Want to know the best Leslie Howard movies? How about the worst Leslie Howard movies? Curious about Leslie Howard’s box office grosses or which Leslie Howard movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Leslie Howard movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Leslie Howard (1893-1943) was an English actor and director. He is still known today for his role as Ashley Wilkes in the biggest box office hit of all-time…1939’s Gone With The Wind. His IMDb page shows 33 acting credits from 1914-1943. This page will rank 23 Howard movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Cameos, shorts, silent films and some of his early British films were not included in the rankings.
Drivel part of the page: Joel Hirschhorn’s book Rating The Movie Stars (1983) is one of the biggest influences on our movie pages. In that book, Hirschhorn, took a look at 400 current and classic stars. He actually ranked Leslie Howard as the 5th best actor of those 400 stars. He ranked each star’s movie on a 1 to 4 star (with 4 stars being the best) basis….and then took an average. Howard’s average was 3.76…which was the 5th best average. Well this Leslie Howard page is 137th performer that was listed in his book that we now done a page on….only 263 more to go! FYI…this comes from a request by Søren.
Leslie Howard Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Leslie Howard movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Leslie Howard movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Leslie Howard movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Leslie Howard movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Leslie Howard movie received.
- Sort Leslie Howard movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Leslie Howard Table
- Six Leslie Howard movie crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 26.08% of his movies listed. Gone With The Wind (1939) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Leslie Howard movie grosses $144.20 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 20 of Leslie Howard’s movies are rated as good movies…or 86.95% of her movies. Gone With The Wind (1939) is his highest rated movie while Pygmalion (1938) is his lowest rated movie.
- Eight Leslie Howard movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 34.78% of his movies.
- Four Leslie Howard movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 17.39% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00. 16 Leslie Howard movie scored higher that average….or 69.56% of his movies. Gone With The Wind (1939) got the the highest UMR Score while Animal Kingdom (1932) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Leslie Howard
1. Leslie Howard Steiner was born in Forest Hill, London. His family changed their name to Stainer when World War 1 started….then he dropped his last name when he started acting.
2. After serving in World War 1….Howard turned towards acting. He became a Broadway star with is performance in 1927’s Her Cardboard Lover.
3. Leslie Howard refused to make 1936’s The Petrified Forest when the studio refused to let Humphrey Bogart play the role that Bogart had done on Broadway. Eventually the studio allowed Bogart to play the part…which turned out to be Bogart’s big break in movies. Bogart was so grateful to Howard that he named his daughter Leslie in Howard’s honor
4. Leslie Howard left Hollywood when England and Germany went to war. Germany felt that Howard was the most dangerous British propagandist.
5. Leslie Howard was on board Flight #777 of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines- when it was shot down by German fighter planes over the Bay of Biscay….many theories are out there about why the plane was shot down. One of the most popular is that the Germans thought Winston Churchill was on the plane.
6. Leslie Howard was married one time in his life. He had two children.
7. Leslie Howard starred in 5 movies that received a Best Picture Oscar® nomination: 1932’s Smilin’ Through, 1936’s Romeo and Juliet, 1938’s Pygmalion , 1939’s Gone With The Wind and 1942’s 9th Parallel. Gone With The Wind won.
8. Leslie Howard received 2 acting Oscar® nominations…a Best Actor nomination for 1933’s Berkeley Square and 1938’s Pygmalion.
9. Leslie Howard’s movies grossed over $3.31 billion in adjusted domestic box office. His movies earned 31 Oscar® nominations….winning 11 times.
10. The two Leslie Howard movies that got away…because we could not find box office grosses: 1932’s Reserved For Ladies 62.5% critic/audience rating & 1934’s The Lady Is Willing 65.5% critic/audience rating.
Check out Leslie Howard‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
Hi
Leslie Howard was the quintessential English gentleman.He was a fantastic actor, I watched Gone with the Wind recently and loved him in it. It couldn’t have been easy playing the weak Ashley Wilts character. He definitely was a man of his word, he played in The Petrified Forest with Bogart on Broadway and he promised Bogart that he wouldn’t do the film unless Bogart got his part.
It’s amazing that somebody keeping their word changed a friend’s life so dramatically, we might never have heard of Bogart.
Spitfire with David Niven is fantastic and his chemistry with Davis was superb. His early death was a big loss to cinema.
There aren’t a lot of people who keep their word. Gable was another one who did, to keep talking about Gone With the Wind actors. When he was shown that there were segregated toilets on the set of GWTW he made that stop or they could get another Rhett Butler.
He also made sure that no script changes were made on The Misfits when the marriage between Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe was disintegrating. Miller would make changes to the script to make her role tinier and tinier and Gable would not have it. That’s why he did his own stunts. And it is likely why he died at 59.
Hey Flora……thanks for sharing the stories on Clark Gable…it does sound like he was a good person off camera too. That is the stars that I really like…..ones that are famous….but remember how life used to be. Currently it seems Tom Hanks is that way. Thanks for the input.
Hey Chris
1. From what I read about him….thinking he was the “quintessential English gentleman”
2. I really like the story about him sticking up for Bogart….the man changed movie history….and did not even realize it….not thinking anybody in 1943 would think Bogart was on the verge of becoming an all-time great.
3. I really want to see Spitfire. Sad that real friends Niven and Howard only got to make one movie together.
As always thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts on Mr. Howard.
