Leslie Howard

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Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 1893 – 1 June 1943) was an English stage and film actor, producer, and producer.

He also wrote several articles and essays for The New York Times, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair, as one of the best box-office draws and movie idols of the 1930s.

Howard is perhaps best known for his appearance in Gone with the Wind (1939).

He appeared in several other notable films, including Berkeley Square (1933), Of Human Bondage (1934), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1936), "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. Acting and filmmaking were two aspects of Howard's Second World War service.

He was active in anti-German propaganda and is thought to have been connected with British or Allied Intelligence, sparking conspiracy theories about his disappearance in 1943 when the Luftwaffe shot down BOAC Flight 777 over the Bay of Biscay (in Cedeira, A Corua), on which he was a passenger.

Early life

Leslie Howard Steiner was born in Upper Norwood, London, and Ferdinand Steiner, a British mother, Lilian (née Blumberg), and a Hungarian-Jewish father. Arthur Howard, his younger brother, was a comedian. Lilian had been raised as a Christian, but she was of partial Jewish ancestry, as her paternal grandfather Ludwig Blumberg, a Jewish merchant from East Prussia, had married into the English upper-middle classes.

He received his formal education at Alleyn's School, London. The family anglicized its name, in this case, to "stainer," although Howard's name remained Steiner in official documents, such as his military records.

He was a 21-year-old bank clerk in Dulwich when the First World War began; in September 1914, he voluntarily enlisted (under the name Leslie Howard Steiner) as a Private with the British Army's Inns of Court Officer Training Corps in London. He was granted a commission in February 1915 as a subordinate with the 3/1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry, with whom he served in England until 19 May 1916 when he resigned his service and was medically discharged from the British Army with neurasthenia.

Howard appeared in The London Gazette in March 1920 that he had changed his surname and would thereafter be identified by the name Howard rather than Steiner.

Personal life

Howard and her mother Ruth Evelyn Martin (1895-1980), together with her children Ronald "Winkie" and Leslie Ruth "Doodie" who appeared in the film The Man Who Gave a Damn. His uncle was an actor and appeared in the television series Sherlock Holmes (1954). Arthur, his younger brother, was also an actor, mainly in British comedies. Irene, a costume designer and a casting director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was his sister. Doris Stainer, his brother, established the Hurst Lodge School in Sunningdale, Berkshire, in 1945, and the school's headmistress continued to work until the 1970s.

Howard was well-known as a "ladies' man" and had said he never pursued women, but "can't always be bothered to run away." When they appeared in the United Kingdom in Her Cardboard Lover (1927), she said he had affairs with Tallulah Bankhead (1931), with Merle Oberon (1934), and Conchita Montenegro (1931), with whom he had appeared in the film Never the Twain Shall Meet (1931). During the filming of The Animal Kingdom, there were also rumors of people with Norma Shearer and Myrna Loy. Howard is alleged to have fathered a daughter, Carol Grace, born 1924, by Rosheen Marcus; Carol married writer William Saroyan, then actor Walter Matthau.

While working on Pygmalion, Howard fell in love with Violette Cunnington in 1938. She was secretary to Gabriel Pascal, who was directing the film, and Howard and Margaret were visiting the United States and living together while filming Gone with the Wind and Intermezzo (both 1939). Before filming ended on the two films, his wife and daughter joined him in Hollywood, making his relationship with Cunnington somewhat uncomfortable for everybody. In August, 1939, he and his wife and daughter left the United States for the last time, and Cunnington followed shortly. She appeared in "Pimpernel" Smith (1941) and The First of the Few (1942) in minor roles under Suzanne Clair's stage name. She died of pneumonia in her early thirties in 1942, just six months before Howard's death. Howard left her his Beverly Hills home in his will.

Stowe Maries, a 16th-century, six-bedroom farmhouse on the edge of Westcott, Surrey, was Howard Howards' family home in the United Kingdom. He will inherit a £62,761 estate, the equivalent of £3 million as of 2021. In 2013, an English Heritage blue plaque was unveiled in 45 Farquhar Road, Upper Norwood, London.

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Theatre career

Howard began his professional acting career in regional tours of Peg O' My Heart and Charley's Aunt in 1916–17, and on the London stage in 1917, but he had his greatest Broadway success in the United States in Broadway performances such as Aren't We All? (1923), Outward Bound (1924), and The Green Hat (1925). In Her Cardboard Lover (1927), he became an undisputed Broadway celebrity. Howard, who made his Hollywood debut as time traveller Peter Standish in Berkeley Square (1929), starred in the film version of Outward Bound, but he didn't like it and promised never to return to Hollywood. However, he did return several times — later repeating the Standish role in Berkeley Square's 1933 film version.

The stage, on the other hand, remained a vital part of his career. Howard used to dole acting, producing, and directing in the Broadway shows in which he appeared. Howard was also a dramatist, and he appeared in Murray Hill (1927), a Broadway production. In John Galsworthy's 1927 Broadway production Escape, Matt Denant played Matt Denant, the first dramatic actor to make his name as a dramatic actor. His stage triumphs continued with The Animal Kingdom (1932) and The Petrified Forest (1936). He reprised both roles in the film versions later.

