Truly Madly 3 (Pages 110 - end)

 RATING: VERY GOOD

I have to say that even though I like Vivien Leigh and Olivier in their films, I knew next to nothing about them. Reading about the bipolar condition Vivien had to struggled with for half her life was very sad and it moved to tears. It was truly a dramatic story of a love going wrong because of Vivien's mental condition, which at the time nobody knew how to treat it. 

I resumed reading the book at the point when the cast of Gone With the Wind went to Coconut Grove for the Oscars ceremony. 

Robert Donat won Best actor for Goodbye, Mr Chips. Robert Donat won for Best Actor, beating Laurence Olivier, Clark Gable and James Stewart. He didn't expect to win, so he didn't show up.

Vivien won Best Actress. 

Hattie McDaniel won the award for supporting actress. McDaniel won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first Black actor to have been nominated and win an Oscar. 

David Selznick also won the award for outstanding production.

Vivien and Larry went on a nationwide tour for their play, Romeo and Juliet. 

Laurence took part in a new film, Pride and Prejudice with Greer Carson. The film was released on July 26, 1940. 

In 1940 Vivien and Laurence got married.In February 1940, Jill Esmond agreed to divorce Laurence Olivier, and Leigh Holman agreed to divorce Vivien, although they maintained a strong friendship for the rest of Leigh's life. Esmond was granted custody of Tarquin, her son with Olivier. Holman was granted custody of Suzanne, his daughter with Leigh. On 31 August 1940, Olivier and Leigh were married at the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, California, in a ceremony attended only by their hosts, Ronald and Benita Colman and witnesses, Katharine Hepburn and Garson Kanin.

After that, they started working on a new film, Lady Hamilton.  Lady Hamilton is a 1941 black-and-white historical film drama produced and directed by Alexander Korda. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, the film tells the story of the rise and fall of Emma Hamilton,  who became Admiral Horatio Nelson's mistress.The film was a critical and financial success, and while on the surface the plot is both a war story and a romance set in Napoleonic times, it was also intended to function as a film that would portray Britain positively within the context of World War II.

On returning to England Olivier joined the war in the air force, but he was not considered a good pilot.

Laurence then directed Henry V. Originally he had no intention of taking the directorial duties, but ended up directing and producing, in addition to taking the title role.

Vivien visited the troops in Africa when her husband was working on his film. Leigh performed for troops before falling ill with a persistent cough and fevers.

Leslie Howard, who played AShley in Gone with the WInd, was shot down while flying ack from Spain on June 1, 1943.

In 1945 Vivien started working on Cleopatra, a film based on the play by Bernard Shaw.

Around that time, Vivien's mental problems started to become more noticeable.

Laurence did his most brilliant role, Richard III. 

They bought Notley Abbey. Notley Abbey was an Augustinian abbey founded in the 12th century near Long Crendon, Buckinghamshire.In 1944, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh purchased the remains of the Abbey, after they found their home destroyed by a bomb raid that took place during the war. During their residence, the couple was known for holding parties at the house.

In 1945 Vivien returned to the stage and did The Skin of Our Teeth. This was the reason why Selznick sued her. 

In 1947 Vivian started to work on another film, Anna Karenina. 

In 1947 Laurence filmed Hamlet with Jean Simmons. He was also the director. Hamlet became the first non-American film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, while Olivier won the Award for Best Actor.

In 1947 Laurence was knighted at Buckingham Palace. 

After that the couple toured Australia, which put more strain to their relationship. Olivier played the lead in Richard III and also performed with Leigh in The School for Scandal and The Skin of Our Teeth. The tour was an outstanding success and, although Leigh was plagued with insomnia and allowed her understudy to replace her for a week while she was ill, she generally withstood the demands placed upon her, with Olivier noting her ability to "charm the press". Members of the company later recalled several quarrels between the couple as Olivier was increasingly resentful of the demands placed on him during the tour.

Then Vivien played Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire. The play contained a rape scene and references to promiscuity and homosexuality, and was destined to be controversial; the media discussion about its suitability added to Leigh's anxiety. Nevertheless, she believed strongly in the importance of the work. After 326 performances, Leigh finished her run, and she was soon assigned to reprise her role as Blanche DuBois in the film version of the play. Leigh's performance in A Streetcar Named Desire won glowing reviews, as well as a second Academy Award for Best Actress.

