![]() "I want to say thank you for understanding it all for my sake," his letter reads. Olivier wrote to Leigh shortly after their divorce, wishing her happiness. Though never again romantically linked, Olivier and Leigh kept in touch until her death from tuberculosis in 1967. With the divorce final that December, Olivier, then 53, married Plowright, 31, and the couple welcomed a son a year later, and two daughters in the following five years. Their divorce proceedings began in May 1960 Leigh was quick to play the victim, telling reporters of Olivier's relationship with Plowright. "Vivien is several thousand miles away, trembling on the edge of a cliff, even when she's sitting quietly in her own drawing room," Olivier reportedly said of his wife's mental state, according to Lord Larry. Leigh's emotional instability worsened, and by 1960, she was threatening suicide. Unknowingly adding fuel to the fire, Olivier auditioned Finch and placed him under contract with his production company, giving Finch a reason to move to London. It was during this time, Olivier later remarked, that he "lost Vivien." They met Australian actor Peter Finch, with whom Leigh would have a years-long affair with, during the trip. However, the marriage's true downfall began several years later, in 1948, when the couple completed a six-month theatre tour of Australia. ![]() English playwright Noël Coward remarked that Olivier "looked unhappy" after visiting the couple at RAF Worthy Down. Sources who were close to the couple at the time saw the marriage already coming apart at the seams: Leigh had developed a drinking problem and Olivier seemed bored of her smothering affections. The couple moved back to their home country shortly after, where Olivier was stationed with the Royal Air Force at a training squadron. Olivier, who wanted to help Britain's efforts in World War II, made several propaganda films during the time and began flight training, racking up nearly 250 hours of flight time in the U.S. ![]() They tied the knot at San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara on August 31 that year. That wish was granted in early 1940, when both of their first marriages were terminated by February. He placed Joan Fontaine as the female lead instead, arguing it was best for Olivier and Leigh to keep their romance off-screen until their divorces were finalized. Selznick chose Olivier, but not Leigh, for his next project, Hitchcock's Rebecca. Both were disappointed when Gone with the Wind producer David O. Seemingly unable to get enough of each other, the pair looked for ways to be together professionally, too. Leigh joined him in California a month later, she said, "partially because Larry's there and partially because I intend to get the part of Scarlett O'Hara," according to 2003's Vivien Leigh: A Biography. "I love you with, oh everything somehow, with a special kind of soul," he continued. "I woke up absolutely raging with desire for you my love.Oh dear God how I did want you," Olivier wrote to Leigh in an undated letter experts believe was penned in 1938 or 1939. The couple spent a month apart when Olivier moved to Hollywood to film Wuthering Heights in 1938. On their return to England, they informed their respective spouses that the marriages were over, and promptly moved in together in Iver, Buckinghamshire. The lovers starred opposite each other in Fire Over England shortly after, and traveled to Denmark to perform Hamlet together (Leigh played the part of Ophelia). London's Old Vic theatre cast Olivier as the lead in Hamlet in 1937, and Leigh's calendar shows she went to see the play on numerous occasions. ![]() This was love that I really didn't ask for but was drawn into." (Olivier biographers Terry Coleman and Michael Munn allege Olivier cheated with others during his affair with Leigh.) "I hated myself for cheating on Jill, but then I had cheated before, but this was something different. That didn't stop the couple from conceiving a child: Esmond learned she was expecting their firstborn around the same time Olivier's affair with Leigh began in early 1936. The marriage had very little physical intimacy, however, because Esmond preferred women, according the 1992 biography Laurence Olivier. Olivier had married Esmond, the daughter of two well-known British actors, because, he believed at the time, he "wasn't likely to do any better at my age and with my undistinguished track-record," her wrote in his 1982 autobiography Confessions of an Actor.
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