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astrognossienne · 3 years

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scandalous beauty: vivien leigh -an analysis

“I'm a Scorpio, and Scorpios eat themselves out and burn themselves up like me. I swing between happiness and misery. I say what I think and I don't pretend and I am prepared to accept the consequences of my own actions.” - Vivien Leigh

The quintessential Scorpio, Vivien Leigh is one of the best actresses of all time. Immortalized for her fiery film performance as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind, one of the most successful films of all time, she is the only British woman to win two Best Actress Oscars (interestingly enough, both for playing Southern belles). To her public, she was forever the lady — beautifully mannered, exquisitely dressed, radiating charm. But among those who knew her well, she didn’t give a damn. I’ve often said that I see a lot of myself in Scarlett, and it was Vivien who breathed life, neuroses and her own dangerous sexuality into her. Vivien’s beauty was like that of her beloved Siamese cat, her eyes the same extraordinary shade of blue, her light movements almost feline in their grace. As Stevie Nicks said, “she is like a cat in the dark and then she is the darkness”. Her beauty was matched only by her talent. She had a fierce single-mindedness in her professional and personal life; whatever she wanted, she got it. She had a near-photographic memory and knew her lines after one or two readings of a play. A true Scorpio, she didn’t have any concept of balance; she only knew extremes: she was a bipolar nymphomaniac; when she was high, she was very high indeed and almost uncontrollable, when she was low she was suicidal. However, these mood swings would later be defined as manic depression, a mental illness that quite a few Scorpios seem to suffer from, from what I’ve noticed...she had violent mood swings and uncontrollable behaviour, which at times bordered on insanity. Her mental illness often manifested itself in sex addiction, which led her to having sex with strangers in London parks. Yet, while Leigh was incredibly unstable and as such, could at times be impossible to live with, she was said to be in other ways a “kind and generous person”. This tiny, frail actress from the Himalaya Mountains who won enduring fame for playing unforgettable characters, was as enigmatic as she was tragic. The parallels between her character and Leigh in real life seemed only too real. Her Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche DuBois remain so powerful today because she revealed herself in each of these characters, and in doing so gave us a realistic glimpse into the human condition. Regardless of her many flaws, demons, and hectic personal life cut short at the age of 53, Leigh’s place in film history is secured.

Vivien Leigh, according to astrotheme, was a Scorpio sun and Aquarius moon. She was born Vivian Mary Hartley, in the British Raj (India) to Ernest Richard Hartley, a Scottish-born British broker, and his wife, Gertrude. Gertrude, of Irish and Anglo-Indian parentage, was a devout Roman Catholic. Vivien was a child of the Empire, and while pregnant, her mother spent half an hour a day staring at the Himalayas in the hope that some of their beauty would be transferred to her baby. Her faith was repaid: even at an early age is was clear that Vivian would be stunningly beautiful. It was a life of privilege; her parents were well-off and she was waited on hand and foot by servants. Like Dolores del Rio, she was an only child, and as such, she was a spoiled rotten princess, constantly reminded by her mother that she was special. Once when she asked why fireworks were being let off on 5th November, she was told “it's for your birthday, darling". But her pampered childhood came to an abrupt end when she was sent away to the Convent of the Sacred Heart in England at the age of just six and a half. It is believed that the change had a profound effect on young hypersensitive Vivien's mental health. She was two years younger than all the other children and didn't see her mother for almost two years. But it was at the convent that her interest in drama began. One of her friends there was future actress Maureen O'Sullivan, two years her senior, to whom she confided: "When I leave school I'm going to be a great actress".

She was removed from the school by her father, and traveling with her parents for four years, she attended schools in Europe, learning French and Italian along the way. The family returned to Britain in 1931. After seeing O’Sullivan’s films, Vivien told her parents of her ambitions to become an actress. Shortly after, her father enrolled Vivian at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London (RADA). Vivien also knew what she exactly what she wanted when it came to finding a husband. In 1932, at the age of 18, she caught sight of a handsome man on horseback out riding with the local hunt. "I'm going to marry him," she told her friend. It made no difference that the man, Leigh Holman, was 13 years her senior and already engaged: Vivien, not for the last time, got her way, and they married in December 1932. Soon after, she quit RADA. But settling down to a life of domesticity held no interest for the wannabe young actress. When her daughter, Suzanne was born on October 12 the following year, she simply wrote in her diary "had a baby - a girl". Vivien pestered her husband to allow her to return to drama school; to gain his approval she took his Christian name as her stage surname. She hired an agent name John Gliddon, who recommended her to British film director Alexander Korda as a possible film actress, but Korda rejected her as lacking potential. Her big break came in the West End production of The Mask of Virtue in 1935. The "staggeringly beautiful" young actress earned rave reviews and was soon the talk of London's theater-world. After this success, Korda soon admitted his error and signed her to a contract.

