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
Dark Victory Vivien Leigh in "Gone with the Wind". Max Steiner, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score for both this and "Gone with the Wind", lost to Herbert Stothart for "The Wizard of Oz". The film itself lost the Academy Award for Best Picture to "Gone with the Wind". "The New York Times" named "Dark Victory" as one of the "10 Best Films of 1939", as did "Film Daily", and the "National Board of Review" picked both Bette Davis and Geraldine Fitzgerald for Best Acting that year. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these