Born in England to a Hungarian Jewish father and British mother, the thin, fair-haired Howard grew up shy and self-conscious of his nearsightedness and poor grades in school. Howard's mother encouraged his interest in theater in hopes it would help him socialize with other children. Possessing above-average intelligence and a passion for writing, he wrote his first play in grade school and was producing musical comedies with family friends by the age of 14. In support of her artistically inclined children and their chums, Howard's mother started the Upper Norwood Dramatic Club to showcase their talents. His father, did not, however, share his wife's interest in the arts and insisted that the teenage Howard take a position as a London bank clerk, a job the actor hated. Eager to escape the dull job, Howard joined the British cavalry in 1914 even though he had never ridden a horse. Just 21 when he enlisted, the sensitive young man witnessed such atrocities on the front line that he was returned home in 1916 and diagnosed as suffering from shell shock. Once again, Howard heeded his mother's advice and sought solace in the theater.
Starting out with small roles in the touring companies of "Peg O' My Heart", "Charley's Aunt" and the juvenile lead in the road version of Matheson Lang's "Under Cover", Howard made his London stage debut in 1918 in a small role in Arthur Pinero's "The Freaks". He followed that up with the juvenile lead in "The Title", and in 1919 was cast in supporting parts in two London stage comedies: "Our Mr. Hipplewhite" and A.A. Milne's "Mr. Pim Passes By". In 1920, Howard headed off to the USA for his Broadway debut in "Just Suppose". Although the comedy/drama was hailed as a success by critics, Howard's performance was not. Undaunted, he appeared in several different types of plays on Broadway between 1921 and 1924, and received much better notices, especially for his taut performances in the Booth Tarkington comedy "The Wren", the strange and provocative drama "Outward Bound" and the dramatic "A Serpent's Tooth". His first Broadway smash 1925's "The Green Hat". He cemented his popularity with critics and audiences in the bedroom farce "Her Cardboard Lover".
Although Howard remained a busy actor throughout the rest of the 20s and 30s, he always seemed to find time to write stories and articles for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Reader's Digest and script plays he hoped to one day produce. His dream came true in 1927 when he got the opportunity to produce, direct and star in his own comic play "Murray Hill" on Broadway. Next came his acclaimed performance in John Galsworthy's "Escape", after which critic Alexander Woolcott exclaimed: "I have not often seen anything better." Howard ended the decade by starring in the London production of "Berkeley Square" (1929), the story of a man who switches bodies with an ancestor who lived 150 years before him. The play was moderately successful in London, but a hit when it later moved to NYC.
The following year, Howard starred in the first of his 18 Hollywood movies, "Outward Bound", an eerie drama about a group of dead ship passengers on the voyage to heaven with Howard reprising his stage role as the tale's young, remorseful alcoholic lead. The 30s saw Howard dart from London to NYC to Hollywood, from stage to screen, both in front of and behind the camera. Although he excelled in his screen work, both in the USA and abroad, Howard frequently aired his distaste for Hollywood and its commercial products. He had good reason to feel the way he did in his early Hollywood film career. In 1931, the wavy-haired blond starred in "Never the Twain Shall Meet", a schlocky fish-out-of-water romance, followed by the melodramatic "A Free Soul", which co-starred Clark Gable and Norma Shearer. The confusing drama "Devotion" that followed those films wasn't much better. Outraged by the "drivel" the US film industry was producing, Howard packed up his wife and kids and headed back to England. After a few small films in the United Kingdom, Howard returned to Manhattan to direct, co-produce and act in Philip Barry's adult stage drama "The Animal Kingdom", about a man torn between two women, a theme that often occurred in Howard's professional--as well as personal--life. Interested in taking a break from the play's long run, Howard went back to Hollywood where he appeared in two 1932 films that propelled him to stardom in America--the romantic drama "Smilin' Through", which reteamed him with Shearer, and the film version of "The Animal Kingdom", co-starring Myrna Loy. A series of high-profile projects then solidified his star status. In 1933, Howard directed and co-starred with Bette Davis in the provocative Somerset Maugham story "Of Human Bondage", which is about a medical student's sadomasochistic obsession with a Cockney waitress. Howard returned to his homeland to star in "The Scarlet Pimpernel", a swashbuckling adventure about a prissy British nobleman who dons a disguise and risks his life to rescue French aristocrats from "Madame Guillotine". 1937 saw Howard in another signature role, that of a high-class phonetics teacher who tries to teach a poorly educated flower girl how to be a lady in the delightful romp "Pygmalion", for which he earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Ironically, it was his role as Ashley Wilkes in the beloved Civil War epic "Gone With the Wind" that etched Howard's name and face in America's memories. Howard vehemently opposed taking the part, stating he did not want to play another "dreadful milksop". David O Selznick reportedly bribed Howard to play the role by promising he could co-produce "Intermezzo" (1939), a dream project. Although it is hard to understand why the passionate, stubborn Scarlett O'Hara would ever choose Howard's dull, whiny Ashley over Clark Gable's charming, devilish Rhett, Howard did make the ideal symbol of chivalry and Old South gallantry. After he completed that film he set off to make "Intermezzo" with up-and-comer Ingrid Bergman. That drama turned out to be Howard's last big Hollywood studio picture as he now turned his attention and talents to supporting the war effort from his home base in Britain.
In the early 40s, Howard directed and acted in propaganda films, most notably the adventure film "Pimpernel Smith" (1940), a World War II version of "The Scarlet Pimpernel". He also took a job as a broadcaster at the BBC, becoming the voice of Britain to America. Howard was killed in 1942 when his plane was shot down by Nazis. His death remains shrouded in mystery with tales of his being used as a decoy for those who wished to harm Prime Minister Winston Churchill still circulating. Others believe that Howard, who was working as a British intelligence agent at the time, was targeted for his very public anti-German sentiments and activities.