Trevor Howard


 * For the footballer, see: Trevor Howard (footballer)

Trevor Howard, CBE (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988), born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.

Early life
Howard was born in Cliftonville, Kent, England, he was educated at Clifton College, Bristol, and he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and acted on the London stage for several years before World War II. He married the actress Helen Cherry (1915-2001) on 8 September 1944. Howard volunteered for the RAF but served in the British Army as a Second Lieutenant during World War II, and was invalided out of the Army in late 1943.

Film career
His first major role was in the 1945 film, Brief Encounter. He also starred in The Third Man (1949), The Key (1958; based on a Jan de Hartog novel) and Sons and Lovers (1960), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

A great character actor, many times appearing in war and period pieces, Howard later appeared in such films as Outcast of the Islands (1952), The Cockleshell Heroes (1955), Run for the Sun (1956), Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), Father Goose (1964), Morituri (1965), Von Ryan's Express (1965), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), Battle of Britain (1969), Ryan's Daughter (1970), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Pope Joan (1972), Ludwig (1972), A Doll's House (1973), Superman (1978), Gandhi (1982), White Mischief (1987), and The Dawning (1988). One of his strangest films, and one he took great delight in, was Vivian Stanshall's 1980 Sir Henry at Rawlinson End in which he played the title role.

Throughout his film career Howard insisted that all of his contracts held a clause excusing him from work whenever a cricket Test Match was being played.

A major television role was in Staying On (1980).

Death
He died from a combination of bronchitis, influenza and jaundice, in Arkley in 1988 at the age of 74, survived by his widow Helen.

Legacy
He is commemorated by the Trevor Howard Bar at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond.

Partial filmography

 * The Way Ahead (1944)
 * Brief Encounter (1945)
 * The Way to the Stars (1945)
 * Green for Danger (1946)
 * I See A Dark Stranger (1946)
 * The Third Man (1949)
 * The Clouded Yellow (1950)
 * The Gift Horse (1952)
 * The Heart of the Matter (1953)
 * The Cockleshell Heroes (1955)
 * Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
 * Suns and Lovers (1960)
 * Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
 * Father Goose (1964)
 * Von Ryan's Express (1965)
 * Triple Cross (1967)
 * The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968)
 * Battle of Britain (1969)
 * Ryan's Daughter (1970)
 * The Offence (1972)
 * Catholics (1973)
 * Aces High (1976)
 * Superman (1978)
 * The Sea Wolves (1980)
 * Windwalker (1980)
 * Gandhi (1982)