Vivien Leigh had a nervous breakdown filming ‘Gone with the Wind’
nypost.com“Gone With the Wind” was hell on earth.The film would go on to become the top grossing movie of all time (adjusted for inflation, it boasted ticket sales of $1.823 billion), winning ten Academy Awards in 1939.
But it took a significant toll on its 25-year-old female lead. Exhaustion and pressure from long days and nights on the movie set had her taking sedatives to calm her hysteria until one day, she accidentally overdosed.At the time, Leigh was involved in an affair with English actor Laurence Olivier.
The two had fallen head over heels on the movie set “Fire Over England” two years before her starring role as Scarlett. Leigh had abandoned her husband, lawyer Herbert Leigh Holman, and their baby girl for Olivier — who had left his wife, actress Jill Esmond, and their young son.“How dare you take four pills like that, you hysterical little ninny,” Olivier wrote to Leigh in a letter, having heard of her overdose.
He also enjoyed penning her sexy letters, including one that read, “Urrgh! Bend over — Yes, take your drawers down – no, lift your skirt up – now then: Smack!
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