Leslie Howard

Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 18931 June 1943) was an English actor, director and producer.Obituary ''Variety'', 9 June 1943. 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.

Early life

Howard was born Leslie Howard Steiner to a British mother, Lilian (''née'' Blumberg), and a Hungarian-Jewish father, Ferdinand Steiner, in Upper Norwood, London. His younger brother was actor Arthur Howard. Lilian had been raised as a Christian, but she was of partial Jewish ancestry—her paternal grandfather Ludwig Blumberg, a Jewish merchant originally from East Prussia, had married into the English upper-middle classes.Nathan, John
"Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor, The life and death of a non-spy."
''The Jewish Chronicle'', 20 December 2010. Retrieved: 20 December 2010.

He received his formal education at Alleyn's School, London. Like many others around the time of the First World War, the family anglicised 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. In February 1915 he received a commission as a subaltern with the 3/1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry, with which he trained in England until 19 May 1916, when he resigned his commission and was medically discharged from the British Army with neurasthenia.

In March 1920, Howard gave public notice in ''The London Gazette'' that he had changed his surname, and would thereafter be known by the name of Howard instead of Steiner.

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 had his greatest theatrical success in the United States in Broadway theatre, in plays such as ''Aren't We All?'' (1923), ''Outward Bound'' (1924) and '' The Green Hat'' (1925). He became an undisputed Broadway star in ''Her Cardboard Lover'' (1927). After his success as time traveller Peter Standish in ''Berkeley Square'' (1929), Howard launched his Hollywood career in the film version of ''Outward Bound'', but didn't like the experience and vowed never to return to Hollywood. However, he did return, many times—later repeating the Standish role in the 1933 film version of ''Berkeley Square''.

The stage, however, continued to be an important part of his career. Howard frequently juggled acting, producing and directing duties in the Broadway productions in which he starred. Howard was also a dramatist, and starred in the Broadway production of his own play ''Murray Hill'' (1927). He played Matt Denant in John Galsworthy's 1927 Broadway production ''Escape'' in which he first made his mark as a dramatic actor. His stage triumphs continued with ''The Animal Kingdom'' (1932) and ''The Petrified Forest'' (1936). He later repeated both roles in the film versions.

Howard loved to play Shakespeare, but according to producer John Houseman he could be lazy about learning lines. He first sprang to fame playing in ''Romeo and Juliet'' (1936) in the role of the leading man. During the same period he had the misfortune to open on Broadway in ''Hamlet'' (1936) just a few weeks after John Gielgud launched a rival production of the same play that was far more successful with both critics and audiences. Howard's production, his final stage role, lasted for only 39 performances before closing.

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

Film career

In 1920 Howard suggested forming a film production company, British Comedy Films Ltd., to his friend Adrian Brunel. The two eventually settled on the name Minerva Films Ltd. The company's board of directors consisted of Howard, Brunel, C. Aubrey Smith, Nigel Playfair and A. A. Milne. One of the company's investors was H. G. Wells