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The Hollywood love story of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier is remembered today as one filled with passion, romance, betrayal, and heartbreak. Despite the couple’s hardships and Leigh’s break downs both on and off stage, newly uncovered love letters between the couple reveal important details that outline the evolution of their romance.
These letters first came to light as part of an archive purchased from the Vivien Leigh estate during an auction by Sotheby's on September 26, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The archive consists of several scrapbooks, Leigh's diary, photographs, and several letters—some over 20 pages long—between Leigh and her second husband Laurence Olivier. Correspondence with other important figures also features in the archive, including letters to and from T.S. Eliot, Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill, and Queen Elizabeth II. "O my darling little love I do long for you so," wrote Olivier in one of his letters to Leigh early in their affair. "Oh my hearts blood it is unbearable without you."
Leigh Takes to the Stage, 1935
Vivien Leigh took her first major step into the public eye when she was cast as Henriette in the 1935 play The Mask of Virtue. Leigh’s performance led to film offers that quickly transformed the young actress into one of Hollywood’s most beloved starlets. Born Vivian Mary Hartley, the future Hollywood actress took her first role at the age of three, reciting “Little Bo Peep” in her mother’s amateur theatre group, according to Vivien: The Life of Vivien Leigh by Alexander Walker.
Over time, the India-born actress developed a passion for acting and changed her stage name after marrying her first husband, Herbert Leigh Holman, a barrister who disliked the theatre. Her husband’s disapproval for her passion in theater was just one aspect of Leigh and Holman’s unhappy marriage. This would ultimately lead to a love affair between Leigh and Laurence Olivier that continues to haunt Hollywood to this day.
Leigh and Olivier Meet, 1936
Leigh and Olivier first met after one of the actress’s stage performances in The Mask of Virtue in London in 1936. Olivier, 28, stopped by to congratulate the rising star, then in her early 20s, on her performance. Though Olivier was married to actress Jill Esmond at the time and Leigh was also married with a child, the pair took an immediate liking to one another. “That's the man I'm going to marry," she once told a friend after her initial meeting with Olivier, according to Michelangelo Capua in Vivien Leigh: A Biography.
An Affair Begins, 1937
From then on, Leigh was taken with Olivier’s “charm and magnetism,” according to Vivien Leigh: A Biography, and Olivier was drawn to her in a way he was with no other woman. Olivier admitted he had settled for Esmond out of fear he wouldn’t do any better than her. It is said that the couple’s relationship was not intimate and that Esmond preferred women, according to Laurence Olivier: A Biography by Donald Spoto. Still, they had a son, Tarquin, who was born in August of 1936.
"I couldn't help myself with Vivien. No man could," Olivier said in Lord Larry: A Personal Portrait of Laurence Olivier. "I hated myself for cheating on Jill, but then I had cheated before, but this was something different. This wasn't just out of lust. This was love that I really didn't ask for but was drawn into." One year after Leigh and Olivier met, they were both cast in Fire Over England, where they played love interests. The pair began to spend time together on and off set, during which they ultimately gave into their attraction to each other and began their secret affair.
Leigh's Symptoms Begin to Show, 1938
The following year was a crucial time for Olivier and Leigh, as both actors were trying to broaden their careers. When Olivier was offered the part of Heathcliff in the 1939 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, he left Leigh behind in England, where she began to show the first signs of a lifelong mental illness. Because there was no diagnosis or treatment for bipolar disorder at the time, Leigh did not receive help for her condition.
During the filming of the 1938 film A Yank in Oxford, Leigh suffered frequent mood swings and gained a repuation as unreasonable and difficult to work with. Despite this, Leigh was offered the part of Isabella, a secondary character in Wuthering Heights. Leigh turned down the offer, disappointed she was not offered the lead role of Cathy, according to A. Scott Berg in Goldwyn: A Biography.
During their time apart, Leigh and Olivier exchanged steamy love letters. According to The Guardian, in an undated letter experts believe to have been written between 1938 and 1939, Olivier wrote, “I woke up absolutely raging with desire for you my love … Oh dear God how I did want you. Perhaps you were stroking your darling self.” Leigh responded, writing, “Oh dear sweet, I haven’t done anything … If we loved each other only with our bodies I suppose it would be alright. I love you with much more than that. I love you with, oh everything somehow, with a special kind of soul.”
Gone with the Wind, 1939
Eventually, Olivier’s success spread to Leigh when he recommended her to a theatre agent for the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind. After some consideration, Leigh was offered the part and she gladly accepted, heading to Los Angeles for filming. Working with her co-stars proved to be difficult, though, as some felt her manic behavior often made it hard to work with her. Leigh often wrote to Olivier, who was filming in New York at the time, to discuss this and other worries. She felt the film would end up being a failure in her career and was worried about the final outcome, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In a letter to Leigh, Olivier advised her not to think down on herself. “You have got to be damn smart to make a success of your career in pictures which is ESSENTIAL for your self-respect,” he wrote, according to The Guardian. “... I am afraid you may become just boring. Never to me … But to yourself and because of that to others.” It seemed to be Olivier’s letters that kept Leigh going, and her performance in Gone with the Wind ultimately brought her much success and fame on the silver screen.
