Museum acquires Leigh’s archives

Vivien Leigh’s archive — including letters sent to husband Laurence Olivier and diaries written until just before the Gone With The Wind star’s death — have been acquired by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum&.

The archive — which has not been publicly displayed before — has been purchased by the museum from the star’s grandchildren on the centenary year of her birth.

As well as the British actress’s annotated scripts, it features correspondence from Winston Churchill, Noel Coward, and writer Graham Greene and contains over 200 letters exchanged with Olivier — the couple were married from 1940 to 1960 — 40 of which were sent while Olivier was on Broadway and Leigh was shooting Gone With The Wind in LA, between Apr and Jun 1939.