Leslie Howard Steiner
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On June 1, 1943, Leslie Howard died when German fighters shot down his plane over the Bay of Biscay. He was 50 years old. He is best remembered for playing Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind 1939 and for his insistence on casting Humphrey Bogart in The Petrified Forest 1936.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Leslie Howard — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Leslie Howard by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Leslie Howard — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Forest Hill, London welcomed Leslie Howard Steiner on April 3, 1893. His father Frank Steiner was a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and his mother Lilian was of German Jewish and English descent. He attended Dulwich College and Alleyn’s School before working as a bank clerk.
After World War I, shell shock forced him out of the army in 1917. A doctor advised acting as therapy, launching his career.
In 1914, Leslie Howard made his first film, but his breakthrough came with the 1930 sound film Outward Bound. Typecast as the perfect Englishman, he played that role in films like The Scarlet Pimpernel 1934. In 1936, he insisted that Humphrey Bogart reprise his stage role in The Petrified Forest, launching Bogart’s film career.
His most famous role came in 1939 when he played Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind. During World War II, he devoted his energy to the war effort, directing films and making radio broadcasts. In 1943, German fighters shot down his plane over the Bay of Biscay.
Leslie Howard married Ruth Evelyn Jessie Martin in 1916; they had two children: Ronald Howard and Leslie Ruth Howard. From 1938 until her death in 1942, he had a long-term relationship with his secretary Violette Cunnington. He fell in love with actress Merle Oberon.
A self-described laissez-faire Liberal and Democrat, he suffered from various illnesses including laryngitis and appendicitis.
Humphrey Bogart named his daughter Leslie in honor of Howard. His portrayal of Ashley Wilkes remains a defining role, and his film Gone with the Wind was selected for the National Film Registry. Turner Classic Movies honored him as Star of the Month in June 2018.
Theories still surround Howard’s death, with some suggesting the Nazis believed Winston Churchill was on board. He left an estate of $251,000 in 1944. He is remembered for his role as the honorable intellectual Southern gentleman Ashley Wilkes.
The complete filmography of Leslie Howard — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Leslie Howard — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Leslie Howard's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
A wall of memorable lines from Leslie Howard — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I Hate the Damn Part. I’m Not Nearly Beautiful or Young Enough for Ashley, and It Makes Me Sick Being Fixed up to Look Attractive.
I Feel the Pressure from Other People Coming at Me. When Shots Don’t Fall for One Person I Think It Is a Domino Effect.
What the Actor Is in Private Life, He Is to a Large Extent on the Stage, Because He Cannot Conceal Himself and His True Personality from His Audience.
Britain’s Destiny, on the Other Hand, Has Been to Uphold Tolerance in Religion, Thought, Speech, and Race – the Mainspring of Democracy. We Have Still Far to Travel on the Road to True Democracy, but Only the Germans Have Made No Progress in This Direction. Britain, with Her Great Gifts and Strange Inconsistencies Had Helped Populate Five Continents and Shown That the White Man and the Colored Man Can Live in Peace Together. We Have Also Taken the Roman Ideal of Just Administration, the Greek Ideal of Democracy and Freedom of Art, and the French Tradition of the Family Unit, Along with the Norse Courage and Loyalty and the Christian Faith. Like All People, We Have Made Some Mistakes and Have Committed Some Crimes During Our History, but We Can Say That We Have Built Something Worthy of Our Defense. We Can Look at Our Record Without Shame.
Don’t Think I Am Not Homesick for America. I Say ‘Homesick’ Advisedly Because I Am a Man with Two Homes – America, Which Gave Me Hospitality for Many Happy Years, and Where My Daughter Was Born; and My Native England.
I Looked Around for Some Kind of Contribution I Could Make – Some Kind of War Work I Could Do. for a Long Time It Was Very Difficult. There Were Millions of Fellows About My Age All Looking for the Same Thing. Desperate, I Went to See Duff Cooper and Asked Him If I Should Go Back in the Army. I Was in the Northamptonshire Yeomanry in the Last War. It’s Mechanized Now, but I Daresay I Could Polish a Tank as Well as Groom a Horse. He Said, “You Should Stick to Your Own Job. I Think You Can Be More Useful at That. and Gradually I Have, so to Speak, Fallen on My Wartime Feet.
In the Love of a Good Woman You Have Everything, All the Wonders of the Ages, the Brown Skinned Girls Who Inflame Your Senses with Their Play; the Cool, Yellow-haired Women Who Entice and Escape You; the Gentle Ones Who Serve You; the Slender Ones Who Torment You; the Mothers Who Bore and Suckled You; – All Women Whom God Created Out of the Teeming Fullness of the Earth Are Yours in the Love of One Women.
I Am a Tremendous Believer in the Power of Broadcasting. … I Don’t Believe Anything Is Too Good for the Public. … in My Own Experience I Have Proved That the Cinema Public Is as Ready to Patronize the Work of Bernard Shaw, the Music of William Walton and Film Technique at Its Most Subtle.
