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Leslie Howard (April 3, 1893 – June 1, 1943)
was a United Kingdom|British movie|film actor of
Hungary|Hungarian-Jew|Jewish descent. Born Leslie
Howard Stainer in Forest Hill, 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|framed|right|Bette
Davis|Bette Davis and Howard in William Somerset
Maugham|Maugham's
Of Human Bondage (1934 in
film|1934).

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

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

His blue-blood persona landed 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. He directed
and starred in a number of World War II films,
including The First of the Few (1942), a biopic of
Supermarine Spitfire|Spitfire designer R.J.
Mitchell, and Pimpernel Smith (1941), an updated
version of The Scarlet Pimpernel. In 1943, he
visited Lisbon (some say on a secret mission),
and, on the return flight, his airplane|plane was
shot down by the Luftwaffe over the Bay of Biscay,
possibly because the Germany|Germans believed the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime
Minister, Winston Churchill, to be on board.

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