Leslie Howard was a film actor.
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American epic historical romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell 's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind . Leslie Howard ( born Leslie Howard Steiner , 3 April 18931 June 1943 ) was an English stage and film actor , director and producer . Howard was one of the biggest box-office draws and movie idols of the 1930s but is probably best remembered for playing Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind ( 1939 ) . Howard had movie roles in many other notable films , including : Berkeley Square ( 1933 ) , Of Human Bondage ( 1934 ) , The Scarlet Pimpernel ( 1934 ) , The Petrified Forest ( 1936 ) , Pygmalion ( 1938 ) , Intermezzo ( 1939 ) , `` Pimpernel '' Smith ( 1941 ) and The First of the Few ( 1942 ) , receiving two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor .