British Film Star Was Secret Agent, Claims Author

He is remembered as the obsessive love interest of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, but Leslie Howard should also be recalled as a British secret agent who died returning from a clandestine war mission, claims a Spanish author.

José Rey-Xímena said that Howard, who was in a passenger aircraft shot down by the Luftwaffe in 1943, had just been to a secret meeting with General Franco, allegedly on a special mission for Winston Churchill, who wanted to get a secret message to the Spanish dictator.

"Thanks to him, at least in theory, Spain was persuaded to stay out of the war," Rey-Xímena claimed of the actor famous for his portrayal of the unattainable southern gentleman Ashley Wilkes, in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind.

The alleged message conveyed by Howard was just one of the British attempts to keep Franco, who had come to power with the support of Hitler and Mussolini, from joining the wartime Axis alliance, Rey-Xímena said yesterday.

Howard used his contacts with a former lover, Conchita Montenegro, to get through to Franco and deliver the message, the writer said. Montenegro, a Spanish actor, told Rey-Xímena the full story of Howard's visit to Madrid shortly before her death at the age of 95 last year.

Montenegro, once dubbed the Spanish Greta Garbo, allegedly had an affair with Howard whom she met while shooting Never the Twain Shall Meet in 1931. She later married Ricardo Giménez-Arnau, who was in charge of foreign relations for the far-right Falangist party, which backed Franco's military uprising against the Republican government.

It was through her husband's family, whose members occupied several posts under Franco, that Howard managed to see Spain's ruler, the actor said.

Montenegro told Rey-Xímena that Howard's interview with Franco was supposedly about whether he would take the role of Columbus in a Spanish film. Franco was interested in cinema. The arrival in Madrid of a Hollywood star, at a time when Spain's rightwing dictatorship meant the country was widely shunned, caused a stir. Howard enraged British officials in Madrid, however, by refusing to attend many events organized for him. This, Montenegro said, was because he was preparing to meet Franco behind the back of the British ambassador.

Rey-Xímena, who has just published a book on the subject, has not revealed the full contents of the meeting. Howard left Madrid in June 1943 for Lisbon, and then boarded a DC-3 passenger airliner bound for London. The plane was intercepted off Spain by German fighters and went down in the Atlantic, killing all on board.

A rumour later circulated that the Germans thought Churchill himself was on board. Howard's manager, who also died in the crash, was said to resemble the British war leader.

Rey-Xímena said Howard's secret went down with the plane: "He has never been recognized either as a spy or as a hero."