Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 1893 – 1 June 1943), better known as Leslie Howard, was an English actor, director, producer, and writer.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, including Berkeley Square (1933), Of Human Bondage, The Scarlet Pimpernel (both 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, and won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for the latter film.
Howard's Second World War 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, on 3 April 1893 in Forest Hill, 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, was a Jewish merchant who 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."Quintessential British Actor's Jewishness Not 'Gone With the Wind'". Ivry, Benjamin. The Jewish Daily Forward. 17 November 2010. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
He received his formal education at Alleyn's School, London. Like many others at 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.
Howard 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.Leslie Howard Steiner's WW1 British Army service file, document order code WO 374/65089, The National Archives, London, published at 'The Great War Forum.org' website, 4 November 2005. 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.The London Gazette (Supplement) dated 18 May 1916, p. 4961.
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."Notice of Change of Name by Deed Poll". The London Gazette. Issue 31809, dated 5 March 1920. p. 2821.
Theatre career
Howard began his professional acting career in regional tours of the comedy plays 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).
After his success as time traveller Peter Standish in Berkeley Square (1929), Howard launched his Hollywood film career in the film version of Outward Bound, but did not 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, remained 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 (1934). 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 memorizing his 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, lasted for only thirty-nine performances before closing.
When the New York production was completed, Howard took the production on an extended transcontinental tour through the spring of 1937, traveling with the company, substantially recast, by chartered special train. These were Howard's final stage appearances.
The program for the Chicago engagement at the Grand Opera House lists the court ladies as Katherine Cale, Lucia Robinson, "Celeste Holmes", Shirley Zak, Mildred Pearl, Sylvia Hill, Daphne Ingarn and Allace Carroll; the third of these is the future Academy Award winner Celeste Holm, whose surname is misspelled in the program. Wesley Addy had also taken over Fortinbras.
The production toured the United States for several months. Documented engagements include the Grand Opera House, Chicago, opening Christmas night, 25 December 1936, and running through 2 January 1937;Hamlet souvenir program, Grand Opera House, Chicago, 25 December 1936 – 2 January 1937. Scan hosted at the Internet Archive. The tour reached Los Angeles, where figures from the film industry attended Howard's opening.
The hypertext pioneer Ted Nelson, son of Celeste Holm and the director Ralph Nelson, annotated a scan of the Chicago program with a note that both his parents had been in the company, that his mother was pregnant with him during the tour.
Howard was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981."26 Elected to the Theater Hall of Fame." The New York Times. 3 March 1981.
Film career
In 1920, Howard suggested to his friend Adrian Brunel that they form a film production company. After Howard's initial suggestion of calling it British Comedy Films Ltd., 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. Although the films produced by Minerva—which were written by A. A. Milne—were well received by critics, the company was only offered £200 per film, even though it cost £1,000 to produce, and Minerva Films was short-lived. Early films include four written by A. A. Milne, including The Bump, starring C. Aubrey Smith; Twice Two; Five Pounds Reward; and Bookworms, the latter two starring Howard. Some of these films survive in the archives of the British Film Institute.
In British and Hollywood productions, Howard often played stiff upper-lipped Englishmen. He appeared in the film version of Outward Bound (1930), though in a different role from the one he portrayed on Broadway. He had second billing under Norma Shearer in A Free Soul (1931), which also featured Lionel Barrymore and future Gone With the Wind rival Clark Gable eight years prior to their Civil War masterpiece. He starred in the film version of Berkeley Square (1933), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He played the title role 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 the film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's book Of Human Bondage (1934) – he reportedly insisted that Humphrey Bogart play gangster Duke Mantee, repeating his role from the stage production. This re-launched Bogart's screen career, and the two men became lifelong friends; Bogart and Lauren Bacall later named their daughter "Leslie Howard Bogart" after him. In the same year Howard starred with Norma Shearer in a film version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1936).
Bette Davis was again Howard's co-star in the romantic comedy It's Love I'm After (1937) (also co-starring Olivia de Havilland). He played Professor Henry Higgins in the film version of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion (1938), with Wendy Hiller as Eliza, which earned Howard another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1939, as war approached, he played opposite Ingrid Bergman in Intermezzo; that August, Howard was determined to return to the country of his birth. He was eager to help the war effort, but lost support for a new film, and was obliged to relinquish £20,000 of holdings in the US before he could leave the country.
Howard is perhaps best remembered for his role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939), his last American film, but he was uncomfortable with Hollywood, and returned to Britain to help with the Second World War effort. He starred in a number of Second World War films, including 49th Parallel (1941), "Pimpernel" Smith (1941) and The First of the Few (1942, known in the U.S. as Spitfire), the latter two of which he also directed and co-produced. His friend and The First of the Few co-star David Niven said Howard was "...not what he seemed. He had the kind of distraught air that would make people want to mother him. Actually, he was about as naïve as General Motors. Busy little brain, always going."Finnie, Moira. "A Few Kind Words for Leslie Howard." Skeins of Thought, 2008. Retrieved: 4 August 2010.
In 1944, after his death, British exhibitors voted him the second-most popular local star at the box office."Bitter Street fighting." Townsville Daily Bulletin, 6 January 1944, p. 2 via National Library of Australia, Retrieved: 11 July 2012. His daughter said he was a "remarkable man".
Personal life Howard married Ruth Evelyn Martin (1895–1980) on 3 March 1916. Their children were Ronald "Winkie" (1918–1996) and Leslie Ruth "Doodie" (1924–2013).
Leslie appeared with his father and David Niven in the film The First of the Few (1942), playing the role of nurse to Niven's character, and was a major contributor in the filmed biography of his father, Leslie Howard: The Man Who Gave a Damn. Ronald became an actor and played the title role in the television series Sherlock Holmes (1954)."Ronald H. Stainer, mmn = Martin." GRO Register of Births: Lambeth, June 1918, 1d 598.
His younger brother, Arthur Howard, was also an actor, primarily in British comedies. His sister Irene Howard was a costume designer and a casting director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His sister Doris Stainer founded the Hurst Lodge School in Sunningdale, Berkshire, in 1945 and remained its headmistress until the 1970s.The Times, issue 50336 dated Saturday, 29 December 1945, p. 1
Howard was widely known as a "ladies' man", and he once said that he "didn't chase women but ... couldn't always be bothered to run away".Gazeley, Helen. "Memories of Hollywood, in the Hills of Surrey" The Daily Telegraph (London). 29 April 2007. Retrieved 4 August 2010. Howard reportedly fathered a daughter – Carol Grace, born 1924 – by Rosheen Marcus; Carol twice married writer William Saroyan and then actor Walter Matthau."Matthau family official website", matthau.com; accessed 17 April 2021.