This English motion-picture star and stage actress was noted for her delicate beauty. Leigh made her first film in 1934, Things Are Looking Up, and her stage debut a year later in The Mask of Virtue. Following a well-publicized talent hunt for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), Leigh not only got the part but received an Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She was honoured with a second Oscar in 1951 for her portrayal of Blanche du Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire, a role she originally created on stage. Leigh toured extensively with the Old Vic and Stratford companies in productions of Shakespeare. Among her notable stage vehicles were The Skin of Our Teeth, Antigone, Caesar and Cleopatra, The Sleeping Prince, and Duel of Angels. Leigh's later film and stage appearances were limited because of poor health. She made her last film, Ship of Fools, in 1965.

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