Vivien Leigh friendship developed after he congratulated her on her performance. Olivier and Leigh began an affair while acting as lovers in "Fire Over England" (1937), but Olivier was still married to actress Jill Esmond. During this period, Leigh read the Margaret Mitchell novel "Gone with the Wind" and instructed her American agent to recommend her to David O. Selznick, who was planning a film version. She remarked to a journalist, "I've cast myself as Scarlett O'Hara", and "The Observer" film critic C. A. Lejeune recalled a conversation of the same period in which Leigh "stunned us all" with the assertion that
Doris Davenport now classic "Gone with the Wind", she did well enough to become one of the finalists for the role, but lost out to actress Vivien Leigh. Despite not winning that major role, Davenport impressed MGM executive Samuel Goldwyn. In 1940, he gave a lead role to Davenport in the film "The Westerner", starring opposite Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan. That same year, she starred in the film "Behind the News" opposite Lloyd Nolan. It was her last role. With no other offers following that film, she soon retired from acting. She eventually settled in Santa Cruz, California, where she lived