The Truth Is That to Enjoy Acting One Must Be an Exhibitionist at Heart, One Must Revel in Those Exposures of the Emotions Which Would Be Agonizing to a Shy or Reserved Person. All the Great Actors Have Been and Are Exhibitionists. It Is Easy and Pleasurable for Them to Shout, to Weep, to Tear Their Hair, to Laugh, to Make Love. They Enjoy It and They Make Their Audience Enjoy It. They Are the Ideal Actors. as a Boy the Possibility of Being an Actor Never Even Occurred to Me. nor Could It Have Occurred to Anybody Who Knew the Shy and Inarticulate Youth That I Was. I Wanted to Write. I Felt I Could Express Myself on Paper; Alone in a Room I Felt Articulate and Creative. but I Was Also Lazy, a Thing a Writer Never Dare Be. Application Is, I Am Convinced, the First Rule for Authors. Then, Mysteriously, a Part in a Play Offered Itself – at Time When to Earn a Living Was a Prime Motive of Existence. and Then Another Part in Another Play. and Gradually the Miracle Took Place. the Metamorphosis of a Nervous, Inhibited, Agoraphobic Individual Who Had Other Ambitions Altogether into a Quite Successful Actor.
Little-known facts about Leslie Howard — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
In 1944, it was disclosed that Leslie Howard’s estate was worth $251,000, mostly left in trust to his family. He also left a Beverly Hills home to his secretary Violette Cunnington, rumored to be his mistress, but she had died six months before him.
He died while a passenger on BOAC Flight 777-A, a Douglas DC-3 named Ibis, shot down by eight German Ju 88 fighters off the coast of Spain on June 1, 1943. All 17 on board died in the crash into the Bay of Biscay.
During the filming of Stand-In 1937, Howard was known for wandering off set. Director Tay Garnett once had him tied up and given a cowbell to ring when he walked, but Howard tied the bell to a string and tugged it from a distance, mocking the search.
Humphrey Bogart was so grateful that Howard insisted he repeat his stage role in The Petrified Forest 1936 that he named his daughter Leslie in Howard’s honor.
Howard’s daughter Leslie Ruth Dale-Harris published a biography of her father titled A Quite Remarkable Father in 1960.
In the winter of 1939, Howard got into a blackout automobile accident that fractured his jaw, broke three front teeth, and injured his forehead and chest.
His death was mentioned in the World War II film Bright Victory 1951.
Howard’s son Ronald Howard appeared with him in Mister V 1941.
He was in a relationship with Violette Cunnington from 1938 until her death from cerebral meningitis in 1942.
In the parallel universe film Quest for Love 1971, Howard is depicted as still alive and acting in 1971, as World War II never happened.
In August 1936, Howard canceled airplane reservations because an astrologer told him it would be unlucky to fly that week.
He began writing at age 13 while at Mr Bolland’s prep-school, where he wrote a play in Latin performed by the schoolboys.
He fell in love with actress Merle Oberon.
He wrote articles for The New Yorker and Vanity Fair and had ambitions of moving into producing.
Howard was reluctant to join the cast of Gone With the Wind, thinking Ashley Wilkes was too weak, but Selznick promised him a producer role on Intermezzo.
In 1936, he attended an American Foundation for the Blind reception as a keynote speaker to promote Talking Book machines.
On his ill-fated flight were 13 other passengers and 4 crew, including British Secret Service agent Wilfrid Israel and Reuters correspondent Kenneth Stonehouse.
After learning the studio wanted Edward G. Robinson for The Petrified Forest, Howard wired Jack Warner insisting that if Robinson got the role, he would not do the film. Warner then signed Bogart.
In 1934, he accepted the Academy Award for Best Actor on behalf of Charles Laughton, who was not present.
With Adrian Brunel, he founded the production company Minerva Films.
He turned down a role in Queen Christina 1933 with Greta Garbo.
According to Winston Churchill’s memoirs, the Nazis shot down Howard’s plane because they believed Churchill was on board.
He appeared in five Oscar Best Picture nominees: Smilin’ Through 1932, Romeo and Juliet 1936, Pygmalion 1938, Gone with the Wind 1939, and The Invaders 1941, and narrated another, In Which We Serve 1942. Only Gone with the Wind won.
His father Ferdinand Frank Steiner was born in Szigetvar, Hungary, to Jewish parents; his mother Lilian Bloomberg was English with German Jewish and English ancestry.
He was the oldest of five siblings: Dorice, Irene casting director, Jimmy, and actor Arthur Howard.
On February 24, 1920, he changed his name by deed poll from Leslie Howard Steiner to Leslie Howard.
In 1939, the Reading Eagle reported Howard was a buttermilk addict.
He was uncle of actor Alan Howard.
In June 2018, he was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.
He described himself as a laissez-faire Liberal and Democrat.
He suffered from laryngitis in May 1924 and December 1930, appendicitis in May 1928, and an infected knee in July 1935.
His film Gone with the Wind 1939 has been selected for the National Film Registry.
He was nephew of director Wilfred Noy.
He grew up speaking only German.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Leslie Howard.
Celebrities similar to Leslie Howard — same craft, ranked by reach.
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