Vivien Leigh: Her life ended in a haze of drink and depression

Vivien Leigh and Olivier were both gay and in lavender marriage.

"Her life ended in a haze of drink and depression"

Shocking, I tell you. SHOCKING.

Leigh and Olivier we both outed as gay in a book I read an article about that book I will post the book's name when I find it

[quote]We made love 3 times a day.

Yeah, just not with each other.

Omigod!

Another Vivien Leigh thread!!!

At least it's not as negative a heading as some of the other threads.

Love her. GWTW, Streetcar, Lady Hamilton, Roman Spring, Waterloo Bridge...

And I still prefer her Anna Karenina to Garbo's.

Sue me.

I think it was this book

My life will pretty much the same way except prescription pills will be included in the cocktail.

She may have drank and been a bit depressed at the end, but not dibilitatingly so. And everyone drank, in her generation. She was in a long term relationship with Jack M. She had money, and work if she wanted it.

It's not exactly news that an older divorcee with health issues (not to mention life long manic-depression) would be somewhat "depressed". But it's not like she slid into some tragic end, emotionally.

I will be sure to get this book when it comes to my local library. It's the result of Vivien's daughter selling her heirlooms to the V. and A. six years ago.

The author's previous book was a thorough, non-sensational biography of Michael Redgrave incorporating his private heirlooms now owned at the V. and A.

I liked her best as Ethyl on I Love Lucy.

R10 That's ETHEL!!

One of the very few actresses that was supposedly beautiful without makeup.

Textbook Bipolar Disorder. Really intensified after 1950 or so.

Well, lesbo or not, many men said she was an amazing leigh.

Is that some kind of pun, R14?

We pronounce her surname as 'Lee' but some Brits pronounce it as 'Lay'.

That excellent actress Margaret Leighton's name is pronounced Layton'.

Another thread where people act as though there isn't such a thing as bisexuals. Not sure about Vivien, but I think it is clear Olivier was bi. When he and Vivien met and started their legendary affair both were married to other people and by all accounts they were fucking like rabbits.

And, I don't think I would take Scotty Bowers' word on anything, according to him basically everyone in Hollywood was gay.

^ And, I don't think you should take anyone's word that Sir Laurence was "bi".

^It has been fairly established that he wasn't exactly straight. If Olivier was gay, it would make no sense that he would have a passionate affair with Leigh. It also wouldn't make sense that would cheat on one woman with another. These things make sense for a bisexual however.

I do think that she would have made a better, more emotional Cathy in WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Love Merle Oberon, but she was wrong for the part. Cathy was fiery and passionate, Heathcliff’s equal in every way. Not overly simpering and petulant. But Viv had her hands full with GWTW and couldn’t do it.

R18 No, it hasn't "been fairly established that he wasn't exactly straight".

Anyone who believe any of twisted gossip from this prancing, parasitic Catholic leech is a fool!

R20 I was going more by the things his last wife Dame Joan Plowright has said, such as his "demons."

R21 Sir Laurence Olivier was the most energetic of all actors over thirty years.

He was an ambassador for Shakespeare and English culture. He and his second wife were adored by millions.

He had some demons. Bureaucrats were jealous of his sexy magnetism and he was stripped of the directorship of the Old Vic Theatre in '48. He struggled to get funding for a Technicolor version of "Antony and Cleopatra" in 53 and "Macbeth" in 58. His second wife was bound by a killing contract to Selznick who refused to allow her to appear in his film projects. He had to struggle against the coming generation of "Angry Young Men" stealing audiences in the late 50s. And again in the early 60s he was bound by bean-counting bureaucrats as he struggled to commence the National Theatre in an extremely ugly concrete building on the South Bank. He had to pay for his children and his new wife by appearing in some utter trashy films roles. And finally he succumbed to some illness which made every cell of his body revolt in anger.

^ He may have had a few other demons that I could list. I suspect that one of them may have been Joanie herself.

Larry had an intense, obsessive competitive streak. Redgrave and Guinness kept him at a distance because they didn't want to be burnt by Olivier's brilliance. Larry hated been blighted by the new generation of "Angry Young Men" so he snuffed one of them by hiring the arch-bitch Tynan. And he lessened their hatred by appearing in one Osborne play and bedding one of their female stars..

Plowright looked like a bunion but she was the polar opposite of the mercurial, high-maintenance Vivien.

[quote]r19 I do think that she would have made a better, more emotional Cathy in WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Love Merle Oberon, but she was wrong for the part. Cathy was fiery and passionate, Heathcliff’s equal in every way. Not overly simpering and petulant. But Viv had her hands full with GWTW and couldn’t do it.

Leigh was offered the supporting role of Isabella back in London, but held out for the role of Cathy. She later flew over to Hollywood to visit Olivier during filming of WUTHERING HEIGHTS and that's when she was introduced to Selznick.

Olivier was gay and had relationship with Richard Burton who was gay and Elizabeth Taylor's merkin

[quote]Is that some kind of pun, [R14]?

Am I the only one who thinks Elizabeth Taylor wasn't that pretty and even was kinda ugly?