Laurence's next film was  Carrie with Jennifer Jones. 

When Vivien's mental problems became unbearable, she went to see a psychiatrist, DR Lawrence Kubie. Lawrence Schlesinger Kubie (17 March 1896 – 27 October 1973) was an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who practiced in New York City from 1930 to 1959. Kubie had several celebrity patients, including Tennessee Williams, Leonard Bernstein, Moss Hart, Kurt Weill, Vivien Leigh and Sid Caesar.

Vivien starred in the film Elephant Walk, and he started an affair with Peter Finch. In January 1953, Leigh travelled to Ceylon to film Elephant Walk with Peter Finch. Shortly after filming commenced, she had a nervous breakdown and Paramount Pictures replaced her with Elizabeth Taylor.[95] Olivier returned her to their home in Britain, where, between periods of incoherence, Leigh told him she was in love with Finch and had been having an affair with him.

Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch (28 September 1916 – 14 January 1977) was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio. Finch's closeness to the Olivier family led to an affair with Olivier's wife, Vivien Leigh, which began in 1948, and continued on and off for several years, ultimately ending because of Leigh's deteriorating mental condition.

Vivien was eventually committed in Netherne Hospital. Netherne Asylum was founded on 18 October 1905 to alleviate overcrowding at the existing Brookwood Asylum near Woking. 

In 1954 Vivien starred in the film The Deep Blue Sea. The movie tells the story of a woman unhappy in her passionless marriage leaving her husband for a younger and more ardent lover.

Laurence starred The Prince and the Showgirl with Marilyn Monroe, which was a excruciating experience for him as Marilyn had no discipline.The production was complicated by conflicts between him and Monroe.

At the time Marilyn was married to Arthur Miller, and there was a crisis in her marriage. 

Laurence then asked playwright John Osborne to write something for him, and it was The Entertainer. During this play he met Joan Plowright

 In 1957 Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh separated because he had fallen in love wtih actress Joan Plowright, but Vivien refused to grant him a divorce. It was in 1960 when they divorced.  In May 1960 divorce proceedings started; Leigh reported the fact to the press and informed reporters of Olivier's relationship with Plowright.

In 1957 Vivien's daughter, Suzanne, married Robin Farrington. The reception was held at the Hyde Park Hotel, London. Both Holman and Leigh, who remained a strong friendship despite the divorce, attended, as did Olivier.

In 1958 Vivien was in the play, Duel of Angels, and she had an affair with the leading man, Peter Wyngarde. The play is based on the story of Lucretia, the virtuous Roman housewife who was raped and, finding no support from her husband and his friends, is driven to suicide. 

Peter Paul Wyngarde (23 August 1927[disputed – discuss] – 15 January 2018) was a British television, stage and film actor active from the late 1940s to the mid 1990s. He called Vivien Leigh "the love of my life,

Vivien felt lonely and reached for Peter Finch, but he was in love with Yolande Turbull. Yolande Turner, also known as Yolande Finch (12 December 1935 – 6 November 2003), was a British actress and screenwriter.

In 1961 Vivien attended a ceremony in Atlanta on the anniversary of Gone With the Wind, but she was not herself. She told Olivia de Hallivand that it was so sad because most of their fellow actors were dead. 

Larry and Joan marry in 1961. 

In 1967 Vivien suffered a new relapse in tuberculosis, but she ignored the doctors' orders. At the time she had a steady relationship with Jack Merivale. John Herman Merivale (1 December 1917 – 6 February 1990) was a Canadian-born British theatre actor, and occasional supporting player in British films.

Jack found Vivian dead. On the night of 7 July 1967, Merivale left her as usual at their Eaton Square flat to perform in a play, and he returned home just before midnight to find her asleep. About 30 minutes later (by now 8 July), he entered the bedroom and discovered her body on the floor. She had been attempting to walk to the bathroom and, as her lungs filled with liquid, she collapsed and suffocated.