Dark Star: A Biography of Vivien Leigh

This biography on the great Vivien Leigh moves at very good pace and covers the actress's life with a reasoned balance of thought and fact. I noticed some plot points in films wren't related quite right ("Twelve Trees" he writes at some point for "Twelve Oaks" and determines that Melanie is Scarlett's cousin.) But this book does a fine job at setting out to correct the notion that Vivien Leigh was not a great stage actress. The author saw her in performance and knows his theatre well, and understands performance.It's a great curiosity to a lot of us Americans that there's a rarefied attitude toward movie acting; the idea that great acting is measured on the stage seems quaint. After all, film lasts and preserves a great performance forever (hopefully)--and Leigh gave two very great performances that will be accessible in a way that stage performances cannot.We can take a reviewer's word for it that Olivier was a great actor, but we can judge for ourselves Vivien Leigh's enduringly truthful work. This book argues that her stage work was equally impressive. I doubt a lot of the world outside of the Isles needs convincing as to her ability. But they never appreciate you in your hometown...

Good biography of Vivien Leigh that uses personal letters and diaries as some of the source material. The author did a great job of describing Leigh's life and there were several aspects that had not been explored in detail in previous books such as that she did have a fulfilling life after Olivier left her. He also followed through and closed up things at the end by telling readers what happened to all the players in Leigh's life However, the book did have some errors. On page 78, Gone With the Wind Technical Advisor Will Price was NOT Leigh's schoolmate's Maureen O'Sullivan's first husband but was Maureen O'Hara's second husband; on page 114 actor Claude Rains was spelled as Claud Rains, on page 171 Wilfrid Hyde-White's name was spelled as Wilfrid Hyde-Whyte but then on page 181 it was spelled correctly as Wilfrid Hyde-White. The photos included were great but I wish they had been larger as in group shots it is hard to discern the faces. Otherwise, it is well worth reading for any fan of Vivien Leigh.

I had read the her first biography, which was written within 10 years of her death. This was written in 2019 and had the advantage of access to her archives. It provides greater understanding of her struggle with mental illness and addictions.The author spends a lot of time on plots of stage plays she was in and how those each fit into her career. I found that useful because I was very familiar with her films, but not with her stage career.

An absolutely beautiful book, packed with a wide range of information not only on the exquisite Vivien Leigh and Sir Laurence Olivier, but theater and film as well. Anyone familiar with Bi-Polar disorder will appreciate Strachan's delicacy and knowledge when discussing the subject, and hopefully those to whom this mental illness is a mystery will close the book with a far greater understanding and sympathy for those who must live with it. May Vivien of in serenity after a difficult life lived to the hilt.

I'm a lifelong Vivien Leigh fan and I anxiously awaited this books release. I've read every Vivien Leigh biography and was really excited for this one, but unfortunately it was not the intimate portrait of Vivien Leigh it promised to be. The beginning was a brief summary of her early life, glossing over her early days on the stage and first marriage and then it dives obsessively into her time with Laurence Olivier. At this juncture, the book becomes more about Olivier than Leigh and this was very disappointing. The historical details and research are more about the British theater and The Who's Who of that era, not the details of Vivien's life. Many times the author is very vague about details of Vivien's life meanwhile obsessively laser focused on Olivier and his career. It's bad enough Vivien had his shadow in her actual life, but it was too much to take in her biography too.The author clearly did extensive research and knows the theater in and out, BUT he really does not do Vivien justice. Some of his claims about her are questionable and unproven and at times I found myself wondering if he even respected her as an actress or person.Alexander Walker's "Vivien" is a much better choice.

Leigh is one of my all time favorites and I have several biographies on her. This new book was a pleasant surprise. It did not disappoint. It contained facts I was not familiar with. An excellent read.

I learned so much more about her than I ever knew. I had heard that she suffered fromBi-Polar disorder and it was heartbreaking to know how it devastated her very short life. I have never been an Olivier fan and found him to be an ego maniac and in his younger days an overacting, pompous ass. I often wonder if had she not gotten involved with him perhaps she would have lived a happier life.Vivien definitely a three dimensional character didn't always make the best decisions when it came to her love life. She seemed so driven and miserable so much of her life.The author didn't always have his facts correct in regards to Gone with the Wind with comments referring to Ashley as Scarlett's cousin and his home as 12 Trees.It's not a happy book but one that focuses on her disastrous love life and her very successful career. I'm glad that she was able to become a better mother before she died.If you want to know more about her and can follow the dissertation of the theatre and the chaotic trashy lives of the movie stars of the time, then its worth the price and your time.

