Lew Ayres
Acting • Born 1908-12-28 – Died 1996-12-30
Biography
Lew Ayres was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised in San Diego, California. A college dropout, he was found by a talent scout in the Coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles and entered Hollywood as a bit player. He was leading man to Greta Garbo in The Kiss (1929), but it was the role of Paul Baumer in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) that was his big break. He was profoundly affected by the anti-war message of that film, and when, in 1942, the popular star of Young Dr. Kildare (1938) and subsequent Dr. Kildare films was drafted, he was a conscientious objector. America was outraged, and theaters vowed never to show his films again, but quietly he achieved the Medical Corps status he had requested, serving as a medic under fire in the South Pacific and as a chaplain's aid in New Guinea and the Phillipines. His return to film after the war was undistinguished until Johnny Belinda (1948) - his role as the sympathetic physician treating the deaf-mute Jane Wyman won him an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. Subsequent movie roles were scarce; an opportunity to play Dr. Kildare in television was aborted when the network refused to honor his request for no cigarette sponsorship. He continued to act, but in the 1970s put his long experience into a project to bring to the west the philosophy of the East - the resulting film, Altars of the World (1976), while not a box-office success, won critical acclaim and a Golden Globe Award. Lew Ayres died in Los Angeles, California on December 30, 1996, just two days after his 88th birthday.
Filmography
162 credits
All Quiet on the Western Front
Movie • 1930
Paul Bäumer
End of the World
Movie • 1977
Com. Joseph Beckerman
Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Movie • 1973
Mandemus
Of Mice and Men
Movie • 1981
Candy
Damien - Omen II
Movie • 1978
Bill Atherton
Suddenly, Love
Movie • 1978
Mr. Graham
The Kiss
Movie • 1929
Pierre Lassalle
Shakedown
Movie • 1936
Bob Sanderson
The Doorway to Hell
Movie • 1930
Louie Ricarno
Donovan's Brain
Movie • 1953
Dr. Patrick J. Cory
Johnny Belinda
Movie • 1948
Dr. Robert Richardson
The Capture
Movie • 1950
Lin Vanner / Lindley Brown
The Dark Mirror
Movie • 1946
Dr. Scott Elliott
The Questor Tapes
Movie • 1974
Vaslovik
Holiday
Movie • 1938
Ned Seton
Fingers at the Window
Movie • 1942
Oliver Duffy
Advise & Consent
Movie • 1962
The Vice President
No Escape
Movie • 1953
John Howard Tracy
Okay, America!
Movie • 1932
Larry Wayne
State Fair
Movie • 1933
Pat Gilbert
Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day
Movie • 1941
Dr. James Kildare
The Unfaithful
Movie • 1947
Larry Hannaford
Dr. Kildare Goes Home
Movie • 1940
Dr. James Kildare
Dr. Kildare's Crisis
Movie • 1940
Dr. James Kildare
Earth II
Movie • 1971
President Charles Carter Durant
Young Dr. Kildare
Movie • 1938
Dr. James Kildare
Calling Dr. Kildare
Movie • 1939
Dr. James Kildare
The Secret of Dr. Kildare
Movie • 1939
Dr. James Kildare
Dr. Kildare's Strange Case
Movie • 1940
Dr. James Kildare
The People Vs. Dr. Kildare
Movie • 1941
Dr. James Kildare
Dr. Kildare's Victory
Movie • 1942
Dr. James Kildare
Maisie Was a Lady
Movie • 1941
Bob Rawlston
New Mexico
Movie • 1951
Capt. Hunt
Broadway Serenade
Movie • 1939
James Geoffrey 'Jimmy' Seymour
East Is West
Movie • 1930
Billy Benson
The Golden Fleecing
Movie • 1940
Henry Twinkle
King of the Newsboys
Movie • 1938
Jerry Flynn
The Crime Nobody Saw
Movie • 1937
Nick Milburn
The Impatient Maiden
Movie • 1932
Dr. Myron Brown
Don't Bet on Love
Movie • 1933
Bill McCaffrey
Iron Man
Movie • 1931
Kid Mason
Murder with Pictures
Movie • 1936
Kent Murdock
Panic on the Air
Movie • 1936
Jerry Franklin
The Ice Follies of 1939
Movie • 1939
Eddie Burgess
These Glamour Girls
Movie • 1939
Philip S. Griswold III
Spring Tonic
Movie • 1935
Caleb Enix
The Man
Movie • 1972
Noah Calvin
Rich Man, Poor Girl
Movie • 1938
Henry Thayer
Remember?
