Leslie Howard

Leslie Howard

1893-04-03 – 1943-06-01 (age 50) Forest Hill, London, England, UK
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Biography

Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 1893 – 1 June 1943) was an English actor, director and producer. He wrote many stories and articles for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair and was one of the biggest box-office draws and movie idols of the 1930s.

Active in both Britain and Hollywood, Howard played Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939). He had roles in many other films, often playing the quintessential Englishman, including Berkeley Square (1933), Of Human Bondage (1934), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), The Petrified Forest (1936), Pygmalion (1938), Intermezzo (1939), "Pimpernel" Smith (1941), and The First of the Few (1942). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Berkeley Square and Pygmalion.

Howard's World War II activities included acting and filmmaking. He helped to make anti-German propaganda and shore up support for the Allies—two years after his death the British Film Yearbook described Howard's work as "one of the most valuable facets of British propaganda". He was rumoured to have been involved with British or Allied Intelligence, sparking conspiracy theories regarding his death in 1943 when the Luftwaffe shot down BOAC Flight 777 over the Atlantic (off the coast of Cedeira, A Coruña), on which he was a passenger.

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Known For

Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind

1939

as Ashley Wilkes

Of Human Bondage
Of Human Bondage

1934

as Philip Carey

49th Parallel
49th Parallel

1941

as Philip Armstrong Scott

The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel

1934

as Sir Percy Blakeney / The Scarlet Pimpernel

The Petrified Forest
The Petrified Forest

1936

as Alan Squier

Pygmalion
Pygmalion

1938

as Henry Higgins

Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet

1936

as Romeo

In Which We Serve
In Which We Serve

1942

as Narrator (voice) (uncredited)

Smilin' Through
Smilin' Through

1932

as Sir John Carteret

Glorious Technicolor
Glorious Technicolor

1998

as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Intermezzo: A Love Story
Intermezzo: A Love Story

1939

as Holger Brandt

Gone with the Wind – Makeup and Wardrobe Tests
It's Love I'm After
It's Love I'm After

1937

as Basil Underwood

The Happy Ending
The Happy Ending

1969

as Self - Actor in 'Smilin' Through' (archive footage) (uncredited)

Stand-In
Stand-In

1937

as Atterbury Dodd

The First of the Few
The First of the Few

1942

as R.J. Mitchell

"Pimpernel" Smith
"Pimpernel" Smith

1941

as Professor Horatio Smith

Churchill and the Movie Mogul
Churchill and the Movie Mogul

2019

as Self (archive footage)

Classic Movie Bloopers: Uncensored
Classic Movie Bloopers: Uncensored

2013

as Self (archive footage)

Bogart: The Untold Story
Bogart: The Untold Story

1997

as Self (archive footage)