She achieved global stardom thanks to iconic roles in Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire. Now the public can explore how Vivien Leigh had strong links to the South West as well as Hollywood as part of a major new project.
University of Exeter researcher Dr Lisa Stead is working to trace Leigh’s legacy. The work will illuminate new, unseen histories of Leigh's life and career as one of the twentieth century's most iconic female stars and show her connections to Devon. This includes a new interactive website.
The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum (BDCM), Exeter City...
From 3 August until the end of October, the Museum will host a poignant and special exhibition celebrating the centenary of the birth of Vivien Leigh, featuring the famous nightdress Vivien wore in “Gone with the Wind”. The collection will be enhanced with an evening and day dress on loan from the RAMM and additional items from Bill Douglas Centre and Bristol Theatre Museum.
Screenplays of Laurence Olivier’s unmade film version of Macbeth , widely thought to have been lost, have been uncovered by a University of Exeter academic. English Lecturer Dr Jennifer Barnes located 13 previously unstudied versions of the 1950s screenplay in the Laurence Olivier Archive at the British Library.
Macbeth was to be Olivier’s fourth and last cinematic Shakespeare adaptation. However the proposed film proved to be an “impossible monster”, a phrase used by Olivier to describe his struggle with grasping the role and equally applicable to the failed negotiations...
