecil Tennant, he was stunned to find Vivien drugged and barely conscious. Rather than allow her to go into a hospital in Los Angeles, he decided to get her back to England where doctors with whom she was familiar could look after her. Danny Kaye and David Niven made the travel arrangements, Kaye flying to New York in advance to arrange a place to keep Vivien on the stopover between flights

Upon their arrival in London, Olivier and Tennant whisked Vivien to a psychiatric hospital in Surrey, where she was placed in isolation with no visitors allowed. By then the newspapers had gotten wind of the affair, and when Olivier finally got back to Notley Abbey he found a throng of reporters and photographers waiting for him. Assured that he would not be able to see Vivien for at least two weeks, he ordered Cecil Tennant to turn the car around and head for the London airport.

That night, in a state of utter exhaustion and despair, he was on a plane back to Ischia. Not a small ingredient of his anguish was his knowledge, learned from Irving Asher in Los Angeles, that Peter Finch had been living with Vivien in more ways than one.

Slightly off topic but I can't seem to find any photos of Cecil Tennant, the agent, online. He's the only one in this scenario who there are no photos of. Though I can find some of his dancer wife, Irina .

Next was Macbeth, which opened at Stratford on June 7, 1955, and starred Olivier in the title role and Vivien as Lady Macbeth. Trader Faulkner, an Australian actor who played the key role of Malcolm said that There was a great tension between them."

Another member of the cast suggested the reason. "Peter Finch began coming around during Macbeth. Evidently he and Larry had reached some understanding and Larry tolerated his presence. Actually, I think he thought of it as a kind of godsend. Vivien started spending more and more time with Finch, and that seemed to take the pressure off Larry. There were times he even seemed happy to have Finch there. He would leave Vivien with him and go off drinking."

And, said a friend, "Larry very quickly realized that Peter Finch represented something important to Viv. She was much more relaxed when Finch was around her than when he wasn't. Finch was like a second Larry for her, but a Larry she felt she didn't have to measure up to. In fact she could treat Finch with a slight condescension, which made her feel superior to him and gave her a sense of power and authority she never had with Larry. Finch took it all because he was in love with her. He accepted the position he was in—a kind of pawn between Viv and Larry.

Larry was no longer friendly with him, nor did he play the outraged cuckold. He apparently accepted and then simply ignored the whole thing.

He knew he had to live with Vivien. So evidently he said, if that's what she needs to keep her calm, I'll go along with it. Of course, Viv was still not beyond using Finch to taunt Larry. She wasn't in love with Finch; she just loved the idea of him always being there when she wanted him."

R152 Here's Cecil Tennant, the man sitting beside Laurence Oliver

Discussion at the Cafe de Paris, London between, l-r actors and actresses: John Mills, Vivien Leigh, Mary Hayley Bell, Sir Laurence Olivier and Cecil Tennant, December 21st 1948

Olivia had two children.

R154 Thanks! I guess I'm not the best google sleuth.

Wow, DL is crazy.

I've read multiple books on both Garland and Leigh and neither seemed malicious or cruel. Yes, they were unstable as hell, but many people said they loved both in spite of their 'spells'.

If they hadn't been crazy, they wouldn't be the Judy and Vivien we fans love.

I think Vivien and Olivier were a bad pairing, Vivien seemed more even keel when she was with Jack Merivale.

Leave Vivien Leigh alone!

R158 LOL

Thanks, I am cracking up just watching it again.

"I've read multiple books on both Garland and Leigh and neither seemed malicious or cruel."

Judy Garland did some VERY nasty things. I don't suppose you've read "Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland" by Christopher Finch. It contains a lot of information about how truly awful Garland could be. These are incidents that happened during the filming of "A Star Is Born":

Judy's wardrobe (most of it designed by Mary Ann Nyberg, the balance being by Jean Louis and Irene Sharaff) cost a small fortune. Some costumes consumed thousands of dollars in fabrics and labor. Judy knew when one was finished because she would be photographed in it as a wardrobe record. If she liked the dress, she would go to Jack Warner and tell him that she simply had to borrow it for such-and-such a party or premiere, arguing that it would be valuable promotion for the picture if she was seen wearing these things. One dress had been made from dozens of yards of rare French lace, specially dyed by an old and highly dangerous technique that uses heated gasoline as its base. It required several hours of work in a room filled with potentially explosive fumes, but everyone agreed the results were worth it. Judy borrowed the dress before it had been used in the film, and returned it in shreds and matted with a variety of foreign substances, the origins of which could only be guessed at. The condition of the dress was such that no one in the wardrobe department would touch it and it was destroyed immediately. It had to be replaced at the same expense and the same risk. And this was not an isolated incident.

