One of the most well-known film couples was Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. In 1951, they starred together in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” The film follows Blanche Du Bois, played by Leigh, who is forced to move in with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley, played by Brando, based on Tennessee Williams’ play. Stella and Stanley’s already shaky relationship is exacerbated by Du Bois.

Brando — a known playboy in his personal life – stated in his 1994 autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me, that he had an interest in Leigh while making one of his most famous films. However, her marriage to Sir Laurence Olivier prevented him from pursuing her.

Brando died on July 1, 2004, at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, USA, at the age of 80. Marlon Brando Jr. was born on April 3, 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA, and attended Shattuck Military Academy in Faribault, Minnesota, USA (dropped out). He is best known for his roles as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, and Vito Corleone in The Godfather in a career that spanned 1944–2001 and 1944–2004 and 1940–2004.

Vivien Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley on November 5, 1913 in Darjeeling, India, and died on July 8, 1967 in London, England, United Kingdom, at the age of 53. She is well known for her role in Gone With The Wind.

According to Harper’s Bazaar, Leigh struggled with undiagnosed bipolar disorder (little was known about the ailment at the time) and tuberculosis in her personal life. Both ailments first appeared in the 1940s. She had been through several mental breakdowns and a miscarriage by the time she featured in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Her health problems towards the end of the 1940s had a negative impact on her marriage to Laurence Olivier, with whom she frequently appeared in plays. Despite the fact that they appeared to adore one other based on their countless letters, they separated in 1960.

Brando claimed that by the time he worked with Leigh, she had been sleeping with “almost everybody” and was “beginning to dissolve mentally and fray at the ends physically.”

Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh | Archive Photos/Getty Images

“I might have given her a tumble if it hadn’t been for Larry Olivier,” Brando wrote about considering pursuing Leigh. “I’m sure he knew she was playing around, but like a lot of husbands I’ve known, he pretended not to see it, and I liked him too much to invade his chicken coop.”

Olivier and Leigh have been married for over two decades. Despite their ardent love and creative partnership, their marriage was frequently strained by infidelity, disagreements, mental illness symptoms, and other factors (Harper’s Bazaar).

Even many years after Vivien Leigh’s death, in the 1980s, the elderly Oliver’s heart still fluctuated when he saw Vivien Leigh’s documentary on TV. “I will marry Lawrence Oliver if I have another life…,” she added. For a while, he was torn between emotions, crying like an old man.

Joan Prewhite, Oliver’s wife, often said that he does not love her. In this existence, he only has eyes for one woman: Vivian Leigh!

When Marlon Brando decided not to pursue a romantic relationship with Vivien Leigh, he may have had her mental health in mind. When their paths crossed at the premiere of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” her symptoms were already having an influence on her life. To add gasoline to the fire, Leigh’s excitement for the role of Blanche Du Bois, despite her enthusiasm for the role in a London theater performance in 1949 and on the big screen in the United States soon after, drove her to the “edge of insanity.”

Brando may have been Hollywood’s playboy, but when it came to his feelings for Leigh, he was a gentleman. Perhaps Brando was ahead of his time at a period when little was known about mental health. Or perhaps he simply recognized a potentially explosive situation when he saw one. In “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” he expresses his affection for Leigh, implying that he cared for her in a different way than the others he pursued.

When British Prime Minister Winston Churchill spotted Vivien Leigh at a banquet, he almost dropped his jaw. “Your lady is so beautiful,” he said to Oliver when he found him.