Howard loved to perform Shakespeare, but producer John Houseman said he could be lazy with learning lines. He came to fame in Romeo and Juliet (1936) as the leading man. He had the misfortune to open in Hamlet (1936), just a few weeks after John Gield opened a rival production of the same play that was much more popular with both critics and audiences. Howard's production, his last on stage appearance, lasted for only 39 performances before closing.

In 1981, Howard was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Film career

Howard suggested that a film production company, British Comedy Films Ltd., be formed by Howard Howard in 1920. Adrian Brunel was a student at the University of Durham. Minerva Films Ltd. was eventually settled on the name Minerva Films Ltd. Howard, Brunel, C. Aurel, C. Audey Smith, Nigel Playfair, and A. Smith were among the company's board of directors. A. Milne. H. G. Wells, one of the company's investors, was one of the company's investors. Despite that Minerva films were written by A., they were not written by A. A. Milne—were well-received by commentators, but the company was only worth £200 per film, and Minerva Films Ltd. was short-lived. A.'s early films include four written by A. A. Milne, starring C. Auduy Smith; Twice Two; Five Pounds Reward; and Bookworms, the latter two starring Howard Howard. A collection of these films is on display in the British Film Institute's archives.

Howard played bouncing Englishmen in British and Hollywood films. He appeared in the film version of Outward Bound (1930), but in a different role from the one portrayed on Broadway. He appeared in A Free Soul (1931), which also stars Lionel Barrymore and future Gone With the Wind rival Clark Gable eight years before their Civil War epic was released. He appeared in Berkeley Square (1933), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He appeared in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), which is often considered the definitive portrayal.

When Howard co-starred with Bette Davis in The Petrified Forest (1936) – having earlier co-starred with her in W. Somerset Maugham's book Of Human Bondage (1934) – he reportedly requested that Humphrey Bogart play gangster Duke Mantee, repeating his role from the stage performance. Bogart's film career was revived, and the two men became lifelong colleagues; Bogart and Lauren Bacall's daughter "Leslie Howard Bogart" was named after him. In the same year, Howard appeared in a film adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1936).

Davis appeared in the romantic comedy It's Love I'm After (1937), co-starring Olivia de Havilland. He appeared in the film version of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1938), which earned Howard another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1939, when war came, he played opposite Ingrid Bergman in Intermezzo; in August, Howard was determined to return to the land of his birth. He was keen to support the war effort but decided against a new film, but instead he was forced to relinquish £20,000 of assets in the United States before leaving the country.

Howard is perhaps best known for his role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939), his last American film, but he was dissatisfied with Hollywood and returned to the United Kingdom to help with the Second World War effort. He appeared in a number of Second World War films, including 49th Parallel (1941), "Pimpernel" Smith (1941) and The First of the Few (1942), the latter two of which he also produced and co-produced. Howard was "not what he seemed," he said on his friend and co-star David Niven in The First of the Few. He had the kind of distraught air that would make people want to mother him. He was actually about as na've as General Motors as he was. "British little brain, always going."

In 1944, after his death, British traders named him as the second most popular local celebrity at the box office. His daughter characterized him as a "remarkable man."

Radio career

Howard was not limited to just an excellent actor on stage and screen, he appeared on radio and television multiple times. Howard began his radio career in the early 1930s when he did superb readings for The Yardley Program. Since the recordings have been lost, no further details are known about the program, but references to it can be found in fan magazines of the time, and the program is listed in The New York Times radio program guide, although references to the program can be found. Howard appeared on such shows as The Rudy Vallee Show/Fleischmann's Yeast Hour, Lux Radio Theatre, The Silver Theatre, The Magic Key of RCA, Bing Crosby, and Kraft Music Hall as Bing Crosby.

Leslie Howard, Margaret Howard, age 10, and her daughter Leslie Ruth Howard, aged 10, appeared in "The Enchanted Forest" from James M. Barrie's Dear Brutus in May, 1935. For the first time in the show's history, the performance was so popular that an encore was staged six weeks later on June 27, 1935. The show continues to be broadcast and can be heard on the Old Time Radio Library's website.

Howard began as a visitor on Eddie Cantor's Texaco Town at the end of 1936. In the skit "Three Pairs of Rubbers," he and Cantor took the punchline for six months and three appearances before finally delivering the punchline. Howard's appearances were not limited to guest spots. Howard had his own show on CBS from October 1935 to 1936. The Amateur Gentleman was a serialized television show. Leslie Howard's Matinee became a new adapted play that was popular among radio listeners each week. In the summer of 1937, Howard appeared in Columbia Presents Shakespeare as Benedick. Howard produced two shows for Lux Radio Theatre: Lady for A Day, starring May Robson and Guy Kibbee, and Emile Zola, starring Paul Muni and Josephine Hutchinson.

The Radio Tribute to the King and Queen, which attracted scores of British stars and queens, while King George VI and Queen Elizabeth listened with President Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt from Hyde Park, his last known radio appearance in the United States before returning to Britain to support the war effort. Howard's appearances on the BBC's Britain Speaks began in the United States in 1940, shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, encouraging the US to enter the war in favor of Britain. Howard had completed 27 broadcasts of Britain Speaks by January 1941. Howard was also on a BBC panel programme called The Brains Trust by Stephen Coveney.

Unfortunately, most of Howard's radio broadcasts have been lost, but a few have survived for the enjoyment of viewers today.

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