Leslie Howard (1893-1943), English actor, best known for his role in the film Gone With the Wind (1939). Of Hungarian descent, he was born Leslie Howard Stainer in London . After serving in World War I, Howard made his stage debut in 1917 in Peg O' My Heart. He appeared in other plays, including Berkeley Square (1929) and The Petrified Forest (1935). He first won notice as a film actor in Outward Bound (1930) and received international acclaim for romantic leads in Of Human Bondage (1934), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935), Romeo and Juliet (1936), Pygmalion (1938), and as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. Howard was killed when his transport plane was shot down during World War II.