Trivia

She has a prominent role in Alfred le Grand, vainqueur des Vikings (1969), but utters not one single word throughout. The critic Pauline Kael, panning the film savagely, suggested sarcastically that she had probably refused to say her lines as the dialogue in the film was so unspeakable. It turned out that this was, in fact, the truth.

Pinter began having an affair with writer/historian Antonia Fraser in 1975. Vivien, battling problems with alcohol, cited Antonia in her divorce action despite the fact the marriage had been crumbling since the mid-60s. Vivien and Pinter finally divorced in 1980 and Pinter married Antonia in December of that same year. Vivien was unconsolable and died two years later of liver cirrhosis.

She changed her first name from Ada to Vivien (after Vivien Leigh), hoping it would provide her with a more glamorous image; and from Thompson to Merchant, because she was proud of her brother's service in the Merchant Navy.

Married to and divorced from playwright Harold Pinter, in many of whose works she appeared, most unforgettably as Ruth in The Homecoming (1973)

Made her stage debut at fourteen in a touring production of "Jane Eyre".

Was nominated for Broadway's 1967 Tony Award as Best Actress (Dramatic) for "The Homecoming."

She chose the name Vivien after Vivien Leigh who she'd never met but admired her beauty.

She separated from her husband in 1975.

She went to ballet school where they made her change the way even though you don't speak in ballet.