New Book Details Vivien Leigh’s Descent to Darkness

GONE WITH THE WIND, Vivien Leigh, 1939 vivienleigh6t-fsct06(vivienleigh6t-fsct06)
Everett Collection

In the 1930s and ’40s, Vivien Leigh was one of the most talented and stunning actresses of the time, starring in iconic films such as Gone With the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire. While her acting career was flourishing, by the 1950s, her mental health was not. In her personal life, she was suffering from a tumultuous marriage, miscarriages and a nervous breakdown, which turned out to be undiagnosed manic depression.

A new book, Where Madness Lies: The Double Life of Vivien Leigh, tells the story of Leigh’s troubles and how she attempted to rebuild her life before her tragic death from tuberculosis at the age of 53 in 1967. The author, Lyndsy Spence, went through unpublished materials and private correspondences to piece together the puzzle that was Vivien Leigh.

GONE WITH THE WIND, Vivien Leigh, 1939

Everett Collection

Spence explores Leigh’s mistreatment by doctors during that time due to the stigma of mental health issues, the sensitive topic of mental illness altogether and the complexities of a woman’s mind. She uncovered that many felt that at her best, Leigh was unable to separate herself from the famous characters she played, but at her worst, she felt insignificant and hopeless.

In an interview with Fox News, Spence found that Leigh’s mental health seemed to worsen after she had her first and only child, Suzanne. Her childbirth was quite traumatic, and from her journal entries, she seemed detached from her child and felt helpless when she would cry or was unable to sleep.

SHIP OF FOOLS, Vivien Leigh, 1965.

Everett Collection

Leigh began to drink more and started hallucinating, and while people thought she was just crazy, she actually started to show signs of bipolar disorder or manic depression. All in all, Spence hopes to reveal all of the sides of Leigh and show that she was a real person dealing with real struggles.

Purchase the book on Amazon.

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May 2020

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