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Leslie Howard Biography

Birth Name:Leslie Howard Steiner

Birth Place:London, England, United Kingdom

Profession Actor, Director, Producer, Soundtrack

Fast Facts

Posthumously inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981
Began his stage career in 1917 after serving in WWI
Became a casualty of WWII, along with 16 others, in 1943 after the aircraft he was aboard was shot down by German fighters in the Bay of Biscay
Began his Hollywood film career in the 1930s where he would go on to start in dozens of high profile productions, but felt compelled to return to Europe after the breakout of WWII to help with war efforts in his home country
Started his career in London but would gain the most critical acclaim once he made the transition to Broadway in the early 1920s with productions including Aren't We All?, Outward Bound and Her Cardboard Lover, among others
Insisted that the then-unknown Humphrey Bogart be cast in "The Petrified Forest", which would prove to be Bogart's breakout role