The critics were smitten; some said as much by her astounding beauty as her acting ability. However, this role led to her "big break" and she was signed to a five-year film contract.
Although she worked steadily over the next several years, Leigh's career never brought her top status. From 1936 to 1939, Leigh appeared in a number of British stage and screen productions. She was the Queen in Richard II, an Oxford University student drama production directed by John Gielgud, who would become one of England's greatest stage performers. She played Anne Boleyn in Henry VIII and Jessica Morton in Bats in the Belfry. In 1937, she was invited by the Danish government to play Ophelia to Laurence Olivier's Hamlet. She also appeared on the London stage in the title role of Serena Blandish.
Leigh was busy on the British silver screen as well. Cast again with Laurence Olivier, she played a lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth in Fire Over England, in 1937, followed by Dark Journey and Storm in a Teacup. In 1938, she played opposite American screen idol Robert Taylor in A Yank at Oxford, a film that really only boosted Taylor's career.
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