Vivien Leigh remembered on 100th anniversary of her birth

Tuesday was the 100th anniversary of British actress Vivien Leigh's birth and a reminder of a career cut short by an early death. The Guardian paid tribute to her with a collection of news stories about her Oscar-winning performances in "Gone With The Wind" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" and such headline fodder as her 20-year marriage to Laurence Olivier, which ended in divorce in 1960. Leigh was born in Darjeeling, India, where her father was a cavalry officer, on Nov. 15, 1913. She was educated mostly in England and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She and Olivier appeared together often on stage and in movies during their marriage. Leigh's life was dogged by illness, both bipolar disorder and tuberculosis, which killed her at the age of 53 in 1967. She was rehearsing in London to appear with Michael Redgrave in an Edward Albee play and had apparently recovered from a bout of illness when Jack Merivale, an actor and her partner in the last years of her life, found her collapsed on their bedroom floor. The Guardian headlined its obituary "Greatest beauty of her time."