'Ashley Wilkes' Was a Spy

Best remembered as one of Scarlett O'Hara’s love interests in Gone with the Wind, actor Leslie Howard was also a British secret agent who died returning from a clandestine war mission on behalf of Winston Churchill, the Guardian reports. The Luftwaffe shot down Howard's plane in 1943 after the actor delivered a secret message to Francisco Franco.

"Thanks to him, at least in theory, Spain was persuaded to stay out of the war," says the author of a new book on the subject.