In the autumn of 1935 Vivien first set eyes on a young actor named Laurence Olivier. "That's the man I'm going to marry", she told a friend once more. Again it was pointed out to her that her latest prey was married. However once again, Vivien was determined to go to any lengths to get what she wanted. At Leigh's insistence, she had an actor friend introduce her to Olivier at the Savoy Grill, where he and wife Jill Esmond dined regularly after his performance in Romeo and Juliet. She went backstage to visit Olivier in his dressing room and in front of astonished onlookers, kissed him on his shoulder. And when she learnt that Olivier and his wife were going to Capri on holiday, she went there too, taking along a friend of her husband's as cover. Soon Leigh and Olivier were having an affair. The first film they made together was Fire Over England, where they played the role of lovers. Finally, after appearing together in a production of Hamlet, they announced they were leaving their respective spouses and setting up home together. The news scandalized the socially conservative Britain of 1937. Even after capturing Olivier, the ultra-ambitious Vivien still had more mountains to climb. Despite her relative inexperience, Leigh was chosen to play Ophelia to Olivier's Hamlet. It was around this time that she started to exhibit the madness that she was known for; her mood rapidly changed as she was preparing to go onstage. Without apparent provocation, she began screaming at Olivier before suddenly becoming silent and staring into space. She was able to perform without mishap, and by the following day she had returned to normal with no recollection of the event. Leigh appeared with her old schoolmate O’Sullivan, along with Lionel Barrymore in the film A Yank at Oxford. During production, she developed a reputation for being difficult and unreasonable, partly because she disliked her secondary role but mainly because her petulant antics seemed to be paying dividends.

Hollywood had launched a talent search to find an actress to play the part of Scarlett O'Hara in the film version of the best-selling novel, “Gone with the Wind”. Although she had found fame in Britain, Leigh was still a relative unknown in Hollywood. Yet Leigh was not discouraged. She immersed herself in Margaret Mitchell's novel, learning passages of it by heart. She traveled to America, ostensibly to be with Olivier, who was filming Wuthering Heights, but really to meet his agent, Myron Selznick, brother of Gone with the Wind's producer David O. Selznick. Leigh persuaded Myron to take her, dressed as Scarlett, to the set of Gone With The Wind and introduce her to the film's producer. Selznick was enchanted with the beautiful young British actress. The director, George Cukor, concurred and praised Leigh's "incredible wildness". She secured the role of Scarlett soon after. Leigh's mesmerizing performance won her the 1939 Academy Award for Best Actress, one of eight Oscars the film received. Yet although she had achieved global stardom at the age of 26, personal contentment proved elusive. While filming Caesar and Cleopatra in 1944, Leigh, then pregnant, slipped and fell, suffering a miscarriage. Also, that same year, she was diagnosed as having tuberculosis in her left lung and spent several weeks in hospital before appearing to have recovered. The stress triggered a mental breakdown and Leigh entered an even worse manic depressive state which was to blight the rest of her life. In 1951, Leigh won her second Oscar for her portrayal of the neurotic Blanche DuBois in Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire. Her performance is regarded by many critics as one of the greatest in the history of the cinema, but it proved catastrophic for her mental health. Leigh later claimed that playing DuBois - who at the end of the film is taken away to a lunatic asylum - "tipped me over into madness". She even started to utter the character's phrases from the film in real life.

Vivien had another problem, too: nymphomania. A by-product of Leigh's mental illness was an insatiable desire for sex. The first signs came early on when, during periods of depression, she had distressing sexual fantasies. She sometimes had a compulsion to insist her taxi driver should come into the house with her. At other times, it was a delivery man who caught her attention. Leigh also had frequent sexual encounters with strangers. She propositioned whoever took her fancy. In 1948, while touring Down Under with her husband, she embarked on an affair with the young Australian actor Peter Finch. Her affair with Finch resumed on the set of the 1953 film, Elephant Walk, when Leigh suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be flown back to Britain. Vivien was fiendish about sex. Once she rang a friend and asked her to have tea with her. The friend arrived half an hour later, but Vivien wasn't there. Eventually Vivien returned. It had been raining- she was bedraggled, covered in mud and looked terrible. She had been in the square with someone. That sort of thing happened all the time. She even tried to seduce the controversial critic Kenneth Tynan, who would always write poor reviews of her stage work, yet praise her husband.

