‘Oh, the bliss of not having to go mad, commit suicide, or contemplate murder,’ Vivien Leigh trilled as she disembarked a flight in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1953.
The Gone With The Wind star had arrived in the south Asian country’s capital, Colombo, to film Elephant Walk, alongside the dashing Australian actor Peter Finch.
She had already earned a Best Actress Academy Award for the southern epic in 1940, playing the spoiled, narcissistic Scarlett O’Hara. And the portrayal of alcoholic anti-heroine Blanche DuBois, opposite Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951, had cemented her place in the Hollywood firmament.
Unlike these most celebrated roles, however, this time she would play ‘a normal healthy girl,’ much to her delight.
Unfortunately, her real-life reputation for erratic behavior had followed her even as far as the jungles of Ceylon, and would come to a terrifying head during filming of the movie.
Today, Leigh’s mood swings – from manic episodes and so-called ‘nymphomania’ to deep depression, paranoia, and thoughts of suicide – would be recognized as symptoms of bipolar disorder.
But that was far from the case in the early 1950s, writes Lyndsy Spence in her new biography of the actress, Where Madness Lies: The Double Life of Vivien Leigh, which reveals many details about the true extent of her illness for the first time.
The atmosphere on set started deteriorating almost immediately. Within days of arriving in Ceylon, Leigh had already lost interest in filming and was having difficulty remembering her lines.
Leigh’s reputation for erratic behavior came to a terrifying head during filming of Elephant Walk
Vivien Leigh starred opposite Clark Gable in the southern epic Gone With The Wind
Her marriage to Sir Laurence Olivier was one of the greatest love stories of the day
She was likely also distracted by the presence of Finch – a man she had set her sights on years before, after seeing him on stage in Australia, and had plotted to install him as her leading man so she could seduce him.
At the time, Leigh was still married to Sir Laurence Olivier, and theirs was viewed as one of the greatest love stories of the day.
Behind the scenes, however, both indulged in frequent affairs.
And Spence notes that, while Leigh’s dalliances were described as ‘promiscuous and her interest in sex was labelled as nymphomania’, society was far more kind to Larry, who was ‘forgiven for being lonely and at a loss.’
Filming in Ceylon would stretch their already strained marriage to breaking point.
Unable to sleep, Leigh would imagine hearing voices that would keep her up long after everyone else had gone to bed.
Finch, too, was an insomniac, and the pair would party in her bungalow, knocking back way too much gin and playing canasta into the wee small hours.
None of which did her performance any favors.
Turning up at the make-up trailer after yet another restless night boozing, she looked like hell – her face so bloated that close-up scenes were out of the question.
They filmed some long shots, but whenever dialogue was called for, she stumbled over her lines.
And as her mental stability declined further, she became frantic, desperate to see Larry, firing off multiple telegrams begging her husband to join her.
‘In her diary, she wrote his name several times, underlining it each time, as though she were performing a ritual to summon him.
‘Her writing became worse and she dashed off erratic postcards to people.
‘Only later,’ writes Spence, ‘would it become known as a symptom of her condition, manic depression, then undiagnosed. There was no answer and she suspected the crew were intercepting her mail in order to manipulate her into doing their bidding.
She had earned a Best Actress Academy Award for Gone With The Wind in 1940
She would spend long nights in her bungalow knocking back way too much gin and playing canasta (photographed with Olivier)
Late-night boozing affected her performance and her beauty – her face so bloated that close-ups were out of the question
Perhaps delirious in the heat, perhaps her mental decline already plaguing her, one fateful night she mistook Peter for Larry, and fell into his arms, ‘sobbing and… pleading with him to sleep with her.
‘In the moment, and in the guise of Larry, he consented to her wishes,’ writes Spence.
It wouldn’t be the last time he pretended to be his beautiful co-star’s husband: ‘Peter continued the charade of becoming Larry when she needed him most.’
When the production team eventually left Ceylon for the soundstages of Hollywood, her fellow cast members and crew must have hoped her fragile mental state might stabilize.
But even during the long flight to LA, Leigh had to be repeatedly drugged into unconsciousness, after standing up ‘screaming that the wing was on fire.
‘She became hysterical and made for the exit, threatening to throw herself out.
‘Then, she tore at her clothes, ripping her dress down the middle, and fought with Peter, who tried to reason with her.
‘The stunned passengers watched, in horror, as she was restrained and forcibly sedated with sleeping pills, which periodically wore off on their journey.
‘Coming to, she began her outbursts all over again and, once more, would be sedated for the next eight hours or so.’
When they finally reached California, Leigh seemed more settled, and announced that she wasn’t going to stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel as planned, ensconcing herself instead in the Hanover Drive home Finch had rented with his wife Tamara and their three-year-old daughter, Anita.
But no sooner had they arrived than her manic episodes ramped up again.
