April 18 2009 - the Associated Press reported that a Spanish historical association based in Madrid plans to erect a monument near where Leslie Howard's plane was shot down by Nazi fighter pilots duringn WW2. The Royal Green Jackets association and author Jose Rey Ximena will unveil the propeller-shaped sculpture in July 2009 near Cedeira bearing the names of Howard and the others who died aboard the commercial flight from Portugal to Britain in 1943. Association President Manuel Santiago Arenas Roca says the London-born Howard joined the Allies and campaigned hard against the Axis powers. Ximena said Saturday that Germany's government at the time apparently was worried about the negative impact the high-profile actor-director's anti-Nazi publicity was having on its cause.One of Leslie Howard's greatest films was the Oscar-winning, pro-British, anti-Nazi film "The 49th Parallel" co-starring Lawrence Olivier and Glynis Johns.
Leslie Howard (1893-1943) is best known for playing Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. He was nominated for Best Actor for 1938's Pygmalion as Profession Higgins. He also starred in "The Petrified Forest" and "The Invaders/49th Parallel". For more about Leslie Howard, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Howard_(actor)