Ashley Wilkes
"For Ashley was born of a line of men who used their leisure for thinking, not doing, for spinning brightly colored dreams that had in them no touch of reality.  He moved in an inner world that was more beautiful than Georgia and came back to reality with reluctance." Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind.
Ashley was the exact opposite of Rhett, in that he was the perfect gentlemen.  He was quiet, courteous, kind, intelligent, gentle, observative and a dreamer. Although he excelled at all the activities that Southern men normally spent their time doing, he loved art, literature and theatre much more than hunting, riding and drinking.  Some people find Ashley to be too wimpy and boring, but I find him to be very calming, and thoughtful.
Leslie Howard
Leslie was born to Hungarian parents in London and went to Dulwich School. After school, he worked as a bank clerk until the outbreak of World War I. In 1917, diagnosed as shell shocked, he was mustered out and advised to take up acting as therapy. In a few years, his name was known on the stages of London and New York. He became known as the perfect Englishman, slim, tall, intellectual and sensitive, a part that he would play in many movies and a part women would dream about. He made is first movie in 1930, 'Outward Bound', a film adaptation of his stage performance of the same name. In 'Never the Twain Shall Meet (1931)' and 'Smilin' Through (1932)', he was playing the Englishman role to the hilt. His screen
persona could perhaps be best summed up by his role as Percy Blakeney in 'The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)', a foppish member of society. It was Leslie who insisted that Humphrey Bogart get the role of Duke Mantee, in 'The Petrified Forest (1936), the character that Bogart played in the stage production. With success, he became quite picky about which roles he would do and usually did but two films per year. In 1939, he would play the character that would always be associated with him - that of Ashley Wilkes, the honour bound disillusioned intellectual southern gentleman in 'Gone with the Wind'. But war clouds were gathering over England and Leslie devoted all his energy on behalf of the war effort. He directed films, wrote articles and made radio broadcasts. He died in 1943 when the British Overseas Airways plane he was on was shot down by German fighters over the Bay of Biscay.
Films
Gentle Sex, The (1943)
War in the Mediterranean (1943) First of the Few, The (1942)
White Eagle (1942)
In Which We Serve (1942)
From the Four Corners (1941)
Pimpernel Smith (1941)
Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941)
Common Heritage (1940)
Intermezzo (1939)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Pygmalion (1938)
It's Love I'm After (1937)
Stand-In (1937)
Romeo and Juliet (1936)
Petrified Forest, The (1936)
British Agent (1934)
Lady Is Willing, The (1934)
Scarlet Pimpernel, The (1934)
Of Human Bondage (1934)
Berkeley Square (1933)
Captured! (1933)
Secrets (1933)
Animal Kingdom, The (1932)
Smilin' Through (1932)
Service for Ladies (1932)
Devotion (1931)
Never the Twain Shall Meet (1931)
Five and Ten (1931)
Free Soul, A (1931)
Outward Bound (1930)
Bookworms (1920)
Five Pounds Reward (1920)
Lackey and the Lady, The (1919)
Happy Warrior, The (1917)
Heroine of Mons, The (1919)
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