In February 1940, Jill Esmond agreed to divorce Olivier, and Holman also agreed to divorce Leigh, although they maintained a strong friendship for the rest of Leigh's life. Esmond was granted custody of Tarquin, her son with Olivier, and Holman was granted custody of Suzanne, his daughter with Leigh. On
August 30 Olivier and Leigh were married in
Santa Barbara, California, in a ceremony attended only by their witnesses,
Katharine Hepburn and
Garson Kanin.
Leigh hoped to star with Olivier and made a screentest for
Rebecca, which was to be directed by
Alfred Hitchcock with Olivier in the leading role, but after viewing her screentest Selznick noted that "she doesn't seem right as to sincerity or age or innocence," a view shared by Hitchcock, and Leigh's mentor, George Cukor. Selznick also observed that she had shown no enthusiasm for the part until Olivier had been confirmed as the lead actor, and subsequently cast
Joan Fontaine. He also refused to allow her to join Olivier in
Pride and Prejudice (1940), and
Greer Garson took the part Leigh had envisioned for herself.
Waterloo Bridge (1940) was to have starred Olivier and Leigh; however, Selznick replaced Olivier with
Robert Taylor, then at the peak of his success as one of
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's most popular male stars. Leigh's top billing reflected her status in Hollywood, and despite her reluctance to participate without Olivier, the film not only proved to be popular with audiences and critics, but it also became her favorite film.
She and Olivier mounted a stage production of
Romeo and Juliet for
Broadway. The New York press publicized the adulterous nature that had marked the beginning of Olivier and Leigh's relationship, and questioned their ethics in not returning to England to help with the
war effort; and critics were hostile in their assessment of the production.
Brooks Atkinson for the
New York Times wrote, "Although Miss Leigh and Mr. Olivier are handsome young people they hardly act their parts at all." While most of the blame was attributed to Olivier's acting and direction, Leigh was also criticised, with
Bernard Grebanier commenting on the "thin, shopgirl quality of Miss Leigh's voice." The couple had invested almost their entire savings into the project, and its failure was a financial disaster for them.
They filmed
That Hamilton Woman (1941) with Olivier as
Horatio Nelson and Leigh as
Emma Hamilton. With Britain engaged in World War II, it was one of several Hollywood films made with the aim of arousing a pro-British sentiment among American audiences. The film was popular in the United States and an outstanding success in the
Soviet Union.
Winston Churchill arranged a screening for a party that included
Franklin D. Roosevelt and on its conclusion addressed the group, saying, "Gentlemen, I thought this film would interest you, showing great events similar to those in which you have just been taking part." The Oliviers remained favourites of Churchill, attending dinners and occasions at his request for the rest of his life, and of Leigh he was quoted as saying, "By Jove, she's a clinker."
The Oliviers returned to England, and Leigh toured through
North Africa in 1943, performing for troops before falling ill with a persistent cough and fevers. In 1944 she was diagnosed as having
tuberculosis in her left
lung, but after spending several weeks in hospital, she appeared to be cured. In spring she was filming
Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) when she discovered she was pregnant, but suffered a miscarriage. She fell into a deep depression which reached its nadir when she turned on Olivier, verbally and physically attacking him until she fell to the floor sobbing. This was the first of many major breakdowns related to bipolar disorder. Olivier came to recognise the symptoms of an impending episode – several days of hyperactivity followed by a period of
depression and an explosive breakdown, after which Leigh would have no memory of the event, but would be acutely embarrassed and remorseful.
She was well enough to resume acting in 1946, in a successful London production of
Thornton Wilder's
The Skin of Our Teeth, but her films of this period,
Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) and
Anna Karenina (1948), were not great successes.
In 1947 Olivier was knighted, and Leigh accompanied him to
Buckingham Palace for the investiture. She became Lady Olivier, and after their divorce, per the style granted the divorced wife of a knight, she became, socially, Vivien, Lady Olivier.
By 1948 Olivier was on the Board of Directors for the
Old Vic Theatre, and he and Leigh embarked on a tour of
Australia and
New Zealand to raise funds for the theatre. During their six-month tour, Olivier performed
Richard III and also performed with Leigh in
The School for Scandal and
The Skin of Our Teeth. The tour was an outstanding success, and although Leigh was plagued with
insomnia and allowed her understudy to replace her for a week while she was ill, she generally withstood the demands placed upon her, with Olivier noting her ability to "charm the press." Members of the company later recalled several quarrels between the couple, the most dramatic occurring in
Christchurch when Leigh refused to go onstage. Olivier slapped her face, and Leigh slapped him in return and swore at him before she made her way to the stage. By the end of the tour, both were exhausted and ill, and Olivier told a journalist, "You may not know it, but you are talking to a couple of walking corpses." Later he would comment that he "lost Vivien" in Australia.
The success of the tour encouraged the Oliviers to make their first
West End appearance together, performing the same works with one addition,
Antigone, included at Leigh's insistence because she wished to play a role in a tragedy.
Leigh next sought the role of
Blanche DuBois in the
West End stage production of
Tennessee Williams's
A Streetcar Named Desire, and was cast after Williams and the play's producer
Irene Mayer Selznick saw her in the
The School for Scandal and
Antigone, and Olivier was contracted to direct. Containing a rape scene and references to promiscuity and homosexuality, the play was destined to be controversial, and the media discussion about its suitability added to Leigh's anxiety, but she believed strongly in the importance of the work.
J. B. Priestley denounced the play and Leigh's performance, and the critic
Kenneth Tynan commented that Leigh was badly miscast because British actors were "too well-bred to emote effectively on stage". Olivier and Leigh were chagrined that part of the commercial success of the play lay in audience members attending to see what they believed would be a salacious and sensationalist story, rather than the
Greek tragedy that they envisioned, but the play also had strong supporters, among them
Noël Coward who described Leigh as "magnificent."
After 326 performances, Leigh finished her run; however, she was soon engaged for the
film version. Her irreverent and often bawdy sense of humour allowed her to establish a rapport with her co-star
Marlon Brando, but she had difficulty with the director
Elia Kazan, who did not hold her in high regard as an actress. He later commented that "she had a small talent," but as work progressed, he became "full of admiration" for "the greatest determination to excel of any actress I've known. She'd have crawled over broken glass if she thought it would help her performance." Leigh found the role gruelling and commented to the
Los Angeles Times, "I had nine months in the theatre of Blanche DuBois. Now she's in command of me." The film won glowing reviews for her, and she won a second
Academy Award for Best Actress, a
BAFTA Award and a
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. Tennessee Williams commented that Leigh brought to the role "everything that I intended, and much that I had never dreamed of," but in later years, Leigh would say that playing Blanche DuBois "tipped me over into madness."