While outwardly, Sir Laurence and Lady Olivier were still the golden couple of the British film and theater world, their marriage came under increasing strain. Olivier could not satisfy his wife's sexual appetite and there were frequent rows, sometimes of a violent nature. Finally, in 1960, after 23 years together, the great romance was over. Olivier left Vivien for Joan Plowright (also a Scorpio, albeit a much more dignified and controlled one) and the Oliviers divorced soon afterwards. Leigh was heartbroken. She blamed Plowright for the break-up, forgetting about her own affair with Peter Finch, but soon she took up with and mrried an actor named Jack Merivale, who was incredibly patient with her and, together with her first husband, with whom she remained friendly, took care of her for the rest of her life. Her manic depression continued to plague her, and she had to be treated with electric shock therapy. A friend of Leigh's went to see her after one such bout of treatment and recalls seeing her crawling on the ground digging with her hands. Leigh didn't even recognize her. Leigh's last film was Ship of Fools, made in 1965. In ailing physical and mental health, she played a down-on-her-luck divorcee, giving what many consider a quite moving performance. Two years later, Leigh was rehearsing to appear in a play when her tuberculosis resurfaced. Following several weeks of rest, she seemed to recover. However, her tuberculosis returned; when Merivale left her as usual at their flat to perform in a play, he returned home just before midnight to find her asleep. 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 to death. A true water sign, she drowned in her emotions and passions, and quite literally consumed herself.

Next, It’s only natural that I focus on her husband, a most respected and distinguished actor and one of the greatest actors of all time...he was a classic Shakespearean actor whose passions were almost as intense as his talent: Taurus Laurence Olivier.

STATS

birthdate: November 5, 1913

major planets:

Sun: Scorpio

Moon: Aquarius

Rising: Taurus

Mercury: Sagittarius

Venus: Libra

Mars: Cancer

Midheaven: Aquarius

Jupiter: Capricorn

Saturn: Gemini

Uranus: Aquarius

Neptune: Cancer

Pluto: Cancer

Overall personality snapshot: She was often torn between being the dispassionate observer of life and the intensely engaged redeemer of human suffering. Sometimes she could not help feeling isolated and cynical; other times she found her identity with being one of the gang, and her conscience sends you out into some all-consuming cause. She had a real job combining her immense pride with her lofty idealism, her blunt, piercingly astute observations with her need for congenial companionship. But when she successfully managed it, she became a powerful force in her own circle and in the world at large if she so deemed that a cause merited her total dedication. She pursued truth with an intensity that would exhaust more laid-back, luke-warm types. When the impartial spectator within her married the passionate experiencer of life’s mysteries, she became a natural scientist, philosopher or artist, who brought together the heights and the depths. This satisfied her need to understand from her lofty eyrie and make sense of what can at times seem a deeply threatening world. Life for her seemed both a tragedy and a comedy in which both the light and darkness of the human situation are mysteriously and inextricably intermingled. And her fine intellect got lots of mileage from this awareness – she could be a master of satire and a sharp social critic. She was all too aware, however, that the paradoxes and ironies she observed in society lie within herself as well, and she may have used a well-developed sense of the absurd as a kind of defense against the pain of being alive.

She had powerful desires and feelings and a real need to achieve. Her standards were high; she knew that personal achievements reflected her essence, so she made sure that her achievements were worthy of her. But her essential seriousness and emotional control often belie some very tender feelings and a deep need for friendship, for underneath that solid ego was immense concern, affection and even compassion for the suffering to which she was so sensitive. Sometimes, however, she suspected the worst of her fellow human beings, seeing them as predators and, even worse, monstrously indifferent to the plight of other living beings. Like Dylan Thomas, she may have felt that life was summed up by the fact that "we are born in others’ pain and perish in our own". But she had enormous resilience and tenacity, a capacity for regenerating social structures, and she could take her perceptive mind and emotional commitment into the healing professions or politics and accomplish much. She saw what needed doing and got on and did it, regardless of what others thought. A certain ability to plunge into experience and observe the consequences made her an excellent trouble-shooter. Her personality combined sheer survival instinct with aspirations for nobility. She could turn despair into hope by clinging tenaciously to her uniqueness and to her common bond with all humanity.

