Vivien Leigh was an English actress who was born in India. She and her parents later moved to England， where young Leigh grew up. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art， She was married in 1932 to Herbert Leigh Holman， and they had a daughter， Suzanne， in 1933.
Leigh’s career① began on the stage. Her first play was The Green Sash， though it was Mask of Virtue that really brought her to stardom②. In 1935， she began her film career with several movies， and starred③ in four films In 1937： Fire Over England， 21 Days opposite④ Laurence Olivier (which was shelved until 1940)， Dark Journey and Storm in a Teacup. The next year Vivien gave two of the best performances of her movie career： the Elza in A Yank at Oxford and the marvelous and ambitious Libby in St. Martin’s Lane.
Leigh’s better known role， however， is Scarlett in Gone With the Wind， for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress. The much-coveted role had an exhausting “talent search” in which many popular actresses were considered for the role opposite Clark Gable. Producer David O. Selznick had secretly selected Leigh for the role after seeing her in the MGM film A Yank at Oxford， but told no one until late 1938， when filming began. She was finally cast as Margaret Mitchell’s Southern belle.
In 1940， Leigh arranged for a divorce from Holman and married Laurence Olivier. The pair had met in 1935 and had begun a rather public love affair.
4 years later， the actress was diagnosed⑤ as having a tuberculosis⑥ patch on her left lung. Though she continued her career with such plays as Thornton Wilder’s Skin of Our Teeth， the 1945 film Caesar and Cleopatra， and the 1948 epic film Anna Karenina， her illness was getting worse. In 1952， however， Leigh won a second Academy Award for her portrayal the previous year of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.
By the early 1960s Leigh had suffered two miscarriages⑦， and the severity of the tuberculosis was incapacitating. She had also been plagued by manic-depression for some time， which was believed to be a factor in the failure to cure her ailment. In 1960， she and Olivier divorced on supposedly friendly terms. Leigh continued to keep a framed photograph of him on her bedside table， even while living with her companion， actor Jack Merivale.
The actress died of chronic⑧ tuberculosis in her London home. She was cremated⑨ and her ashes were scattered on the lake Tickerage， near Blackboys， Sussex， London.
① careern. 职业
② stardomn. 演员的身份
③ starv. 被委派为主角
④ oppositev. 与……演对手戏
⑤ diagnosev. 诊断为
⑥ tuberculosisn. 肺结核
⑦ miscarriagen. 流产
⑧ chronicadj. 慢性的
⑨ crematev. 火葬
费雯丽
费雯丽，英国女演员，生于印度，不久随父母搬迁到英格兰，小费雯丽就在那里长大。在皇家戏剧学院毕业后，1932年嫁给了利·霍尔曼，并于1933年有了他们的女儿苏珊娜。
费雯丽的职业生涯开始于舞台。她的第一部戏剧名叫《绿色的绶带》，但是真正将她带到明星地位的是《道德的面具》。在1935年，她开始了他的电影职业生涯，拍了很多部电影。1937年分别在四部电影：《英伦战火》、《21天》（与劳伦斯.奥利弗演对手戏，被推迟到1940年）、《黑暗旅程》和《茶杯风波》中担任主角。第二年费雯丽出演了两部她电影生涯中最好的电影角色：《牛津风云》中的艾丽莎和《圣马丁小巷》中非凡有雄心的利伯蒂。
然而费雯丽较为人所知的角色，是《乱世佳人》中的斯嘉丽，凭借本影片她也获得了奥斯卡最佳女演员奖。这个很多人都觊觎的角色有一个“选秀”赛，有很多知名女演员都被考虑到与克拉克·盖博演对手戏。制作人大卫·塞尔兹尼克在看了费雯丽在MGM电影《牛津风云》中的表演，直接决定选她出演该角色，但直到1938年末电影开拍他都没有向别人透露这个消息。费雯丽最终扮演了玛格丽特·米切尔的这个南方美人。
1940年，费雯丽与霍尔曼离婚，然后嫁给了劳伦斯·奥利弗。这对早在1935年就相遇的情侣，开始将他们的爱情公布于世。
4年以后，费雯丽被诊断左边肺上患有肺结核。然而她依然继续着她的演绎生涯出演了桑顿·魏尔德的《九死一生》，1945年出演了《凯撒与克丽奥佩拉》，1948年拍摄了电影《安娜·卡列尼娜》，她的病情也日益加重。在1952年，她凭借在《欲望号街车》中布兰奇·杜波依斯形象的塑造赢得了第二个奥斯卡金像奖。
60年代早期，她经历了两次流产，而严重的肺结核病情也是她失去拍摄的能力，因为治疗精神分裂失败，她一度被精神狂郁症所困扰。在1960年她和奥利弗离婚了。在与同伴演员杰克·迈瑞瓦尔住在一起的时候，费雯丽仍然在旁边桌子保留了奥利弗的加框照片。
费雯丽因慢性肺结核死于伦敦的家中。她的遗体被火化，骨灰洒入位于伦敦苏塞克斯郡附近的提克雷湖。