William Haines

William Haines has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to Motion Pictures, at 7012 Hollywood Boulevard. His younger brother, Arthur, was also an actor, primarily in British comedies. They were interred side by side in the Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery. Howard was married to Ruth Martin in 1916, they had two children, a son, Ronald, and a daughter, Leslie Ruth. Shields committed suicide soon after. In 1943, he visited Lisbon (some say on a secret mission), and, on the return flight, his plane was shot down by enemy forces, possibly because the Germans believed the prime minister, Winston Churchill, to be on board. Haines died from lung cancer in Santa Monica, California. This image helped win him the role of Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind (1939), but he was uncomfortable with Hollywood and returned to Britain to help with the war effort.

Joan Crawford, a lifelong friend described them as "the happiest married couple in Hollywood". Howard and Bogart became lifelong friends, the Bogarts named their daughter Leslie Howard after him. Haines and Shields remained together for the rest of their lives. They had appeared in the play together on Broadway. Gloria Swanson extended him a personal invitation to appear with her in the film Sunset Boulevard (1950) but he refused. It was Howard who insisted that Humphrey Bogart appear in the film as gangster, Duke Manatee. Haines never returned to films. In 1936, Howard appeared in the film Petrified Forest.

The couple finally settled into the Hollywood community in Malibu, and their business prospered until their retirement in the early 1970s. Howard proceeded to play stiff-upper-lipped Englishmen in films such as Berkeley Square (1933, for which he was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), Pygmalion (1938) (in which he played Professor Higgins, and earned another Oscar nomination), and Pimpernel Smith (1941). Marion Davies asked Hearst to use his influence to ensure the neighbours were prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but ultimately Haines and Shields chose not to report the incident.
Davis and Howard in Maugham's
Of Human Bondage (1934). Crawford, along with other stars such as Claudette Colbert, Kay Francis and Charles Boyer urged the men to report this to the police. Born Leslie Howard Stainer in Forest Hill, London, Howard's classic good looks won him his first screen role in a 1914 silent film, following which he served in World War I, his military career being cut short due to case of severe shell shock. Their lives were disrupted in 1936 when homophobic neighbours, dressed in sheets and wearing hoods to hide their faces, dragged the two men from their home and beat them. Leslie Howard (April 3, 1893 - June 1, 1943) was a British film actor of Hungarian descent.

Among their early clients were friends such as Joan Crawford and Carole Lombard, Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst. Haines and Shields began a successful career as interior designers and antique dealers. Haines chose Shields and Mayer terminated his contract, quickly recasting Robert Montgomery in roles that had been planned for Haines. Mayer pressured Haines to end his relationship with Shields and marry. He made a successful transition into talking pictures and maintained his star status until 1934 when Mayer finally delivered him an ultimatum, and forced him to choose between Shields and his career.

Studio publicists were able to keep this information from the press, however studio head Louis B. Haines lived openly as a homosexual man, and from 1926 lived with Jimmy Shields, whom he had met during the production of a film. He appeared in successes such as Sally, Irene and Mary (1926 with newcomers Joan Crawford and Constance Bennett), West Point (1927 also with Crawford), and scored his biggest personal success with Show People (1928), opposite Marion Davies. He was cultivated as a romantic leading man, and his combination of good looks and flair for comedy won him many fans.

By 1925 he was MGM's most important male star, and his films were very profitable for the studio. After winning a talent contest he moved to Hollywood where he played bit parts for several years until MGM Studios began casting him in more prominent roles. Born in Staunton, Virginia, Haines left his home while in his teens and moved to New York City. William Haines (January 2, 1900 - December 26, 1973) was a US film actor who was one of the most successful film stars of the silent era.