Trevor Howard

Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (1913 –1988), known as Trevor Howard, was an English actor. After varied stage work, he achieved star status with his role in the film Brief Encounter (1945), followed by The Third Man (1949).

The Third Man, which Howard starred in alongside Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten for Carol Reed from a story by Graham Greene, was a huge international success, and became the film of which Howard was most proud. During filming in Vienna, Howard was keen to get to his favourite bar for a drink as soon as filming had finished for the evening. On one occasion Howard was in too much of a hurry to change out of his uniform as a British Army major. After a few drinks, he got into an argument and attracted the attention of the Military Police who detained him for impersonating a British officer. The MPs, being non-commissioned officers, then had to summon an officer to arrest him. On the lieutenant's arrival the matter was settled by an apology

Howard did little to stop the stories that he had a courageous wartime service in the British Army's Royal Corps of Signals, which earned him much respect among fellow actors and fans.

However, in a 2001 biography of Howard by the journalist Terence Pettigrew, files held in the Public Record Office revealed he had actually been discharged from the British Army in 1943 for mental instability and having a "psychopathic personality".

Initially Howard's widow, actress Helen Cherry denied this, but after being confronted with the official records, she said that Howard's mother had claimed he was a holder of the Military Cross adding that her late husband had an honourable military record with "nothing to be ashamed of".