Vivien Leigh Is Born, the Actress Behind Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche DuBois

On November 5, 1913, Vivien Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley in Darjeeling, India. The British actress would become internationally recognised for two very different screen characters: the determined Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind and the vulnerable Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Each performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress.

From Drama School to the Screen

Leigh trained at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began establishing herself professionally during the 1930s. Her appearance in the London production of The Mask of Virtue in 1935 attracted attention, while film roles brought her to a wider audience.

In Fire Over England (1937), she appeared alongside Laurence Olivier, who would become an important partner in both her theatrical career and her personal life. Their collaborations formed part of a lasting commitment to the stage.

Two Roles, Two Academy Awards

Her international breakthrough came with Gone with the Wind (1939). Playing Scarlett opposite Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler, Leigh took on a demanding central role in an ambitious Hollywood production. Her performance won the Best Actress Oscar at the ceremony held on February 29, 1940.

More than a decade later, she portrayed Blanche DuBois in the film adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Leigh had already played Blanche on the London stage before bringing the character to cinema audiences. The performance brought her a second Best Actress Oscar in 1952.

A Career Beyond Hollywood

Theatre remained central to Leigh’s working life. Her repertoire included Shakespearean roles such as Juliet and Lady Macbeth, alongside contemporary drama and comedy. In 1963, she won a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway musical Tovarich.

Leigh died in 1967, leaving a career that connected British theatre with Hollywood cinema. Her two Oscar-winning performances remain defining achievements within a much broader body of stage and screen work.