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Vivien Leigh: Yorkshire England
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Vivien Leigh (November 5, 1913 - July 8, 1967) was an English actress who was born Vivian Mary Hartley in Darjeeling, India. She and her parents later moved to England, where young Leigh grew up. She attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Roehampton, England, along with fellow actress-to-be Maureen O'Sullivan.
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In the summer of 1950, Vivien left England to return to Hollywood after nearly a decade absence, and began work on the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire. Shooting started August 14th and Warner Brothers paid Vivien $100,000 for her 3 months of work. Karl Malden and Kim Hunter reprised their stage roles of Mitch and Stella from the Broadway production that had starred Marlon Brando. The play itself was changed significantly to pass studio production codes at the time - so the rape was only hinted at on screen. (Later in 1992, a "director's cut" of the film was released, placing key scenes and dialogue back into the film).
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Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley in Darjeeling, British India to Ernest Hartley, an officer in the Indian Cavalry who was of English parentage, and Gertrude Robinson Yackje, whose heritage is in queston. She claimed to be of Irish descent, but it is likely that she had Armenian or Parsee Indian ancestry.[1] In 1917, Ernest Hartley was relocated to Bangalore, while Gertrude and Vivian stayed in Ootacamund. [2] Vivian Hartley made her first stage appearance at the age of three, reciting "Little Bo Peep" for her mother's amateur theatre group. Gertrude Hartley tried to instill in her daughter an appreciation of literature, and introduced her to the works of Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling, as well as stories of Greek mythology. An only child, Vivian Hartley was sent to the "Convent of the Sacred Heart" in Roehampton in England, in 1920. Her closest friend at the convent was the future actress Maureen O'Sullivan, to whom she expressed her desire to become "a great actress".[3]
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Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley in India, in the cool mountain region of Darjeeling in 1913. Her stockbroker father, Ernest Richard, and her mother, Gertrude, spent half the year in England and half in India, which was then under British control. Enrolled in a convent boarding school outside of London at the age of five, Leigh first appeared on stage three years later in A Midsummer's Night's Dream. She recalled after that experience that she couldn't remember when she didn't want to be an actress. The stage would have to wait... as she finished her education. She attended a finishing school in Paris, studied languages in Italy, and attended a girls' seminary in Bavaria.
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Laurence Olivier saw Leigh in 'The Mask of Virtue', and a friendship developed after he congratulated her on her performance. While playing lovers in the film 'Fire Over England' (1937), Olivier and Leigh developed a strong attraction, and after filming was completed, they began an affair. At the time, both were married (Olivier to actress Jill Esmond). But young Vivien (now 22) was a very determined woman, and said from the moment she set eyes on Laurence Olivier she was determined to have him.
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Her first film for Korda was Fire over England (1937), with Leigh and Laurence Olivier cast as two lovers at the court of Queen Elizabeth. Korda subsequently loaned Leigh to MGM, who were filming A Yank at Oxford (1938) at Denham Studios.
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