Suzanne farrington grandchildren
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Suzanne Farrington Early Life, Career, and Spouse
Suzanne Farrington was most notably known as the daughter of super talented actress Vivien Leigh, the Scarlett O’Hara of ‘Gone with the Wind’. Suzanne followed in her mother’s footsteps but kept an extremely low profile but ensured that she kept her mother’s memory alive until she died in 2015.
Early Life
Suzanne Holman was born in London on October 12th, 1933, and she was fondly christened Suzanne, the daughter arrived at a time when her mother was twenty-two years and a half pregnant. Vivien three daughter including the first born of her marriage to Herbert Leigh Holman, a prominent barrister.
The first years of her life were characterized by changes due to her mother’s growing acting career as well as the declining relationship of her parents. Growing up as the child of one of the most beautiful and famous women in the world was not easy for Suzanne.
As Suzanne grew up, her mother fell in love with Laurence Olivier, and then finally divorced her father, which brought a number of changes into the girl’s life.
Of course, s
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It was with sadness that I learned last week of the death of Suzanne Farrington, Vivien Leigh’s only child. She passed away presumably at home in Lower Zeals, Wiltshire, of unstated causes at age 81. Many people know of her, but few outside her family and immediate circle seem to know much about her. The death announcement in the Telegraph told us that she lived a life of love and laughter and is survived by her three sons, 12 grandchildren and numerous friends, while a longer obituary in the same paper focused more on Suzanne’s tenuous relationship with her famous mother than her individual accomplishments as a woman, wife and mother.
Who was Suzanne Farrington, really? While conducting research for Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait, meeting Suzanne was like trying to reach the summit of Mount Everest when I wasn’t an experienced climber. There was a shroud of protective secrecy surrounding her that was carefully held in place by several gatekeepers.
Vivien with Suzanne in 1935
“Have you talked to Suzie?” many people asked me. I had not, I
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Suzanne Farrington, who has died aged 81, was the only child of the actress and film star Vivien Leigh. She was born when her mother was 18, and restless to make her name on the stage. Suzanne’s birth engaged none of the expected maternal instincts in Vivien, who placed her career before her domestic duties and then eloped with Laurence Olivier, when Suzanne was only two. By contrast, Suzanne was lovingly raised by her ever-dignified father, the barrister Leigh Holman, and found a surrogate mother in her maternal grandmother, Gertrude Hartley, to both of whom she was devoted. Later she also held her stepfather, Olivier, in great affection and esteem. Inevitably, she spent much of her life coming to terms with the complicated phenomenon of her mother, with whom she always had difficulties (though unlike the daughters of Joan Crawford and others, she felt no temptation to share these with the world, least of all in mawkish books like Mommie Dearest). Instead she led most of her life away from th
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