[3][4] Born in Camberwell, London, Howard was the younger son of Lilian (née Blumberg) and Ferdinand "Frank" Steiner.
[5] He married the actress Jean Compton Mackenzie (a daughter of the actor Frank Compton) in 1936 and they had a son together, the stage actor Alan Howard.
[6][3] Arthur appeared in several television programmes such as Whack-O, a school comedy in which he played the hapless assistant headmaster Pettigrew to Jimmy Edwards's headmaster, and he was in the 1960 film version Bottoms Up.
[7][8] He appeared in many films, including American Friends and The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins, and had the small role of Cavendish in the James Bond film Moonraker.
[11] Inspector Morley: Late of Scotland Yard (1952) - (Shop Assistant) - ('The Red Flame': episode Two) - (with Dorothy Bramhall; Tucker McGuire; and Johnny Briggs (actor), in Episode 1).