For the Academy Awards sequence, which is one of the high points of the movie, Judy was originally supposed to wear a predominately white dress, intended to emphasize the innocence of her character. When this garment was completed she loved it so much that she decided she must keep it for her personal use. Warning Mary Ann Nyberg that she would hate her for what she was about to do, Judy proceeded to throw a tantrum for the benefit of Jack Warner and others: "Look at this thing! How do you expect me to wear this! It makes me look like the great white whale!" So the white dress was put away for Judy's future pleasure, and a new one, black with purple overlay, was made to replace it.

I distrust these pulp-fiction biographies with undocumented stories provided by unnamed people.

R151 says 'Elephant Walk' was shot at Warner Brothers.

The OP says it was a Paramount film.

R154 I'm amused at the picture at the Cafe de Paris.

There are 3 giants on the right hand side of the table. And two pip-squeaks on the left.

Mrs Mills emphasises the prettiness of Mrs Olivier. And Larry raises his eyebrow at little Johnnie who had a nice-speaking voice but was, inexplicably, the current top-earning movie star in Britain.

"I distrust these pulp-fiction biographies with undocumented stories provided by unnamed people."

Then you'll enjoy "Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland" by Christopher Finch. It's well written and documented and contains great photography. It's one of the best Judy Garland biographies.

R164 or this one

I think Vivien used Peter Finch to make Larry jealous, also using him for sex whenever she wanted. Peter was an a willing idiot who got sucked into Vivien's drama and whims.

Vivien was definitely cruel. What she said in public to Tamara Finch was cruel, how she handled the co-star who was trying to keep his distance was also cruel. She sought to humiliate people.

Elephant Walk also shot on location in Colombo, Ceylon.

R162 Elephant walk movie was a Paramount's production, as OP book said.

Also, the other book linked at R151 pretty much confirmed OP's book.

Film companies then and now rent studio stage space where it is available.

R151 this list of locations for this Paramount film doesn't include shooting at Warner Brothers.

Why did highly-strung Vivien agree to appear in this pulp-fiction romance opposite the dull drunkard Dana Andrews where the climactic scene required her to be trampled over by wild ten-ton beasts????

Peter Finch and Tamara on their wedding day, Sydney, April, 1943.

Did they ever figure out if vivien was part Armenian /Central Asian?I know there have been suggestions but it's a bit of a mystery

Anonymous comment about Vivien/Peter Finch messy affair:

[I heard once from an elderly theatre impresario who frequented the same circles as those frequented by Larry and Viv during the 1950’s, he told me this little story :“I met her [Viv] a few times – one in her dressing room at Stratford, when she was playing Viola in Twelfth Night to Larry’s Malvolio – I went to a party at their house the same night, but Vivien was not in evidence, as she was upstairs bonking with Peter Finch, while her guests (and Larry) who all knew, pretended everything was normal downstairs. I remember sitting on the floor chatting with Renée Asherson, while Kay Kendall was being extrvagant on the sofa.”]

Vivien and Peter Finch.Santa Monica.1953.

What was Kay Kendall like?

I think she hated films, but that was where the money was. She probably would have retired from film in the forties if her marriage to Olivier had survived and they had lived happily ever after.

The only reason she did "Streetcar" (and thank God she did!) was because she had done it for a year on stage in London. A bunch of important people saw her in it and pushed her to do the film version.

She reportedly said the role of Blanche tipped her over into mental illness. Flirting with disaster?

R176 Some quotes on Kay Kendall :

Vivien Leigh on Kay Kendall :“No one was ever born into the world with such a bright genius for living”,

From Peter Finch: A Biography" by Trader Faulkner :

"As for Kay Kendall, Finchie adored her and she, along with Vivien Leigh, was the only one as mad as Finchie".

Vivien is too short and Kay's nose is too long.

US movie-makers could disguise Vivien's shortness but no one could disguise Kay's nose— her only dramatic film failed.

Vivien's not too short but she had faults. Her body was ok but not really defined so she was sort of matronly early even when not overweight. Long long neck, tiny head and no shoulders - most of her costuming from GWTW onward had to deal with filling the gap between her shoulders and her head. A long neck is nice but when you have no shoulders it looks even longer; almost freakish.

