Profile Text
Birth Name: Vivian Mary Hartley
Date of Birth: 5 November, 1913
Place of Birth: Darjeeling, Bengal Presidency, British India
Date of Death: 8 July, 1967
Date of Place: London, England, U.K.
Ethnicity: English, likely Armenian and Irish, Scottish
Vivien Leigh was a British actress. She twice won the Academy Award for Best Actress , for Gone with the Wind (1939) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). She also starred in Caesar and Cleopatra , The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone , and Ship of Fools .
She was born in India. Her father, Ernest Richard Hartley, was English, and may have been born on the Isle of Islay, Argyll, Scotland or in Bingley, West Yorkshire, England. Her mother, Gertrude M. F. (Yackjee/Yackje), was born in Darjeeling, India.
Vivien had a daughter, actress Suzanne Farrington, with her first husband, barrister Herbert Leigh Holman.
There are at least three different couples referred to by genealogists as Vivien’s paternal grandparents. One couple are Seth Hartley and Sarah Jane Mawson. Seth was born in Calverley, West Yorkshire, England. Sarah was born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Another are Joseph Nicholson Hartley and Elizabeth Houlgate, who were from Yorkshire.
Vivien’s maternal grandfather was named Michael John Yackjee/Yackje (the son of Johannes/John Gabriel Yackjee and Elizabeth). It appears that Michael was of Armenian origin.
Vivien’s maternal grandmother was named Mary Therisa/Teresa/Theresa/I. Robinson (the daughter of James Wilson/Wilston Robinson). Vivien’s maternal grandmother was usually said to be the daughter of Irish parents.
Sources: Genealogies of Vivien Leigh – https://www.geni.com https://genealogy.links.org http://www.hartleyfamily.org.uk http://townsley.info
Information about Vivien’s Armenian ancestry – http://chater-genealogy.blogspot.ca
A discussion of Vivien’s ancestry – http://www.gnxp.com
Marriage record of Vivien’s maternal grandparents, Michael John Yackjee/Yackje and Mary Therisa/Teresa/Theresa/I. Robinson – https://familysearch.org