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Leslie Howard

Leslie Howard (April 3, 1893 - June 1, 1943) was a British film actor of Hungarian descent. Born Leslie Howard Stainer in London, Howard's classic good looks won him his first screen role in a 1914 silent film, following which he served in World War I, his military career being cut short due to case of severe shell shock.

image:Howard_Bondage.jpg
Davis and Howard in Maugham's
Of Human Bondage (1934)

Howard proceeded to play stiff-upper-lipped Englishmen in films such as Berkeley Square (1933, for which he was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), Pygmalion (1938) (in which he played Professor Higgins, and earned another Oscar nomination), and Pimpernel Smith (1941).

In 1936, Howard appeared in the film Petrified Forest. It was Howard who insisted that Humphrey Bogart appear in the film as gangster, Duke Manatee. They had appeared in the play together on Broadway. Howard and Bogart became lifelong friends, the Bogarts named their daughter Leslie Howard after him.

This image helped win him the role of Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind (1939), but he was uncomfortable with Hollywood and returned to Britain to help with the war effort. In 1943, he visited Lisbon (some say on a secret mission), and, on the return flight, his plane was shot down by enemy forces, possibly because the Germans believed the prime minister, Winston Churchill, to be on board.

Howard was married to Ruth Martin in 1916, they had two children, a son, Ronald, and a daughter, Leslie Ruth. His younger brother, Arthur , was also an actor, primarily in British comedies.





Last updated: 02-10-2005 22:27:07
Last updated: 02-26-2005 05:14:48