Leigh and Olivier Marry, 1940
The next year was filled with good news for the couple. Leigh became the first British woman to win a best actress Oscar for her performance as Scarlett O’Hara. The couple also received the news that the divorces they’d requested from their spouses in England had been granted. Even though neither Olivier nor Leigh had custody of their respective children, they were now free to marry whenever they pleased. Until this point, Leigh and Olivier had been forced to keep their relationship out of the public eye.
In a letter to Leigh, Olivier advised her it was for the best, according to the Guardian. “We are a popular scandal, or rather a public one,” he wrote. “Therefore it is only reasonably good taste to be as unobtrusive as possible. Can you dance and be gay and carry on like the gay happy hypocrite days? No my love you cannot. Why because of your fame, tripled with our situation—quadrupled with the fame thereof [sic].” The couple wed soon after on August 31, 1940, in Santa Barbara, California.
Criticism of Their Relationship, 1941
Leigh and Olivier went on to star together in films such as 21 Days Together (1940) and That Hamilton Woman (1941), as well as a stage performance of Romeo and Juliet on Broadway. Critics, as in a 1940 article written in TIME magazine, excoriated the couple’s performance on Broadway and connected the adulterous start of their relationship to their roles onstage. Romeo and Juliet became a major financial flop for the couple, who had invested tens of thousands of dollars in their own savings to the project.
Return to England and Illness, 1944
The couple returned to England in 1943 to help with the war effort. According to Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait by Kendra Bean, Olivier joined the Fleet Air Arm and Leigh went on a tour through North Africa in 1944 to entertain the armed forces stationed in that region. Shortly after the tour, Leigh became sick with coughing fits and fevers and was soon diagnosed with tuberculosis in her left lung. The actress spent several weeks in the hospital, during which time Olivier wrote to her constantly. "Please please my angel send me word of what the doctor said, + if it is possible ask him to send me a report," he wrote from Paris. "You're the only person in the world who could make hideously selfish me love another more than I do myself."
Miscarriage and Breakdown, 1944-45
Though she was advised to stop acting, Leigh persisted with her longtime passion. While filming Caesar and Cleopatra in 1945, Leigh learned she was pregnant but soon suffered a miscarriage, which is said to have happened after the actress slipped on set. This sent her into a deep depression, and Leigh was so distraught that she would sometimes fall into hysteric crying fits on the floor. This would be the first of many bipolar disorder breakdowns to come.
At this point, Leigh had learned to recognize her symptoms before an episode, which involved several days of hyperactivity followed by a deep depression and a breakdown consisting of shivering fits and swear-filled tirades, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Often, Leigh would not remember any of this happening but would feel sorry for those around her once they told her what she had done. Leigh took a break from filming and was never able to fully recover enough to continue the focus on the role of Cleopatra. During this time period, Leigh’s work began to go downhill.
Turning Point, 1947
Despite Leigh’s work suffering, Olivier’s career was skyrocketing and he went on tour with actor Ralph Richardson for stage performances of Henry IV and Oedipus. Leigh, not feeling well enough to work again just yet, accompanied Olivier to watch his performances. Olivier was later knighted in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, which granted Leigh the title of Lady Olivier. This proved to be a huge turning point in the couple’s marriage, as Olivier thrived and Leigh’s depression only worsened.
A Tour of Australia and New Zealand, 1948
In 1948, Leigh and Olivier went on a six-month tour of Australia and New Zealand to perform and raise funds for the theater, according to Laurence Olivier: A Biography by Donald Spoto. Leigh suffered severe insomnia at the time, and would sometimes let her understudy replace her in performances as she recovered. Still, the actress was dedicated to her career and did her best to keep up with the demands of the tour. But their relationship slowly dwindling during this time, abd Olivier and Leigh would often get into heated arguments over her mood swings, which were becoming increasingly difficult for Olivier to manage.
Their worst argument occurred backstage in Christchurch, New Zealand, when Leigh refused to go onstage with Olivier because her shoes were missing. Frustrated with her behavior, Olivier slapped Leigh in the face publicly and she slapped him back. Within minutes, she was onstage again in borrowed shoes with a smile on her face, but Olivier would later realize that he “lost Vivien” in Australia.
A Streetcar Named Desire, 1949
Even though her marriage was failing, Leigh did not let her passion for acting dwindle. In 1949, she was cast as Blanche DuBois in a West End production of A Streetcar Named Desire. The play was a huge success and Leigh went on to portray DuBois in the film version. Though she receive great critical acclaim for her performance, the huge success of the play and film took an emotional toll on Leigh that she would later say “tipped me over into madness.”
