Who Knew?

Gone With the Wind Shock

Hunky Ashley Wilkes was Brit spy: claim.

Leslie Howard, who played Scarlett O’Hara’s hunky crush in Gone With the Wind, may have had a secret. According to Spanish author Jose Rey-Ximena, Howard was acting as a British secret agent when his plane was shot down by the German Luftwaffe in 1943. Rey-Ximena claims that Howard was dispatched to Spain, on orders from Winston Churchill, to convince Gen. Franco not to join the Axis Powers. When his plane was shot down, The Guardian reports, “[a] rumor 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.”