Margaret Mitchell's book, Gone With the Wind had sold 326,000 copies during the first six weeks of publication and won The Pulitzer Prize of 1937. Taking four years to write, it has sold millions more copies in the decades that followed, and started a world wide phenomenon. Still a recent best-seller in 1938, Vivien re-read the book on her journey towards Hollywood to visit Laurence Olivier.

'From the moment I read GWTW, I was fascinated by the lovely wayward, tempestuous Scarlett. I felt that I loved and understood her, almost as though I had known her in the flesh. When I heard that the book was to be filmed in Hollywood early in 1939 I longed to play the part…' 3

After a remarkably well timed introduction to David O. Selznick by her Hollywood agent on December 10th, the first night of location shooting, Vivien did screen tests for her dream role. Both Selznick, and the film's director George Cukor, were impressed by her talent and beauty. She wrote back to her husband Leigh Holman:

You will never guess what has happened and no one is more surprised than me. You know that I only came out here for a week. Well just two days before I was supposed to leave, the people who are making Gone With the Wind saw me and said would I make a test - so what could I do and now I am working frantically hard and rehearsing, and studying a Southern accent which I don't find difficult anyway... The part has now become the biggest responsibility one can imagine and yet it would be absurd not to do it given the chance... 4

Vivien spent time at a beach house for relaxation, and took piano lessons in the evenings while Olivier was away in New York performing in No Time for Comedy. She disliked Hollywood immensely saying, "I could not stay here half the year…the more I see of Hollywood the less possible it becomes." This was a trying time for their relationship, and they saw little of each other during the early months of 1939. She kept a copy of Margaret Mitchell's book nearby on the set, and resented if writers diverged from the original text during the constant re-writes of the script. Vivien completed her work on June 27th and as they say, the rest is history. Her performance carried the film and helped create the success and popularity that would never cease, even today, six decades later.

As soon as filming was finished, Vivien did a screen test for Alfred Hitchcock for the film version of Daphne De Maurier's Rebecca. She didn't seem right for the part - qualities which made her ideal for Scarlett now made her unsuited for such a restrained role. Olivier did a screen test opposite her, and he eventually went on to play the role of Maxim in the finished film. Rebecca ended up winning best picture the year following Gone With the Wind. The couple were able to return to London in July for a holiday and returned to Hollywood in August with Vivien's mother. After doing some retakes for GWTW, Vivien next was given the lead role in MGM's Waterloo Bridge as part of her new Hollywood contract, although she would have preferred working on Pride and Prejudice. Olivier had the option to work with her as the leading man in Waterloo Bridge or take the lead in Pride and Prejudice. Vivien would work on either film, as long as she could work with Olivier. Due to her contract however, she ended up signing on to Waterloo Bridge without him. Meanwhile, she prepared for the grand opening of GWTW in Atlanta. It opened to great reviews and Vivien became the talk of the town. Right after Christmas, she began work on Waterloo Bridge, taking ballet lessons for a scene early on in the film, and voice lessons to improve her acting technique. Robert Taylor ended up being cast across her instead of Olivier which bothered Vivien, but she got along well with him, having worked together previously in A Yank in Oxford.

At this point in 1940, Leigh Holman finally filed for divorce. This meant that after 6 months wait, Vivien would be free to marry Olivier. On February 29th, the annual Academy Awards were held in the Ambassador Hotel in Hollywood. Vivien arrived with Olivier and at 1 am, her name was announced for best actress. Gone With the Wind was released two months later in her home country - and ended up running consecutively for 4 years in London. In May, Waterloo Bridge was released in America to favorable reviews and critics were surprised to see a different side of the actress, not just another variation on Scarlett.

Vivien followed Waterloo Bridge with Romeo and Juliet on stage in New York with Olivier directing and co-starring. This was thought to have a good potential for profit - neither of them having made much money with their recent film roles. However, Romeo and Juliet on Broadway didn't do well, and it ended up running for only 35 performances. After a brief summer holiday, Vivien returned to Hollywood and began preparing for her new role as Lady Hamilton, a film that was thought as a suitable propaganda vehicle for US-Britain. Enough time had passed, and as soon as both their divorces became absolute, Vivien and Olivier could finally marry. The ceremony took place at the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara on August 31^st, 1940, with Katharine Hepburn as the maid of honour and a subsequent honeymoon on actor Ronald Colman's yacht.

In September, the new "Mr and Mrs Olivier" began working together on the set of That Hamilton Woman. It was difficult to receive a production code of approval with a story that involved a man living in sin with another man's wife, but after several changes in the script, That Hamilton Woman (Lady Hamilton) was released in America in July 1941. Vivien's name appears above Olivier's on the opening titles, notably because of her success in Gone With the Wind. This unfortunately would be the last time the Olivier's made a film together.

Despite poor reviews, That Hamilton Woman became a box office success as well as a favorite film of Winston Churchill's. Vivien's daughter during this time was placed in a new school, and living in Vancouver, Canada, with her grandmother, Gertrude. The Oliviers returned home to Britain at Christmas and by this point, America had gotten involved in the war. She had plans to join the Old Vic Theatre company, but instead began work on The Doctor's Dilemma which would tour for half and year before opening in London in March of 1942. It ran successfully for a year with over 450 performances, ending on April 25th, 1943.

The war was in full swing by now, so Vivien joined several other actors in a review that would tour North Africa to help with the war effort. As they left England, she heard the tragic news that Leslie Howard, her co-star from Gone With The Wind, had been shot down in a plane flying from Lisbon. The review went on, and there were several performances a day taking place on ships, aircraft carriers, and in hospitals, to help the men in action stationed overseas. Vivien took part wearing a Scarlett O'Hara style costume performing various skits and reciting poems and parts of popular plays. At the end of August, she returned to England and met up with Laurence Olivier, who was hard at work on his film version of Henry V. Not wanting to return to America, she signed onto a film version of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, which didn't begin shooting until June of 1944. Production was very difficult with the war occurring on every side and sets were large and expensive, causing delays. The dialogue made things worse with co-stars not performing up to standard since Shaw's script was very complex in comparison to costume and Hollywood dramas of the time. In September, Vivien fell badly on the set and suffered a miscarriage shortly afterwards. This period was also the beginning of noticeable swings into manic depression - a disease that was both misinterpreted and difficult to control at the time.

After the lengthy production of Caesar and Cleopatra finished, Vivien chose her next project to be on stage, again in England. This caused David O. Selznick to press charges to force her to return to Hollywood to fulfill her studio contract which had been 'put aside' for over 4 years (due to war and her intense dislike for the contract and Hollywood itself). Vivien won the court battle and as a result, she was freed of her contract. She was now was finally able to work in her home country without the burden of being part of the Hollywood system. This decision not only affected the rest of her film career, but it also changed Hollywood history. There would have been 4 more films in the early 1940's with Vivien under age 30, that were unfortunately never made.

As a result of the tiring production of Caesar and Cleopatra, doctors requested Vivien to retreat to a sanitarium to improve her reoccurring battle with tuberculosis. She however, wanted to return to the stage and very much wanted the role of Sabina in the ambitious play The Skin of Our Teeth. It was this desire to push herself and continue acting that not only demonstrated once again her will power to achieve whatever she set out to do, but it would also re-confirm her ability as a maturing and professional actress.