Leslie Howard was tragically killed when the Nazi’s shot down his plane during WWII, sad and more dramatic than some of his films.
I’ve only seen 5 of the 23 films listed – Gone With the Wind, 49th Parallel, Pygmalion, The Petrified Forest and Spitfire.
Films I want to see – The Scarlet Pimpernel, Berkeley Square, Of Human Bondage and Intermezzo..
Like you Bruce I wasn’t a fan of Gone With the Wind when I was a kid and I hated Scarlett O’Hara but as I grew older I started to appreciate the film more and now it’s one of my top favorites I’ve watched it many times on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray over the years and Vivien Leigh’s Scarlett one of my favorite female characters, arguably the greatest in movie history.
Voted Up!
Oh forgot to mention the Gone With the Wind chart, a fascinating and useful rundown of all the re-issues it’s had. Most notorious when the picture was cropped top and bottom to turn it into a widescreen film. Sacrilege!
Cheers Bruce.
Hey Steve….I find that table pretty fascinating too…..especially the first release…and how long it took for the movie to get to all theaters…now….even blockbusters like The Force Awakens are gone in 3 months….and sitting on DVD shelfs gathering dust.
So I win with 15 films between the three of us. Now what about the others?
Congrats Flora….it looks like me and Steve need two more people to have a better combined total than you….lol.
Hey Steve
1. A very tragic ending for Mr. Howard….I hope his story in England is still one that people talk about.
2. So Flora beats are our combined total….15 to 10 (5 for you and 5 for me)….not an impressive showing on our part.
3. Good to know I am not alone in my thoughts on GWTW….I remember the first time I watched it….I could not believe how long the movie was….I thought it would never end.
4. I think I have been able to avoid only being GWTW once…and that was on Blu-Ray….now a movie like Die Hard I have bought many times over the years.
5. Of the ones you want to see…I have seen Of Human Bondage….one of Bette Davis’ better performances….and Intermezzo is the movie that got Ingrid Bergman going.
As always thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Leslie Howard is my first favorite actor.
I prefer him in these films – –
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Of Human Bondage
The Petrified Forest
Intermezzo
Pimpernel Smith
I do, Princess. I do indeed. I believe that people in Britain honour him all the time.
I always point out that he died in battle and that he was a big movie star.
Because Carole Lombard died after entertaining the troops she was the first American movie star to die in WWII.
Howard and Niven made Spitfire together about the man who designed that airplane in the hopes of drumming up interest in the war.
Hey Columbo….good points. I want to see Spitfire in the near future. This was a fun page to research and write.
Hey Princess Tap. Glad to hear that you are a fan of Leslie Howard. I have 3 of 5 of your favorite Howard films. In my research it seems that Mr. Howard was a good person. He had to give his financial stake in Gone With The Wind to return to England. England had a rule that you could not return if you had financial assests outside England. He gave up a lot to return to fight Germany…ultimately his own life….the man was a hero….and one not many in America really remember.
Hi Bruce
Howard, to me anyway, was always the very, VERY English guy in the movies (just like D. Niven).
Both were great actors. . I have very fond memories of watching The Scarlet Pimpernel when I was a kid.
As always great work, Bruce.
Hey Søren…glad you found and enjoyed your requested page. I imagine that since you like Niven and Howard…that Spitfire is one of your favorite Howard movies. I have not seen The Scarlet Pimpernel but it is on my list of movies to watch. Thanks for the comment, the suggestion for the page and for the nice words about the page.
Hi, Leslie Howard is one of my favourites.
His plane was also near the area where Germans thought Gable’s plane was.
Bruce, I’m glad you have completed another Gone With the Wind actor.
I have seen more of his films than 50%.
The highest movie I have seen is Gone With the Wind.
The lowest movie I have seen is #19: British Agent.
I have seen 15 of his films.
He was the first cast member of GWTW to die.
He was great friends with David Niven who also made propaganda movies including Spitfire together.
My favourites include:
Gone With the Wind
Of Human Bondage
Berkley Square
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Spitfire
A Free Soul
Petrified Forest
Pygmalian
No order -except for GWTW
Hey Flora.
1. Glad I did a page on one of your favorites.
2. There are lots of theories of his plane crash….in the end it is just a sad story.
3. With this page being complete…I now have the 4 lead performers covered with UMR pages….and GWTW is the top scoring movie on all 4 pages.
4. Over 50%….very cool. So you are at 15…my total is only going to be a fraction of that….counting….I am at ….drumroll….at 5…only 33% of your total…..pretty sure Steve will be putting me in the basement….lol.
5. I want to see Spitfire….I imagine seeing this two great friends in a movie has to be interesting.
6. I have seen 4 of the 8 you listed…. GWTW is growing on me…as a teenager I found the movie very slow…and very boring….as I have gotten older the movie seems to be getting better. A Free Soul is in my Top 3….though Barrymore and Gable have the more “showy” roles in that one.
As always…thanks for stopping by and commenting….you are awesome!
Glad to see you think I am awesome.
a lot of TCMers would like to see me get ‘the pitchfork”–
Hahahahaaahaa.
More fool them because I am off that site during the festival which means that I don’t have to hear people gushing about going. I never did care for that, although I do indeed like watching them.
I will be watching Sophia Loren night because I love Sophia, but was not planning to watch the rest of the weekend because Robert Osbourne was not going to be there.
Feel free to read this, edit is, delete it or what ever.
I will always have this site, which, quite frankly, is far superior to the TCM forums.