Suzanne Farrington Biography

Suzanne Farrington was the only child of prominent yesteryear English stage and film actor Vivien Leigh and her first husband, Herbert Leigh Holman. Suzanne was born in an affluent household with all lavishness. She, however, missed growing up under the love and care of her mother. As Vivien gradually became more involved with her growing acting career, Suzanne became the responsibility of her father and maternal grandmother, Gertrude Hartley. The latter became some sort of a motherly figure for her. After her parents divorced, her custody was given to her father. Although David O Selznick offered Suzanne a chance to play young ‘Jane Eyre’ in the 1943 movie ‘Jane Eyre,’ her father was against Suzanne following in her mother’s footsteps. Later, Suzanne also gave up on her dream of pursuing acting, although she studied at the ‘Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.’ She instructed at Gertrude’s ‘Academy of Beauty Culture’ in Knightsbridge. Suzanne married insurance broker and executive Robin Neville Farrington and had three sons with him. Following her parents’ death, she received the ‘Manor Farm’ in Zeals from her father’s estate and the bulk of her mother’s estate, apart from the latter’s private papers, including photographs, letters, contracts and diaries.