Kay Kendall's nose is the result of a nose job. A ski slope. She was always defensive about her looks - wanted to be a great beauty. I always read she and Carole Lombard were the "beautiful comediennes" but when I finally saw Kay I thought she was incredibly mannered and obnoxious. From what I've read she seems that way in life as well. A lot of well known people of that era seem absolutely exhausting.

Rex's wife before Kay, Lili Palmer, said Rex made her promise she'd take him back if he married Kay and stood by her until she died. Palmer agreed but double crossed him after Kay died because she fell in love with someone else in the interim. Harrison denied they had that agreement but every Hwood personage of the era who knew them says that's what happened. He was a huge baby and the thought of taking care of her and watching her die was too much, but he ultimately did it because he thought he could go back where he came from afterwards. I have no idea why Lili Palmer stuck it out with him as long as she did. One of Kay Kendall's big fits during her affair with Rex, while he was still married to Palmer, was crashing a party at their home and seeing that Palmer and Harrison still shared a bed. This is the kind of thing that seemed to go on among a certain set - outrageous behavior (like crashing a party) and nobody gets called out; you just keep up the atmosphere and don't show you're pissed off. Was there some kind of pressure on certain kinds of women to enable it that way by showing how classy they were not to make scenes and be nice to the other woman?

Probably Harrison got burned by his experience with Carole Landis and felt he needed the good publicity.

Maybe the theater community at the time modeled their behavior after the aristocracy many of whom were in arranged marriages. You popped out your heir and a spare and then had quiet affairs so as not to break up the inheritance.

I love this clip with Vivien wearing some fabulous Cecil Beaton costumes.

But I especially love the hypnotic musical score with wonderful glistening violins and church bells!

Calling Tamara ugly wasn't cruel, it was factual.

Any actor worth his salt would have refused to say that ridiculous, tin-eared "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore".

R183 Tamara was attractive. She had a somewhat aquiline nose but she was attractive and regal.

Oh, Kay.................

R185 I agree, Tamara wasn't a conventional beauty but she was nice looking and Far from ugly.

R184 LMAO, Peter Finch was a good actor though, I like a lot of his films (mostly British), EXCEPT Network, he was totally ridiculous and his acting was over the top.

R188 I wonder if he and Faye dunaway hooked up

R189 No, By the time of Network filming, Peter was in a bad health, his roaring drinking days had caught up with him, he suffered a mild cardiac attack in 1973 and he slowed down, Also Peter was very much pussy whipped by his 3rd wife Eletha who accompanied him everywhere including movie sets, She irritated Network's director Sidney Lumet by telling him that Peter needed two more close-ups in a certain scene, when he ignored her request, Eletha went back and fought Lumet hard for the close-ups. Of course, She did not win.

R190 interesting.Eletha sounds like she was a take charge type of woman. I love hearing behind the scenes gossip, the 70s were such a fascinating time for film.

R182 Here is that fascinating music score by Constant Lambert which combines the harsh bell sounds, the Slavic 'dumka' music and some Tchaikovskyan strings

Anna Karenina suicided one night because her marriage had disintegrated.

Vivien Leigh did it over a decade.

I guess you can find fault with one or two details of Leigh's physical beauty compared to other Hollywood goddesses,, her neck or her torso, or whatever, but there's no denying her grace. That fall at 1:05 in the clip at R192 is spectacular. She wanted to be a ballet dancer, or at least studied it for years, and good luck finding one moment in the entire Liz Taylor canon where she's as light on her feet as Leigh was.

That quality extended to her face. Her expressions are so fleeting, so delicate, that she makes Garbo look like a long Swedish winter.

Yes, R195, that fall is spectacular. And I was amazed at her light feet in that Youtube video of her dancing in 'Tovarich' in 1963.

I bet Larry and Vivian discussed Anna Karenina's fall at home (in Chelsea and Notley); Larry was falling at the climax of his sword fight in 'Hamlet' at the same time in 1948.

R194 I wonder if Taylor EVER danced.

She always looked very big below the waist— especially in this dress.

Home-wrecking cunt or no, I watched "Streetcar" last night and for that performance-of-all-performances she will always be a goddess to me

R73 Vivien wasn't Armenian but Leslie Howard, Robert Donat and Leo Genn were Eastern European. Hungarian perhaps?

More info on the question of Vivien's Armenian ancestry.

R186 Kay Kendall was wonderful.

Young Olivier

^ Larry was a doll!

He was prettier than Erroll and Tyrone back in those days.

.....

Lovely Larry's wearing a beard.

I'm wondering if it was for the ill-fated 'Queen Christina".

I'd love to see any footage (if there is any) of Larry and Garbo together on the same set.