# What are the best Vivien Leigh movie performances?

> Twice an Oscar winner, Vivien Leigh brought an extraordinary intensity to both Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire — two of cinema's most enduring performances. Which is her greatest?

*By YPB Team · Published April 11, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-are-the-best-vivien-leigh-movie-performances*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Gone with the Wind**
   Leigh's portrayal of the determined, manipulative Scarlett O'Hara is one of cinema's most iconic performances, earning her first Academy Award and cementing her as a legend.
2. **A Streetcar Named Desire**
   As the fragile, delusional Blanche DuBois, Leigh delivered a shattering portrayal of mental collapse that won her second Oscar and is widely considered her greatest dramatic achievement.
3. **Waterloo Bridge**
   Playing a ballet dancer turned desperate wartime survivor, Leigh brought extraordinary emotional depth and sympathy to one of classic Hollywood's most tragic romantic heroines.
4. **That Hamilton Woman**
   Leigh's passionate portrayal of Lady Emma Hamilton opposite Laurence Olivier's Lord Nelson was reportedly Winston Churchill's favorite film and showcased her gift for raw, earnest intensity.
5. **Anna Karenina**
   Playing Tolstoy's doomed Russian aristocrat, Leigh delivered a controlled, emotionally devastating performance that let her intensity shine through elegant, restrained style.
6. **Caesar and Cleopatra**
   Leigh brought playful wit and regal charisma to the young Cleopatra in this lavish George Bernard Shaw adaptation, earning admiration for her comedic range alongside dramatic gravitas.
7. **The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone**
   In this Tennessee Williams adaptation, Leigh gave a courageous, vulnerable performance as an aging American actress adrift in Rome, exploring loneliness and fading beauty with unflinching honesty.
8. **Ship of Fools**
   Leigh's final film performance as a divorcée seeking love on a transatlantic voyage was a poignant, critically praised swan song that earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
9. **The Deep Blue Sea**
   Leigh played a woman consumed by passion for a younger man in Terence Rattigan's devastating study of destructive love, displaying extraordinary emotional range and psychological complexity.
10. **21 Days**
   In this tense romantic thriller co-starring Laurence Olivier, Leigh's charismatic early performance demonstrated the screen magnetism that would soon make her an international superstar.
11. **Dark Journey**
   A thrilling wartime spy drama in which Leigh played a double agent, this early role revealed her natural elegance and screen confidence and helped launch her to wider recognition.

Tags: 20th-century, movies, women, actors, classics, performances