- Died while a passenger on board British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Flight #777-A, a Douglas Aircraft DC-3 named "Ibis," with four crew members and 13 other passengers, on a flight from Portela Airport in Lisbon, Portugal, to Whitchurch Airport near Bristol, England, on June 1, 1943 when it was attacked and shot down by eight German Junkers Ju 88 fighter planes of KG 40 off the north coast of Spain. It crashed into the Bay of Biscay killing all 17 on board.
- Disclosed in 1944, Leslie Howard left an estate totaling $251,000. The majority was held in trust to his widow, son and daughter. Howard had also left a Beverly Hills home to his secretary, Violette Cunnington (with whom he was rumored to be having an affair), but she had died six months before his own death.
- Humphrey Bogart was so grateful at Howard's insistence that he repeat his stage performance in the film of The Petrified Forest (1936), the role that proved to be his big break in movies, that he named his daughter Leslie in Howard's honor.
- According to a story in the "Southeast Missourian" newspaper, Howard could be a difficult man to track down, wandering off the set between takes. One day Tay Garnett, while directing Stand-In (1937), finally had several men look for him when he could not be found; they found him and, with the gentleness due a star, tied him up, clapping leg irons on him. Garnett put him on "probation," but gave Howard a cowbell and ordered him to bong the bell when on a stroll. It wasn't long before a scene was ready for shooting, but, again, no Howard. Soon enough they heard the cowbell, though, in a distant corner of the sound stage up in the catwalks. Converging on the sound, they found only the bell with a string attached. They traced the string over rafters back to the lighted set where "Stand-In" was supposed to be shooting. There sat Howard, yanking at the string, plaintively indignant about the absence of director Garnett.
- Father of Leslie Ruth Dale-Harris (1924-2013). At 17 years old, she married Robert Dale-Harris, a chartered accountant. They lived in Toronto, Canada, with three children. In 1960, she published a biography of her father, "A Quite Remarkable Father.".
- Got into a blackout automobile accident in the winter of 1939. Howard's jaw was fractured, three front teeth broken, and his forehead and chest were injured.
- His death was mentioned in the World War II film Bright Victory (1951).
- Father of actor Ronald Howard, who appeared with him in 'Pimpernel' Smith (1941).
- In the parallel universe featured in Quest for Love (1971), Howard was still alive and still acting in 1971 as World War II never occurred.
- Having performed in "The Petrified Forest" on stage he was then cast in the film version but after he heard that the studio were intending to cast Edward G. Robinson in the role that Humphrey Bogart had played on stage, he wired Jack Warner saying that "If you have Robinson, you don't have me." Warner then signed Bogart.
- In August 1936, Leslie canceled airplane reservations from Hollywood to New York because an astrologer told him it would be unlucky to fly that week.
- On board his ill-fated plane were Quirinus Tepas (pilot), D. de Koning (second officer), Cornelis van Brugge (radio operator), Engbertus Rosevink (flight engineer); also Francis German Cowlrick (elderly engineer), Wilfrid Jacob Berthold Israel (British Secret Service agent), Gordon Thompson Maclean (British Foreign Office), Ivan James Sharp (mining engineer; specialist in tungsten), Tyrell Milmay Shervington (Lisbon manager of Shell-Mex Corporation), Kenneth Stonehouse (Washington correspondent for Reuters), Evelyn Stonehouse (wife of Kenneth Stonehouse), Cecilia Amelia Falla Paton (on way to secretarial job at a consulate in England), Rotha Violet Lettie Hutcheon (mother of Carola and Petra), Petra Hutcheon (11 years old), Carola Hutcheon (2 years old), and Alfred Tregear Chenhalls (his business manager and traveling companion).
- In 1936 attended as keynote speaker an American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) reception to promote Talking Book machines.
- Leslie first began writing when he was at Mr Bolland's prep-school in Upper Norwood (England). One Christmas term, a play was performed by the schoolboys at Mr Bolland's, written by Leslie -- in Latin, of all things -- at the age of 13.
- Fell in love with Merle Oberon.
- He was a literate man who wrote articles for The New Yorker and Vanity Fair and had ambitions of moving into productions.
- Leslie Howard was a reluctant addition to the cast of 'Gone With the Wind' saying that Ashley Wilkes was too weak a character but Selznick promised that he could be associate producer as well as star in 'Intermezzo.'.
- In 1934, he accepted the Oscar for "Best Actor in a Leading Role" on behalf of Charles Laughton, who was not present at the awards ceremony.
- Leslie was in a relationship with Violette Cunnington from 1938 until her death in 1942 of cerebral meningitis.
- With Adrian Brunel, founded production company Minerva Films.
- On February 24th 1920, he changed his name from Leslie Howard Steiner to Leslie Howard, by deed poll, which was enrolled in the Central Office of the Supreme Court of Judicature on March 3rd 1920.
- He was offered a role in Queen Christina with Greta Garbo but turned it down.
- Leslie's father, Ferdinand "Frank" Steiner, was born on April 28th 1862 in Szigetvar, Hungary, to Cacilie Bodansky and Berthold Samuel Steiner, who were both Jewish, and subjects of Austria. Leslie's mother, Lilian (née Bloomberg), was English. Lilian's own paternal grandfather, Ludwig Alexander George Blumberg, was a German Jewish immigrant, while Lilian's other grandparents were all of English origin.
- Was in five Oscar Best Picture nominees: Smilin' Through (1932), Romeo and Juliet (1936), Pygmalion (1938), Gone with the Wind (1939) and 49th Parallel (1941), and a narrator in another, In Which We Serve (1942). Only Gone with the Wind won in the category.
- Oldest of five siblings: Dorice Howard; casting director Irene Howard; Jimmy Howard; and actor Arthur Howard.
- In 1939, 'Reading Eagle' newspaper purported Howard was a "buttermilk addict.".
- According to Winston Churchill's WWII memoirs, the reason the Nazis shot down Howard's plane is that someone thought they had seen Churchill get aboard (even though he never flew commercial during the war).
- In June 2018, he was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.
- Self-described laissez-faire Liberal and Democrat.
- Among other illnesses during his long career, he had laryngitis in May 1924 and December 1930, appendicitis May 1928, and an infected knee in July 1935.
- Nephew of director Wilfred Noy.
- Uncle of actor Alan Howard.
- He has appeared in one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Gone with the Wind (1939).
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