She displayed a warm attractiveness and ripeness. Her most outstanding feature was her eyes and her gentle smile and voice. She enjoyed dressing well, preferring soft colours. The philosopher in her meant that she found ideas and opinions more important than fact. She was very optimistic and was easily distracted by anything new. When opportunity came knocking, she was quick to recognize it and take advantage of it. Sincere and versatile, she had a strong social sense. Her fresh outlook and breezy manner meant that she related well to people. Although she may have been careless over detail, she had an instinctive idea of the truth. She was especially good at seeing through sham, however always expressing the truth could be seen as tactlessness by others. She possessed writing talent. She needed to be able to show her originality and independence in any job for complete satisfaction. She was capable of routine work, but ultimately found it too dull and boring. She needed scope for her inventiveness, because she was able to bring a fresh view to any job. She had trouble trusting those who had authority over her. She tended to be fairly materialistically oriented, working hard for eventual success. Her sense of duty and responsibility were well-developed. Her powers of concentration are strong, and she was an honest person. She could be extremely efficient in the way that she tried to get maximum result out of minimum effort. She didn’t like extravagance and waste. She was a thoughtful and resourceful person, who was well-informed on many subjects. Success came gradually and as a result of hard work. Success and growth, for her, were expressed by material and financial achievements, bringing status and prestige.

Her attitudes and ideas tended to be on the conservative side, but they were profound and she was able to constructively develop and apply them. She was very serious about everything that gained his attention, although high nervous tension plunged her into periods of depression. At times, she could lack emotional warmth, preferring her life to be ordered and disciplined. When things didn’t go her way, she could fall into a bout of depression or feel very bitter and vindictive. Her sense of humour tended to be rather black and low-key. She belonged to a generation in which humanitarian ideals became extremely important, as well as the belief in absolute freedom for every individual. As a member of this generation, she came up with radical new ideas which she stubbornly followed. Knowledge was acknowledged as bringing freedom. As a member of this generation, she felt deep spiritual convictions, although she may not have seen herself as religious in the traditional sense of the word. She was part of an emotionally sensitive generation that was extremely conscious of the domestic environment and the atmosphere surrounding their home place and home country. In fact, she could be quite nostalgic about her homeland, religion and traditions, often seeing them in a romantic light. She felt a degree of escapism from everyday reality, and was very sensitive to the moods of those around her. Vivien Leigh embodied all of these Cancer Neptunian ideals. Changes were also experienced in the relationships between parents and children, with the ties becoming looser. Was part of a generation known for its devastating social upheavals concerning home and family. The whole general pattern of family life experiences enormous changes and upheavals; as a Cancer Plutonian, this aspect is highlighted with Leigh’s ruthlessness in her determination to land Olivier, when she left her first husband, barrister Leigh Holman, and five-year-old daughter Suzanne at home 'with hardly a backward glance' and took off for Los Angeles. She only became close to her daughter when she became a grown woman herself.

Love/sex life: No lover expected more from love than she did. For her, love was the highest ideal possible and sex was a rapture that exalted her being at every level: mind, body and soul. This made her a lover to be reckoned with—someone who was completely focused on the relationship. The intensity of her approach made life very difficult for those who loved her. She didn’t stand for halfway measures and she demanded a level of commitment that made many shy away. But when she loved, she did so with such utter devotion that the brave few who stuck with her would have no regrets. It was not unusual for the intense emotionality that characterized her love life to spill over into her philosophical and spiritual beliefs. When this happened she became a particular potent and thoroughly devoted idealist. Of course, she expected the person she loved to share her idealism and she could become quite resentful when they didn’t. At some point the question was going to be asked; “What did she love more, the ideas in her head or the person sleeping beside her?” That’s a question she probably didn’t want to answer too quickly. In early 1940, both divorced their spouses and married later that summer, but even the great Laurence Olivier soon found he couldn't keep Vivien happy. Soon she was seeing other men and Olivier would later state that satisfying her sexually would eventually become burdensome. Leigh would fulfill her sexual needs with many other lovers, including celebrated actor Peter Finch who was a close friend of her husband's. Some biographers have labeled her as a true nymphomaniac. Leigh, who many experts now believed was bipolar, would continue with her wanton ways right up until her death in 1967, her list of bed mates as long as Clark Gable's. Lover Peter Finch would say after her death, that sex was a "sickness" with the one-time Scarlett O'Hara, a stimulant as powerful and addictive as any drug.

minor asteroids and points:

