HOWARD, Trevor

Nationality: British. Born: Cliftonville, Kent, 29 September 1916. Education: Attended Clifton College, Bristol; Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London. Military Service: Served in the Royal Artillery in Norway and Sicily, 1940–43; invalided out. Family: Married the actress Helen Cherry, 1944. Career: 1934—stage debut in Revolt in a Reformatory; then played in repertory; 1938—in West End production of French without Tears; 1944—film debut in The Way Ahead; 1960—began series of plays and movies for TV. Awards: Best British Actor, British Academy, for The Key, 1958. Died: In Bushey, Hertfordshire, 7 January 1988.

Films as Actor:

1944

The Way Ahead (Reed)

1945

The Way to the Stars (Johnny in the Clouds) (Asquith) (as S/L Carter); Brief Encounter (Lean) (as Dr. Alec Harvey)

1946

I See a Dark Stranger (The Adventuress) (Launder) (as Lt. David Bayne); Green for Danger (Gilliat) (as Dr. Barney Barnes)

1947

They Made Me a Fugitive (I Became a Criminal) (Cavalcanti) (as Clem Morgan); So Well Remembered (Dmytryk) (as Dr. Whiteside)

1949

The Passionate Friends (One Woman's Story) (Lean) (as Steve Stratton); The Third Man (Reed) (as Major Galloway); Golden Salamander (Neame) (as David Redfern)

1950

Odette (Wilcox) (as Captain Peter Churchill); The Clouded Yellow (Thomas) (as David Somers)

1951

Lady Godiva Rides Again (Launder) (as guest); Outcast of the Island (Reed) (as Peter Willems); The Gift Horse (Glory At Sea) (Bennett) (as Lt. Col. Hugh Fraser)

1953

The Heart of the Matter (O'Ferrall) (as Harry Scobie); La Mano dello straniero (The Stranger's Hand) (Soldati) (as Major Court)

1954

April in Portugal (as narrator)

1955

Les Amants du Tage (The Lovers of Lisbon) (Verneuil); Cockleshell Heroes (Ferrer) (as Captain Thompson)

1956

Run for the Sun (Boulting); Around the World in Eighty Days (Anderson); Deception (Bricken)

1957

Interpol (Pickup Alley) (Gilling) (as Frank McNally); Manuela (Stowaway Girl) (Hamilton) (as James Prothero)

1958

The Key (Reed) (as Chris Ford); The Roots of Heaven (Huston)

1960

Moment of Danger (Malaga) (Benedek) (as John Bain); Sons and Lovers (Cardiff) (as Walter Morel)

1962

The Lion (Cardiff) (as John Bullitt); Mutiny on the Bounty (Milestone) (as Captain Bligh)

1963

Man in the Middle (Hamilton) (as Major Kennsington)

1964

Father Goose (Nelson) (as Commander Frank Houghton)

1965

Operation Crossbow (Anderson) (as Professor Lindemann); Von Ryan's Express (Robson) (as Major Frank Finchman); Morituri (The Saboteur Code Name "Morituri") (Wicki) (as Col. Statter); The Liquidators (Cardiff) (as Col. Mostyn)

1966

Danger Grows Wild (The Poppy Is Also a Flower) (Young—for TV) (as Lincoln); Triple Cross (Young) (as a civilian)

1967

The Long Duel (Annakin) (as Freddy Young); Pretty Polly (A Matter of Innocence) (Green) (as Robert Hook)

1968

The Charge of the Light Brigade (Richardson) (as Lord Cardigan)

1969

Battle of Britain (Hamilton) (as Air Vice Marshal Keith Park); Twinky (Lola) (Donner)

1970

Ryan's Daughter (Lean) (as Father Collins); The Night Visitor (Benedek)

1971

Catch Me a Spy (Clement); Mary, Queen of Scots (Jarrott); Kidnapped (Mann)

1972

Pope Joan (Anderson) (as Pope Leo); The Offence (Lumet); Ludwig (Visconti)

1973

A Doll's House (Losey); Catholics (Gold—for TV); Craze (Francis)

1974

Eleven Harrowhouse (Avakian); Persecution (The Terror of Sheba) (Chaffey); The Count of Monte Cristo (Greene); Who? (Gold); Cause for Concern (Benson) (as narrator)

1975

Hennessy (Sharp); Conduct Unbecoming (Anderson); The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones (Owen); Der flüsternde Tod (Death in the Sun; Night of the Askari; Whispering Death; Blind Spot) (Goslår)

1976

Eliza Fraser (A Faithful Narrative of the Capture, Sufferings, and Miraculous Escape of Eliza Fraser; The Rollicking Adventures of Eliza Fraser) (Burstall); Aces High (Gold)

