Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor (Revised Second Edition)

I felt there was just the right about of detail in this biography about Leslie Howard's life, career and film details, without being prurient about his active romantic life. It helped me to understand his character in a balanced and fair way. I never had the feeling that the author presented facts in a way that judged or excused him morally or politically. He was a complex person and it was helpful to have enough reminders of the times and political forces of his time that helped to shape him, and which helped to explain his responses in terms of his own character. There is just the right amount of detail in all the areas she delves into. I really enjoyed this book, and am rewatching many of his movies with the background information in mind, which adds a lot of interest.

A lot of research went into this biography of actor Leslie Howard. However, I still found the author to have the attitude that Howard could do no wrong in anything he attempted. In the film Of Human Bondage, it was Howard's performance that stood out, not Davis' memorable turn as the cockney waitress and the only time the Motion Picture Academy received write-in votes when a player (Davis) was not nominated. Howard's turn in Pygmalion was better than Wendy Hiller's most remembered film role. The book also mentions that Howard, as co-director on Pygmalion was the one who held cast and crew together yet Gene Phillips book on David Lean indicates that Howard was only on the set for the scenes in which he appeared. Even Howard's extra-marital affairs were brushed off became he was looking for intelligent and exciting women. It was mentioned that Howard's numerous affairs caused unhappiness and complications with his family but it really did not mention what these complications were. Additionally, the book made no mention of Howard having his wife take care of his mistress during the mistresses' final illness, as daughter Ruth reported in the documentary Leslie Howard, The Man Who Gave a Damn. All in all, I did learn some new things about Howard but found the book hard to read with a lot of background information that I felt really did not matter. It was obvious the book was written by a fan of Howard's, which is not a criticism, but the writing should have been more balanced. It would have been nice to learn what happened to his wife, son, and daughter after Howard's untimely death but that is not to be. (No mention is made that both children wrote their own biographies of Howard). Nor is there any mention of any memorial services for Howard or any protests that should have been made by the British government for the shooting down of a civilian aircraft. The author should have tied up the loose ends by letting us know what happened to the principal players in Howard's life.

Beyond being the best book ever written on Leslie Howard, and certainly the best researched, this book is interesting to anyone who has a deep interest in WWII. There is much history in here, and sometimes what is just as interesting is the history that COULDN'T be found. Makes you realize there is still, to this very day, many secrets still hidden away from the public eye concerning the Second World War. Howard was a hero of his time and an inspiration to anyone who is ready to speak out against evil forces ... in any generation.

If you have purchased the hardback you may wonder if you should purchase this second edition. The answer is yes. There is so much new information and new pictures that this could be a new book. EForgan is a skilled researcher and excellent writer.And the price is half the cost of the hardback.

