Trevor Howard was the raw, weathered face of mid-century British cinema, an actor who could communicate volumes with a single glance and who made restraint look like the most intense thing on screen. Born on September 29, 1913, in Cliftonville, Kent, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked extensively in London theater before the war interrupted his career. He served in the Royal Corps of Signals and was invalided out, returning to acting with a new gravity that directors immediately recognized. His breakthrough came in David Lean's "Brief Encounter" in 1945, playing a married doctor who falls in love with a woman he meets by chance at a railway station. The film's power lies almost entirely in what is not said, and Howard's performance was a masterclass in British emotional repression. He went on to become one of the most prolific and respected character actors in British and international cinema. He appeared in over 70 films, including "The Third Man," "Mutiny on the Bounty" opposite Marlon Brando, "Ryan's Daughter," and "Gandhi." He was nominated for an Academy Award for "Sons and Lovers" in 1960. Directors valued him for his reliability and his ability to elevate mediocre material. He could play naval officers, tortured lovers, colonial administrators, and aging revolutionaries with equal conviction. His personal life was marked by heavy drinking and a passionate but turbulent marriage to the actress Helen Cherry. He remained working until shortly before his death on January 7, 1988, in Bushey, Hertfordshire, at age 74.