1977

Slavers (Goslår); The Last Remake of Beau Geste (Feldman); Babel Yemen (Gane) (as narrator)

1978

Superman (Donner) (as First Elder); Stevie (Enders) (as The Man); How to Score a Movie (Enders) (as narrator); One, Take Two (Die Rebellen) (Megahy); Vol de nuit (Night Flight) (Davis—for TV)

1979

Hurricane (Troell) (as Father Malone); Meteor (Neame)

1980

The Sea Wolves (McLaglen) (as Jack Cartwright); Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (Roberts); Staying on (Narizzano—for TV)

1981

Windwalker (Merrill) (title role); Light Years Away (Les Années lumières) (Tanner)

1982

Gandhi (Attenborough) (as Judge Broomfield); The Missionary (Loncraine) (as Lord Ames); The Deadly Game (Shaefer—for TV)

1983

Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Gawain and the Green Knight (Weeks)

1984

George Washington (Kulik—for TV)

1985

Dust (Hansel) (as the Father); Time after Time (Hays—for TV); God Rot Tunbridge Wells (Palmer—for TV)

1986

Foreign Body (Neame) (as Dr. Stirrup); Christmas Eve (Oper—for TV); Peter the Great (Chomsky—for TV); Shaka Zulu (Faure)

1987

White Mischief (Radford) (as Jack Soames)

1988

The Unholy (Vila) (as Father Silva); The Dawning (Knights)

Publications

On HOWARD: books—

Knight, Vivienne, Trevor Howard: A Gentleman and a Player, London, 1986.

Munn, Michael, Trevor Howard: The Man and His Films, London, 1989.

On HOWARD: articles—

Conrad, D., "Living Down a Classic," in Films and Filming (London), May 1958.

Whitehall, R., "Trevor Howard," in Films and Filming (London), February 1961.

Obituary, in Variety (New York), 13 January 1988.

Baxter, Brian, obituary, in Films and Filming (London), March 1988.

Slide, A., "The Slide Area Film Book Notes," in Classic Images (Muscatine), February 1991.

Trevor Howard has the clearly enunciated speech of the English gentleman, and in his youth possessed the modest good looks and unassuming manners that qualified him for stage training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. When World War II started he was still in his early twenties, and had had little time to make a mark. After service in the Royal Artillery, he was invalided out, and began to show his high qualities as an actor in repertory at the Arts Theatre in London, while at the same time appearing in uniform in such excellent war films as Carol Reed's The Way Ahead and Anthony Asquith's The Way to the Stars.

His lengthy roster of British film appearances (usually in starring or top supporting roles) began after his outstanding success as the quiet, sincere small-town doctor, a married man, who falls in love with Celia Johnson's guilt-stricken housewife and mother in Noël Coward's and David Lean's Brief Encounter, a film that attracted exceptional critical attention and made a lasting reputation for its authenticity in the wake of the key British war films of 1944–45 that had consolidated the realist style. It matched exactly the quieter, more unassuming characteristics of the middle-class English lifestyle, which could nonetheless be revealed through the intimacy of film to be fraught with hidden emotional disturbances. Moving beyond the efficient, somewhat withdrawn but selflessly loyal English army officer—seen, for example in The Third Man, Odette, and Cockleshell Heroes—Howard gradually enlarged his screen image to embrace the civilian, quietly romantic hero typical of the kind of man many Englishwomen (and others) hoped to meet and marry, the hero of such films as Lean's The Passionate Friends and George More O'Ferrall's The Heart of the Matter.

To some audiences, this image of the sincere, good-looking, unassuming but often deeply emotional Englishman could appear to lack dash, even to be dull and unenterprising, except that Howard's intuitive control over the nuances of feeling made these performances dramatically powerful. At the same time, with gathering age and experience, he began even as early as Reed's Outcast of the Islands to enlarge his range still further and establish a reputation as a character actor. By the time of Sons and Lovers he was playing the miner Walter Morel, morose and difficult in his impoverished, working-class home, to such good effect that he was nominated for an Oscar. He also began to appear in American and Continental as well as British films.

By the 1960s and 1970s, his character range included such fine performances as the corseted, lecherous Lord Cardigan in The Charge of the Light Brigade, the toughly independent priest in Lean's Ryan's Daughter, Pope Leo in Pope Joan, Richard Wagner in the Italian production of Ludwig, and his effectively moving Dr. Rank in Joseph Losey's version of A Doll's House. He was ceaselessly employed in films for over 40 years, and remained a very favorite actor, especially in the eyes of the British public.

—Roger Manvell

Howard, Trevor (1916–88) English actor. Howard made his film debut in The Way Ahead (1944). His first major role was in David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945). Other films include Sons and Lovers (1960), Ryan's Daughter (1970), Kidnapped (1971), The Missionary (1982), and Gandhi (1982).