Estel Eforgan's new biography of Leslie Howard is by far the best-researched and most thoroughly-referenced work ever published on the life of this well-known, but poorly understood, actor.Given that Leslie Howard was such a fascinating person: a sparkling showbiz personality for over two decades; a box-office idol who was murdered at the peak of his popularity; a man of apparently mercurial passion, but also impressive private resolve; it is surprising that he has only been the subject of one previous whole-of-life biography (and that rather excessively "airbrushed" by his daughter in 1960). The handful of other books dealing with Leslie Howard over the years have tended to focus only on the intriguing circumstances of his death in 1943.Thankfully, Estel's book is unhesitatingly *One for Leslie's Fans*. (Borrowing from her delightful description of Leslie's movie: "It's Love I'm After".) Anybody even remotely interested in Leslie Howard will find much that is new in this book. It presents an impressive integration of the many scintillating threads to Leslie Howard's life.Estel also provides a fantastic list of useful primary sources for those who may want to research further into any aspect of his life and times. She has leveraged her fortunate position at the heart of the Oxford University research community to bring this story together, and has certainly made the best use of modern digital search technology. This book probably could not have been written only a few years ago. (In some cases, secret vaults have been opened and witnesses on their death-beds have finally broken their silence...!)Estel reveals for the first time the full detail of Leslie's Hungarian-Jewish ancestry, following several generations starting in Central Europe. (Interestingly, Estel proves that Leslie could never have been admitted to the Jewish faith, since his maternal ancestors in Britain had drifted away from it. - However his genealogy could easily have gotten him killed, had he lived in Nazi-occupied Europe - a fact which must have resonated strongly with him.) Estel has also uncovered fascinating English military and theatrical forebears, and she discloses a delightful report on Leslie's early days living in Vienna with his family.It's possible that Leslie's Germanic accent and family name ("Steiner" - later dropped) may have made life very difficult for him upon his return, especially in his English secondary school and when he joined the British cavalry in World War I. Estel removes the whitewash previously applied to both of these episodes by Howard biographers and even by Leslie himself. Leslie was actually much better at *acting* the schoolboy - or soldier - on stage and screen than he ever had been in real life...The book then charts Leslie's steady rise through English theatre and the infant British film industry, through Broadway plays, Hollywood movies, to achieving global fame and finally the production and direction of his own movies in the fraught atmosphere of World War II. This story therefore provides a fascinating narrative that embraces much of the entertainment industry in the 'tween-wars years. Hundreds of celebrities have their own cameo roles (with some scandalous details revealed!) and the emerging new technologies of radio and celluloid (gradually eclipsing live stage performances) help to forge Leslie Howard the "modern" star.Estel also delves deeply into the motivation behind Leslie's brave and principled, but frightfully risky, preoccupations of his later life. Why risk his self-made fortune trying to bring an inspirational version of Shakespeare's Hamlet to the American stage? Estel has cracked the code by connecting Leslie's moral desire to use English culture to counteract the Nazi infatuation within the isolationist USA of the 1930s. Leslie's move back into the war-zone in 1939 and his intense interest in war-winning propaganda also reflect his deep convictions and connectedness with the Holocaust's innocent victims on the Continent.The final sections of this book deal with Leslie's still-controversial "loss" when returning from an official visit to Portugal and Spain in 1943. Estel compares and contrasts the various conspiracy theories in some depth, but she follows Occam's Razor in emphasising the lack of concrete evidence that Leslie was the deliberate target of the German attack.Personally, while I found Estel's book thoroughly enjoyable (and I consider it "definitive" in many aspects) I don't think that she has completely put the "Leslie Howard mystery" to bed. The emergence of future evidence from British Government files (adding to the tantalising fragments that have been declassified over recent years) may yet provide one final chapter as a polished capstone to the solid edifice of research contained in Estel's biography.

I am the author. While I am deeply grateful to Mr King for his recommendation, I feel that if anyone has splashed out a fortune on the hardback (now sold out!) it would be a pity to have to pay more for the update. Therefore if any reader wishes to see the new material from the paperback, I will be happy to send them a scan of it. Email esteleforgan@gmail.com Best wishes to all.

A well researched, informative book. The author is a tad too subjective regarding what she perceives as his acting strengths and weaknesses and when writing about the qualities of his films but it's definitely an essential read for any fan of this actor.What I found interesting were the passages relating to WW2, I have to say the book added a new context for British (and American) attitudes and actions leading up to and during the war; which the author examines in relation to the film world and film propaganda.

Estel Eforgan's Leslie Howard-Biographie ist ein (offensichtlich) sehr genau recherchiertes Buch mit ausführlichen Quellenangaben bzw. Anmerkungen am Ende eines jeden Kapitels. Das Buch bietet viele interessante Informationen zu Howard's Familienhintergrund, seine Kindheit (während der er u.a. ungefähr 5 Jahre in Wien/Österreich-Ungarn lebte) und Jugend, seine Zeit beim Militär (während des 1. Wks) und einen guten Überblick über seine Theaterkarriere/-laufbahn.Howard's Zeit als Filmstar (vor dem Krieg, 2. Wk) wird in einem eigenen Kapitel ("1931-1939: Film Star") behandelt. Leider werden mehrere Filme nur sehr kurz bzw. kurz abgehandelt (um einige Bsp.e zu nennen: "Smilin' Through" in weniger als einem Satz, "Devotion" in kaum 3 Zeilen, "It's Love I'm After" in mehreren Sätzen, "British Agent" in 2 Absätzen).Howard's Aktivitäten nach seiner Rückkehr nach England im August 1939 werden im Buch viel Platz eingeräumt. Eforgan geht wichtigen/interessanten Fragen nach - u.a. der Frage, ob Leslie Howard ein Spion/als Spion tätig war und widmet sich ausführlich Howard's Projekt/Film "Pimpernel Smith". Das mit diesem Projekt und der Zeit von August 1939 bis Juni 1941 befasste Kapitel enthielt für meinen Geschmack tw. eine Überfülle an historischen Informationen ( andere Leser mögen das aber anders empfinden).Howard's Arbeit im Radio wird im Kapitel "July 1940-April 1942: Propaganda" u.a. mit langen Zitaten dargestellt (mMn sehr interessant).Die Theorien (Haupttheorien) zum Abschuss des Flugzeugs/zum Hergang/zum Grund für den Abschuss des Flugzeugs, in dem sich Leslie Howard und 12 andere Passagiere befanden, durch Piloten der deutschen Luftwaffe im Jahr 1943 werden von Eforgan vorgestellt und sie setzt sich auf seriöse Weise mit dem Quellenmaterial auseinander.Was das Bildmaterial anbelangt, so finden sich im Buch erstaunlicherweise kein Foto von Howard's Frau und kein Foto von Howard's Freundin.Fazit: Sehr empfehlenswert wenn man Genaueres über Leslie Howard wissen möchte - auch wenn mehrere seiner Filme nur sehr kurz bzw. kurz behandelt werden.4 Sterne

This is a serviceable biography of that icon of British Cinema - the Man in Grey, who carved out an immortal place in film history before being killed in 1943 on a flight from Lisbon to Britain. It covers his childhood and formative years and experiences well, giving one a good idea of how the actor developed his screen persona over time. The coverage of his film output is a little patchy in places and variable in depth and quality, but I don't regard this as a big problem in the overall scheme of things. In some ways the book raises more questions than it answers. For instance, his brief service in the British Army during the Great War terminated quite quickly for no very apparent reason - was there a degree of what in WW2 was euphemistically termed "Low Moral Fibre"? And did his children really not mind that much about his effective desertion of them for a sucession of Other Women?The book is most useful in dealing with the story of how far he was involved in combating the Appeasement lobby in British governing circles during the run-up to WW2; in how, along with other activists such as Sir Robert Vansittart (who was - incredibly - banned from broadcasting on BBC Radio ever again after he spoke out about the holocaust in 1942), he tried to bring the emerging plight of European Jews to the attention of a wilfully uninterested British establishment; and in how it deals with the many myths, and the confusion of surviving authentic documentation, surrounding his death at the hands of the Luftwaffe.It does have its faults. Forgan makes a number of irritating solecisms, resulting from careless research and inadequate knowledge, regarding the war years and what went before. It states that "Leslie's father survived until after the war, when he died in July 1945" - that the war ended before July '45 will be news to the thousands of allied servicemen still fighting the Japanese in August 1945. She states that, after the Battle of Britain, "the RAF took on the nickname of 'the few'". No it didn't - the term "The Few" referred specifically to those members of Fighter Command involved in the battle, not the RAF as a whole. It refers to Erskine Childers, the Irish Republican fighter, as being "shot as a traitor by the British in 1922". Wrong again - he was shot by the Irish Free Staters, not the British. And she refers to Andre Maurois as "being unfortunately pro-Vichy at the start of the war". Vichy in the sense that she obviously means the term to be understood, i.e. the collaborationist government led by Petain after the Fall of France, did not exist until 1940.However, what really made me angry was a comment about the young pilots involved in the making of the film 'The First of the Few', with "their silk neckties and the silly moustaches". SILLY MOUSTACHES? SILLY MOUSTACHES? Those young men risked - and all too frequently gave - their lives in the most important battle in the history of Civilisation; I think they could be allowed to wear the moustaches many of them favoured without being denigrated as silly. Alternatively, F*** you, Estel Eforgan.Anyway - when I find so many slips in a book purporting to be an, if not the, authoritative book on the subject, I always wonder about the accuracy of the rest of it. The fact that she often repeats what she has just told you is another worrying factor, like she isn't really paying attention to what she's doing (although proof-reading should really sort that kind of thing out). Not having read any other book on the subject, I can't comment on the overall reliability of the work. However, despite the reservations mentioned above, I got the impression that, by and large, it was a pretty good effort, telling me essentially what I really wanted to know and, as with the possible LMF business, not speculating unnecessarily about things which are now beyond any possible verification. So, if you want a good picture of Leslie Howard the man, you could do a lot worse than Forgan's book. Just keep an eye out for slips.

This book has been well researched but is really unable to find anything new about the tragic death of Leslie Howard.It does shed some light on his early years particularly his brief military career.However at times it does not do full justice to his film career particularly his time in Hollywood.I found it disappointing how few photos were featured.Those that were could be quite curious,such as the photo of Isadore Ostrer,taken from all place the fascist publication "The Blackshirt".Furthermore despite the extensive research the author was prone to mistakes.No surprise when she goes off topic so often.there is a lot of information about the British secret service at the beginning of World War 2.She also deals with the British film crisis of 1937/8 without really understanding what it was all about.It is now very unlikely that we shall ever really know why Howard's plane was shot down.