Описание
Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English actor. After varied stage work, he achieved wide acclaim in the film of Noël Coward's Brief Encounter (1945), followed by The Third Man (1949). This led to many popular appearances on film and TV. His distinguished war record is claimed to have been fabricated. Howard was born in Cliftonville, Kent, England. He was educated at Clifton College (to which he left in his will a substantial legacy for a drama scholarship) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), acting on the London stage for several years before World War II. His first paid work was in the play Revolt in a Reformatory (1934), before he left RADA in 1935 to take small roles. Although stories of his courageous wartime service in the Royal Corps of Signals earned him much respect among fellow actors and fans alike, files held in the Public Record Office reveal that he had actually been discharged from the Army in 1943 for mental instability and having a "psychopathic personality". The story, which surfaced in Terence Pettigrew's biography of the actor, published by Peter Owen in 2001, was initially denied by Howard's widow, Helen Cherry. Later, confronted with official records, she told the Daily Telegraph (24 June 2001) that his mother had claimed he was a holder of the Military Cross. She added that Howard had an honourable military record and "had nothing to be ashamed of". After a theatrical role in The Recruiting Officer (1943) Howard began working in films with The Way Ahead (1944). His role in The Way Ahead came to the attention of David Lean, who was looking for someone to play the role of Alec in Brief Encounter. Lean recommended him to Noël Coward, who agreed with the suggestion, and the success of the film launched Howard's film career. However, The Passionate Friends, in which Howard played a character similar to Alec, was not as successful. The Third Man (1949), in which Howard played the slightly dry, slightly crusty, but capable British military officer Major Calloway, secured his reputation. During filming in Vienna Howard visited the fairground, which was, at that time, under the jurisdiction of the Soviet military, where, still wearing the uniform of a British Army Major, he was promptly arrested. He was returned to the British military police's Special Investigation Branch after his true identity was ascertained. Howard also starred in The Key (1958, based on a novel by Jan de Hartog), for which he received the Best Actor award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and in Sons and Lovers (1960), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Another notable film was The Heart of the Matter (1953), which, like The Third Man, was based on a story by Graham Greene. Over time Howard shifted to being a character actor. His later work included such films as 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), Superman (1978), and Gandhi (1982). By the time of filming White Mischief on location in Kenya in 1987, Howard was seriously ill from alcoholism. The company wanted to fire him, but co-star Sarah Miles was determined that Howard's distinguished film career would not end that way. In an interview with Terence Pettigrew for his biography of Howard, she describes how she gave an ultimatum to the executives, threatening to quit the production if they got rid of him. The Dawning (1988) was his final film. One of his strangest films, and one he took great delight in, was Vivian Stanshall's Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1980), in which he played the title role. His wife, Helen Cherry, starred with him in the film 11 Harrowhouse (1974). He died from a combination of bronchitis, influenza and jaundice, Arkley, Barnet, aged 74.
