Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 1893 â€" 1 June 1943) was an English
actor and film maker. He also 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 is probably best remembered for playing
Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939). He had roles in many other
notable 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 was active in anti-German propaganda and shoring up
support for the Alliesâ€"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.
actor and film maker. He also 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 is probably best remembered for playing
Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939). He had roles in many other
notable 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 was active in anti-German propaganda and shoring up
support for the Alliesâ€"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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