WATERLOO BRIDGE (1940)
VIVIEN LEIGH
November 5, 1913 - July 7, 1967
There's an early passage in Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, describing Scarlett O'Hara's outwardly placid, demure, utterly feminine demeanor; in marked contrast to the tempestuous storminess and rebelliousness in her eyes. Small wonder, then, that it was the role which Vivien Leigh was born to play; for this exquisite English rose had a will of steel and, moreover, a willfull temperament which, sadly, later became touched by madness.
It's not stretching the truth too much to theorize that Leigh completely inhabited her two great, Oscar-winning Southern belles: the fiery Scarlett of Gone with the Wind (1939), and the wasted Blanche du Bois of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Through the ups and downs, though, Leigh managed to cling to her dignity, and even as pain and illness took their toll on her once-porcelain features, her great beauty always shone through. Although it seemed, at the end, that Blanche had won out, it's the fighting spirit of Scarlett O'Hara which will forever assure Vivien Leigh's place among the immortals.
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