North Node: Pisces

Lilith: Pisces

Vertex: Libra

Fortune: Aquarius

East Point: Taurus

Her North Node in Pisces dictated that she needed to develop her emotions and overall sensitivity. She needed to try to be less critical and demanding of both herself and others. Her Lilith in Pisces ensured that she was a natural born mystics and cultivated her own myth. Her Part of Fortune in Aquarius and Part of Spirit in Leo dictated that her destiny led him to a prominent position in life as a leader of some sort. Fame and prestige brought her success and material rewards. Success came to her when she stepped forward into the spotlight. Her soul’s purpose asked her to embrace unique and unconventional life experiences. She felt spiritual connections and the spark of the divine when there was a humanitarian benefit to her efforts. East Point in Taurus dictated that she was more likely to identify with the need for pleasure (including the potential of liking himself) and comfort. Her Vertex in Libra, 6th house dictated that she longed for a union of souls that was based on a model of pure peace and justice. Images come to mind of a mythical life on Venus, the planet of love, where there is never a discordant beat between lovers, but rather, continual harmony even if played in the minor chords. Physical lust was certainly a necessary aspect of two beings eternally intertwined, but the platonic component far outweighed it in importance for her. She had an attitude of duty, obligation and sacrifice when it came to heartfelt interactions. The negative side was the tendency to become hypochondriacal or martyristic to get the love she so desperately wanted. There was a need for others to appreciate the sincerity of her intentions, to the daily tasks she executed in a conscientious and caring way and for others to know that her actions, no matter how routine they may seem, were based on devoted love.

elemental dominance:

air

water

She was communicative, quick and mentally agile, and she liked to stir things up. She was likely a havoc-seeker on some level. She was oriented more toward thinking than feeling. She carried information and the seeds of ideas. Out of balance, she lived in her head and could be insensitive to the feelings of others. But at her best, she helped others form connections in all spheres of their daily lives. She had high sensitivity and elevation through feelings. Her heart and her emotions were her driving forces, and she couldn’t do anything on earth if she didn’t feel a strong effective charge. She needed to love in order to understand, and to feel in order to take action, which caused a certain vulnerability which she should (and often did) fight against.

modality dominance:

fixed

She liked the challenge of managing existing routines with ever more efficiency, rather than starting new enterprises or finding new ways of doing things. She likely had trouble delegating duties and had a very hard time seeing other points of view; she tried to implement the human need to create stability and order in the wake of change.

house dominants:

10th

6th

3rd

Her ambition in relation to the outside world, the identity she wished to achieve in regard to the community at large, and her career aspirations were all themes that were emphasized throughout her life. All matters outside the home, her public image and reputation were very important to her. Her attitude to people in authority, and how she viewed the outside world, as well as the influence of her father and her own attitude to him was highlighted. The general state of her health is also shown, as well as her early childhood experiences was a defining force for the rest of her life. Her workplace in respect to her colleagues, and the type of work she did as well as her attitude to it was emphasized in her life. Her everyday life and routine and the way she handled it was highlighted. How she went about being of service to others in a practical way, and the way he adjusted to necessities of mundane existence was a them in her life. Also, how she aspired to refine and better herself was of importance as well. Short journeys, traveling within her own country were themes throughout her life; her immediate environment, and relationships with her siblings, neighbours and friends were of importance. The way her mental processes operated, as well as the manner and style in which she communicated was emphasized in her life. As such, much was revealed about her schooling and childhood and adolescence.

planet dominants:

Uranus

Venus

Sun

She was unique and protected her individuality. She had disruptions appear in her life that brought unpleasant and unexpected surprises and she immersed herself in areas of her life in which these disruptions occurred. Change galvanized her. She was inventive, creative, and original. She was romantic, attractive and valued beauty, had an artistic instinct, and was sociable. She had an easy ability to create close personal relationships, for better or worse, and to form business partnerships. She had vitality and creativity, as well as a strong ego and was authoritarian and powerful. She likely had strong leadership qualities, she definitely knew who she was, and she had tremendous will. She met challenges and believed in expanding her life.

sign dominants:

Aquarius

Cancer

Scorpio

She was an original thinker, often eccentric, who prized individuality and freedom above all else. Her compassion, while genuine, rose from the intellect rather than the heart. She was hard to figure out because she was so often a paradox. She was patient but impatient; a nonconformist who conformed when it suited her; rebellious but peace-loving; stubborn and yet compliant when she wanted to be. She chafed at the restrictions placed upon her by society and sought to follow her own path. She needed roots, a place or even a state of mind that she could call her own. She needed a safe harbor, a refuge in which to retreat for solitude. She was generally gentle and kind, unless she was hurt. Then she could become vindictive and sharp-spoken. She was affectionate, passionate, and even possessive at times. She was intuitive and was perhaps even psychic. Experience flowed through her emotionally. She was often moody and always changeable; her interests and social circles shifted constantly. She was emotion distilled into its purest form. She was an intense, passionate, and strong-willed person. She was not above imposing her will on others. This could manifest in her as cruelty, sadism, and enmity, which had the possibility to make her supremely disliked. She needed to explore her world through her emotions.