THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF LESLIE HOWARD

John Greeves looks at the untimely death of the Gone With the Wind star amid speculation this was an attempt by the Nazis to kill Winston Churchill

- John Greeves

Leslie Howard, world renowned English actor, director L and producer, is best known for his starring role in one of the biggest blockbusting movies of all time. Even today, he's instantly recognised as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. During his stage and film career, he was acclaimed for his part as Henry Higgins in the 1938 film adaptation of Pygmalion and for the leading role in 1934's The Scarlet Pimpernel. Five of the films he starred in were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture but only Gone With the Wind won the category.

Despite all his success and fame, a mystery still surrounds the events leading to his tragic death on 1 June 1943. Debate still rages around BOAC Flight 777A which was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s and leading to speculation whether this was an attempt by the Nazis to kill prime minister Winston Churchill.

Leslie Howard Steiner was born in London in 1893 to Lilian (Blumberg) and Ferdinand "Frank" Steiner. His father was a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, while his mother was of German and English descent. He went to Dulwich College where he excelled at polo, tennis and cricket. After school, he worked as a bank clerk, until the outbreak of World War One. He served in the Northamptonshire Yeomanry as a subaltern until he was invalided out in 1916, suffering from shell shock and advised to take up acting as a therapy. He married Ruth Martin in the same year and they had two children.

Acting wasn't completely new to him as in 1914 he had appeared in the silent film The Heroine of Mons directed by his uncle Wilfred Noy, but after his medical discharge he decided to pursue this new career in earnest.

His first appearance on the London stage was in The Freaks, in 1917, a play by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero. This was followed by several light comedies, before his life changed once again.