I didn’t know she was a DLer!

Everyone is a DLer!

R27 you aren’t alone in that opinion although Liz had that all-american high school teenager thing going for her when she was that age.

R27 She had some striking features with her eye and hair color but her measurements were what made her so remarkable as a young woman.

r22 = Dame Joan Plowright

Dame Joan Plowright didn't deserve a damehood.

r16, then believe Darwin Porter.

[quote]r27 Am I the only one who thinks Elizabeth Taylor wasn't that pretty and even was kinda ugly?

Goddamn you ... now you have opened us ALL up to the Liz (sorry, ELIZABETH) Taylor troll, who will now feel the need to defensively upload 20 pics of Fatty McFatfat to show us how devastating she was.

[quote]Her life ended in a haze of drink and depression

That's how my life began, bitches.

Liz had an extraordinary face, and from the waist up, was gorgeous, but her lower body was stumpy, like JLo's.

Please, R37! This thread is about Vivien's new biography.

You Liz-fans and LIz-haters belong in another thread!

This is officially a LIZ FREE zone!

I do find Elizabeth Taylor ugly and never liked Leigh's face.

They looked similar except that Taylor's coloring had higher contrast. If you dislike one's appearance you'd likely dislike both.

Fuck Elizabeth Taylor back to her threads. We're here for Miss Leigh.

Vivien's life was not completely Elizabeth-free though. They mingled at social functions in real life, and Vivien almost played Aunt Violet in Elizabeth's Suddenly Last Summer, before the role went to Katherine Hepburn.

Leigh was straight- Olivier was bisexual. Leigh was bi-polar as well. Not too much to do about it in her day. Great actress and great beauty.

Kind of strange she died of TB in the late 60s. There was medication to cure TB by that time. It’s why all the sanitariums closed down.

It was the author who had sex with Leigh in Full Service. He was bi, she was straight. Both Gore Vidal and Leonard Bernstein stated the book was true, but keep thinking I am going to believe an anonymous poster trashing the book.

I forgot who said this, but someone said of her, "She was a great actress, and beautiful and charming, but she was not at all a happy nor a nice person." I think that sounds pretty true. She was selfish and vain, and had severe psychological problems.

L.eonard Bernstein died in 1990, R46. The book was published in 2012

r47 Thus why the Homewrecking Cunt thread. She was intentionally cruel to Finch's wife throughout the affair.

R5- I agree with everything you wrote!

"Olivier was gay and had relationship with Richard Burton who was gay and Elizabeth Taylor's merkin."

Shut up, Scotty.

Vivien Leigh was depressed about Olivier leaving her, but her real problem was being bi-polar. Mental illness is what did her in. It's so amazing that a woman so beautiful, so talented, so intelligent, could have the bad luck to be profoundly mentally ill. What a tragic turn of fate.

charlie SPEAKS! (R44). Dearest, hold on to your chair arms. Leigh acted out bisexually. Now throw up.

R45 Tuberculosis reduced until the 50s in our sanitary countries.

But one-third of the world's population has latent TB and it's still an epidemic causing the deaths of nearly one-and-a-half million people each year in those unsanitary countries in Asia.

Yes, why did a wealthy woman in a first-world country who had the best medical care die of TB in the late 60s?

Maybe she resisted treatment?

Her glorious, wandering muff was snuffed out too soon.

Cab drivers and deliverymen all across London mourned.

R55 One might say she got "dirty' in the jungles of Ceylon.

She was selfish and vain, and had severe psychological problems. R47 Aren't they the qualifications required to take up acting?

I like her tall dark brother better. The one that played Dracula for Hammer Films. You know, Christopher!

I just realized Meghan McCain is today’s Vivien Leigh.

She was pretty, she wasn't prettier than Elizabeth Taylor. Neither was she a better actress.

"She was pretty, she wasn't prettier than Elizabeth Taylor. Neither was she a better actress."

She WAS prettier than Elizabeth Taylor. And God knows she was a better actress. She was a trained theater actress, very accomplished, much more talented than Taylor.

I love Vivien Leigh. I have enjoyed her in every film. And lost among GWTW and Streetcar are great performances in " Waterloo Bridge", " Caesar and Cleopatra" and " That Hamilton Woman". I wished she had finished" Elephant Walk"- although not could really save that film. She was quite a beauty, but she never uses it when she can't get the scene- which Liz is famous for doing. Would loved to have seen her do Streetcar or Shakespeare on the stage.

[quote]r64 Leigh was quite a beauty, but she never uses it when she can't get the scene- which Liz is famous for doing.

Liz Taylor had to rely on her looks exclusively about 90% of the fucking time.

She was so often dull, or simply inept. I almost can't watch her in most stuff without gritting my teeth.

And that piping, whiney [italic]voice!![/italic]

R65 I wouldn't go that far.

R65 She used that piping, whiney voice a lot because she played lots and lots of complaining bitches, whores and stupid women in her 79-movies-long career.

Poor Vivien made a mere 20 movies so it's very hard to compare the two.