Acting Criticism, 1951
In 1951, Leigh was heavily criticized by film critic Kenneth Tynan for her performances as Cleopatra in both William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra alongside her husband. Tynan believed Leigh was a mediocre actress who made Olivier’s performance suffer as a result, according to The Telegraph. This negative review made Leigh become fixated on failure and terrified of receiving other negative criticisms.
Major Breakdown and an Affair, 1953
“Oh sweet Baba, If we were together I expect this would seem quite exciting, but then that applies to everything in life,” Leigh wrote in a letter to her husband on August 1, 1950 while on a plane, according to the Guardian. Another letter Leigh wrote at the time read, “Whenever you think of me my Larry-boy you will know I am with you adoringly, Vivien.” But the romance they had barely been holding together continued to fade.
In 1953, Leigh suffered a nervous breakdown shortly after arriving in Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, to film Elephant Walk with English-born Australian actor Peter Finch. The actress was immediately sent back home to Britain, where she underwent period of incoherence and confessed to her husband that she’d been having an affair with Finch, according to The Guardian. Leigh's erratic behavior included wandering naked through the gardens at night and sometimes falling into bed with strangers, The Hollywood Reporter reports. It's unlikely this was the first time Olivier had heard about Leigh’s unfaithfulness. But whether or not the reports were true, Leigh and Olivier did not give up on their marriage. The couple continued to appear together onstage, but their performances suffered as a result of their increasing lack of chemistry.
Second Miscarriage, 1956
During the time she was in a production of South Sea Bubble, Leigh learned that she was pregnant once again and withdrew from the play as a result. But after her final performance onstage, the actress suffered another miscarriage, sending her into another period of depression that lasted several months. While on tour with Olivier for his role in Titus Andronicus, Leigh would have frequent outbursts directed at her husband and other members of the production.
The Marriage Ends, 1958
By 1958, having kept up appearances for nearly 10 years, Leigh considered her marriage to be over. She began seeing actor Jack Merivale, who knew of her tuberculosis and promised Olivier he would take care of her. At the same time, Olivier began an affair with actress Joan Plowright, who was 22 years younger than him.
Divorce and Suicide Threats, 1960
The pressure from her career and instability in her romantic relationships only made Leigh’s emotional and mental state worse. By 1960, Leigh was threatening to commit suicide. "Vivien is several thousand miles away, trembling on the edge of a cliff, even when she's sitting quietly in her own drawing room," Olivier once said. Olivier and Leigh went on with divorce proceedings in May of 1960. The divorce was finalized later that year and Olivier went on to marry Plowright. The couple later had a son and two daughters.
Even though they were no longer together, Olivier and Leigh continued to write to one another every now and then. “I want to say thank you for understanding it all for my sake,” wrote Olivier in a letter to Leigh regarding their divorce, according to The Guardian. “You did nobly and bravely and beautifully and I am very oh so sorry, very sorry, that it must have been much hell for you."
Ship of Fools, 1965
Since her divorce from Olivier, Leigh enjoyed great success onstage and on the silver screen. Her depression continued to plague her during this time, but Leigh put her all into her performances. Her final film was 1965's Ship of Fools. Leigh’s appearance in the film was a testament to her dedication as an actress since she was very ill at the time and would often fall into fits of paranoia and fight with the other actors. Her fragile mental state made every day of filming more and more difficult, but she managed to finished and Ship of Fools received rave reviews.
Leigh's Death, 1967
In May 1967, Leigh was rehearsing to appear in Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance. However, her tuberculosis recurred and she was put on bed rest for several weeks. Her husband, Jack Merivale, left her at home while he went to perform in a play in Eaton Square. When he returned around midnight, he found Leigh asleep in bed. Half an hour later, he checked in to find her body on the ground. It appeared Leigh had attempted to walk to the bathroom and collapsed due to her lungs filling with liquid, according to Vivien Leigh: A Biography by Anne Edwards.
Merivale alerted Leigh’s family and then Olivier, who rushed from the hospital where he was being treated for prostate cancer to pay his respects. Merivale had moved her body onto the bed, and Olivier "stood and prayed for forgiveness for all the evils that had sprung up between us," according to his authorized biography by Terry Coleman. Olivier helped Merivale make funeral arrangements and stayed with Leigh until her body was removed. On July 8, Vivien Leigh was announced dead, and every theater in London's West End extinguished their marquee lights for one hour in her honor. A memorial service was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields and Leigh’s cremated ashes were spread on the lake at her summer home, Tickerage Mill in East Sussex, England.
According to The Guardian, in one final letter addressed to Leigh only five weeks before her death, Olivier signed, "Sincerest love darling, your Larry."
Olivier's Death, 1989
Olivier died of renal failure on July 11, 1989, at the age of 82 at his home in West Sussex. Even after his marriage to Plowright, Olivier held Leigh dear in his heart for the rest of his life. It is said that shortly before his death, Olivier was found watching a film starring Leigh and, with tears in his eyes, and said, “This, this was love.”