Updated material from Vivien Leigh files, thoughI did find one quote out of context wrongly used. Ms. Leigh was a complex person suffered from mental illness , TB A g8 talent G8 actress

The author keeps you very interested in details of theatre life, and the lifestyle of famous actors during Leigh’s era.

LA RECOMIENDO COMO SEGUNDA LECTURA DESPUES DE LEER OTRA MAS AL USO DE VIVIEN LEIGH. ESTA ES MUY RECIENTE Y SE CENTRA EN OTROS DATOS Y TAMBIEN DA IMPORTANCIA A OTRAS COSAS, COMO EL TEATRO Y LA PERSPECTIVA DE OLIVIER ES DISTINTA. LA APROXIMACIÓN A VIVIEN PARECE MÁS FRÍA, PERO SU DIFERENTE ENFOQUE LA HACE MAS NECESARIA, REPITO, PRIMERO RECOMIENDO ALGUNA DE VIVIEN YA ESCRITA

I've read a great deal about Vivien Leigh and her husband Laurence Olivier, and have read all the previous biographies about her life and work. This is certainly the definitive biography about her. It does not attempt to sensationalise her life in any way (as some biographers have chosen to do) but seeks to provide a detailed and well-balanced portrait of her. The Vivien Leigh in this account shines through as thoroughly authentic. In this book, her work and contribution to the life of the theatre is reappraised and her reputation as one of the finest actresses within the British tradition is restored. The caustic and somewhat vitriolic views of Kenneth Tynan are contextualised and found wanting: Tynan's opinion should have, as it does here, only a small place in her legacy. There is a considerable amount of in-depth research contained here, and many details from her life that have gone previously unearthed. This is really a very fine biography.

Great book lived reading about her life thanks Amazon for having a product we couldn’t find in the shops

Although I have read no other biography of Leigh & Olivier, it’s clear that Alan Strachan has undertaken meticulous research and produced a biography chock-full of facts and insights.Therein lies a problem for the reader, at least up to about chapter 12. Strachan, thankfully, is so keen to share this material that the text suffers from a swarm of parenthetical (round bracketed) passages, which infest virtually every page, and even quoted speech. Tortuously long asides run amok and if not in parentheses then they are flanked by hyphens, peeling off from the original path of the sentence like wild horses, though eventually returning home but usually long after you recall what the author was trying to say in the first place.This textural noise turns the paragraphs into the consistency of treacle; it’s tiresome to read at the pace of a London traffic jam. But the details here are important: it’s just that the sentences that carry them need to be re-cast. However, the writing and flow improve noticeably in following chapters, which hum along in a higher gear altogether. Chapter 18 and the Epilogue are very good, with Strachan bringing his book to a cracking finish with an extract from Stevenson’s ‘We Thank Thee’, which he found in Vivien’s Commonplace Book.Furthermore, particularly given that he is dealing with two volatile and gifted protagonists, he maintains a great fairness and balance throughout the narrative whether he is dealing with them or the many friends and colleagues who colour their world; and this is a significant and laudable achievement. Most importantly, he brings to the proceedings that special perspective of one steeped with long experience of theatrical directorship. This inside track matters to the reader or student because it illuminates many aspects of the film and theatre world, not the least of which, for example, is just how much exhausting effort is needed by actors, actresses and technicians to bring to stage or screen a play or film script.Can the Oliviers be summed up? Probably not. Each was made of a different metal and each shone it to a different lustre. For what it’s worth, it seems that Vivien truly loved Olivier, even through to and during her last years at the beautiful if lonely Tickerage Mill. Here, her declining self-worth, and a natural character so burdened by TB and Bipolar disorder, may well have impacted her approach to her health with obvious tragic consequences. Vivien, would seem to claim the top spot as a true star of film — just in the film 'That Hamilton Woman', who is not bewitched by the transition of her reaction into an unblinking stare of disbelief, held for several seconds, when told of Nelson’s death?Olivier probably didn’t love Vivien, at least not deeply and persistently. His self-obsessed nature combined with a whiff of spite, active or passive, lacked the scope for him to do so: the crass stain reference at Vivien’s death is so mean and unnecessary. Strachan brushes this away by indicating that Vivien would have understood — sure, she may well have said ‘Typical’, but my guess is she would have selected something a lot more Anglo-Saxon from the third letter of the English alphabet, as she had done before.Alan Strachan’s book must be now the definitive biography of this couple. Drawing particularly on material from the Vivien Leigh archive newly acquired by the V & A museum and combined with numerous other sources, it is likely to remain so for a long time — and what a tale he tells in such a balanced, workmanlike and informative manner. [4* 0220]