One minute she would demand a party; the next she would be sprawled across her bed, hysterical.
One evening Leigh barged into the couple’s bedroom, ripping off their sheets and yelling: ‘You haven’t told her, you haven’t told her! How could you be sleeping with her, you monster? You’re my lover!’
On another occasion, she even suggested a sexual liaison with Tamara, allegedly telling her: ‘Two women together was the most pleasurable lovemaking.’
Her doctor in Ceylon had said that, ‘given Vivien’s mental state, sexual activity was heightened and patients did not discriminate when it came to partners.’
‘When gripped by a manic episode,’ continues Spence, ‘Vivien propositioned people of both sexes.’
She screamed that she wanted to die; attacked Tamara with a knife, and cut up all her clothes.
Neighbors talked of her wandering through the house naked, throwing money out of the window and threatening to jump out of it herself.
After she threatened to kill Anita, the Finches called a halt on their living arrangements.
They weren’t the only ones who were running out of patience. Realizing Leigh was incapable of working, Paramount washed its hands of her, casting Elizabeth Taylor in Elephant Walk instead, forcing the desperately ill actress even further into a depression.
She screamed that she wanted to die; attacked Tamara with a knife, and cut up all her clothes
On the flight from Ceylon, she tore at her clothes, ripping her dress down the middle
Larry had his wife forcibly sedated and flown to London for ‘treatment’
Finally, Larry answered his wife’s anguished calls and came to her in California. He once again had her forcibly sedated (after she attempted to bite the nurse restraining her) and flown to London for ‘treatment’.
There, admitted to Netherne Asylum in Surrey and held in a straight jacket, she was subjected to a brutal course of ‘cures’ that included daily ice baths and being ‘mummified’ in damp sheets.
‘In the clinical setting of Vivien’s hospital room, a nurse administered injections of Pentothal to induce her into a coma,’ writes Spence.
‘They had stripped her without her consent and she recalled feeling exposed: her naked flesh was cold but she could not push them away, or protest for them to stop.
‘They unwrapped her each morning, and plunged her into the deep bathtub, with a nurse on either side, holding her body in a dead man’s float.’
She was even treated with electroconvulsive therapy – a block shoved between her teeth to prevent her biting down on her tongue; straps holding her wrists and ankles in place as an electric current surged through her brain to induce seizures.
‘A light hanging overhead was switched on, blinding her. Her temples were damp, where a metallic liquid had been applied,’ writes Spence. ‘The doctor walked behind her; his white coat could be seen in her peripheral vision. Fear washed over her.
‘A sharp jolt through her temples, slamming through her skull. Her body lifted off the bed. Again and again, until it was over.’
Some privately condemned Larry for abandoning his wife in the ‘loony bin’ like that – he’d flown to Ischia, Italy, to stay with friends almost immediately after she was admitted to Netherne, and left no address for hospital staff to find him.
In his absence, she eventually persuaded her first – and still devoted – husband, Leigh Holman, to sign her release forms, and she gradually recovered in more comfortable hospital surroundings, where she could receive guests and even arranged for a beautician to come and pluck her eyebrows.
But the ECT had left her temples singed and raw, and her hair was so burned that she had to resort to wearing wigs. It also ‘created vast gulfs in Vivien’s brain and she struggled to remember what had taken place in Ceylon and Hollywood.’
Leigh won the Best Actress for A Streetcar Named Desire, playing the sexually promiscuous, hard-drinking Blanche DuBois opposite Marlon Brando’s Stanley Kowalski
Elizabeth Taylor replaced Leigh in Elephant Walk
Her affair with Finch continued, and she wondered if the child she lost in 1956 was his
Astonishingly – despite both men’s neglect – her relationship with Olivier and the affair with Finch limped on.
By 1955, his own marriage to Tamara all but over, Finch even moved into the Oliviers’ home – and Vivien’s bed, right under the nose of Larry.
Indeed, the longed-for child she lost to miscarriage in 1956 – the one Larry had hoped would patch up their desperately frayed marriage – may have been Finch’s.
‘Vivien told Peter that he might be the father but she could not be certain,’ writes Spence, ‘as in recent months Larry was more attentive than before.’
Three years after her eventual divorce from Olivier, Leigh had another breakdown – this time live on the Broadway stage.
The aftermath was sadly reminiscent of her earlier hospitalization during Elephant Walk – after being forcibly sedated, she was flown back to England and given more ECT. Her partner at the time, Jack Merivale, stayed behind in New York.
‘Are you coming too?’ she asked him before the sedative took hold.
‘No. It doesn’t seem worthwhile to pay two airfares,’ he told her.
Writes Spence: ‘She would never forget Jack’s response, nor how he had left her alone at her lowest point, the way Larry had done at Netherne ten years earlier.’
Where Madness Lies: The Double Life of Vivien Leigh by Lyndsy Spence is published by Pegasus Books
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