Movie • 1939
Sky Ames
The Last Train from Madrid
Movie • 1937
Bill Dexter
Spring Madness
Movie • 1938
Sam Thatcher
Common Clay
Movie • 1930
Hugh Fullerton
Don Camillo
Movie • 1984
Doc
Checking Out: Grand Hotel
Movie • 2004
Self (archive footage)
My Weakness
Movie • 1933
Ronnie Gregory
Up for Murder
Movie • 1931
Robert Marshall
Night World
Movie • 1932
Michael Rand
Battlestar Galactica
Movie • 1978
President Adar
Heatwave!
Movie • 1974
Dr. Grayson
Cross Country Cruise
Movie • 1934
Norman Winthrop
Marcus Welby, M.D.: A Matter of Humanities
Movie • 1969
Dr. Andrew Swanson
Big News
Movie • 1929
Copyboy (uncredited)
Reunion
Movie • 1980
Bob Hollander
The Sophomore
Movie • 1929
Sophomore Fraternity Brother (uncredited)
The Stranger
Movie • 1973
Prof. Dylan MacAuley
She Learned About Sailors
Movie • 1934
Larry Wilson
The Carpetbaggers
Movie • 1964
Mac McAllister
Heaven on Earth
Movie • 1931
States
Bruised Celluloid
Movie • 1984
Himself
She Waits
Movie • 1972
Dr. Sam Carpenter
Servants' Entrance
Movie • 1934
Erik Landstrom
Under Siege
Movie • 1986
John Pace
Hart to Hart: Crimes of the Hart
Movie • 1994
Professor Cabel
Cast the First Stone
Movie • 1989
Martin
The Leathernecks Have Landed
Movie • 1936
Woodruff 'Woody' Davis
Hold 'Em Navy
Movie • 1937
Tommy Graham
The Way of Peace
Movie • 1947
Narrator (voice)
Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident
Movie • 1976
Allen Dulles
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
Movie • 1940
Self
The Spirit of Notre Dame
Movie • 1931
Edward Aloysius "Bucky" O'Brian
The Lottery Lover
Movie • 1935
Cadet Frank Harrington
Let’s Be Ritzy
Movie • 1934
Jimmy Sterling
Silk Hat Kid
Movie • 1935
Eddie Howard
The Biscuit Eater
Movie • 1972
Mr. Ames
The Story of Noah
Movie • 1978
Noah
Lady Be Careful
Movie • 1936
Chester aka Dynamite
Blow-Ups of 1946
Movie • 1946
Self
The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood
Movie • 1932
Lew Ayres
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
Movie • 1940
Self
That's Entertainment, Part II
Movie • 1976
(archive footage)
From the Ends of the Earth
Movie • 1939
Self
Scandal Street
Movie • 1938
Joe McKnight
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
Movie • 1991
actor 'Advise and 'Consent' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Letters from Frank
Movie • 1979
Dan Miller
Cocoon
Movie • 1968
The Governor
Many a Slip
Movie • 1931
Jerry Brooks
One Against Many
Movie • 1956
Dr. John Mohler
The Family Nobody Wanted
Movie • 1956
Carl Doss
Magnum, P.I.
TV • 1980
Sidney Dollinger
Columbo
TV • 1971
Howard Nicholson
Trapper John, M.D.
TV • 1979
Kung Fu
TV • 1972
Beaumont
L.A. Law
TV • 1986
Lorimar Henderson
The A-Team
TV • 1983
Bernie Greene
My Three Sons
TV • 1960
Little House on the Prairie
TV • 1974
Kraft Suspense Theatre
TV • 1963
Dr. Thomas Clay
Fame
TV • 1982
The F.B.I.
TV • 1965
Marshall Winslow
The Love Boat
TV • 1977
Carl Hooper
The Bionic Woman
TV • 1976
Simon & Simon
TV • 1981
Hawaii Five-O
TV • 1968
The Governor
Quincy, M.E.
TV • 1976
Route 66
TV • 1960
Highway to Heaven
TV • 1984
The Streets of San Francisco
TV • 1972
Hawkins
TV • 1973
Gus Bitterman
Omnibus
TV • 1952
Hotel
TV • 1982
Knots Landing
TV • 1979
Andrew Douglas
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
TV • 1970
Outlaws
TV • 1986
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Jonathan Cole
Cagney & Lacey
TV • 1982
Wonder Woman
TV • 1975
Dr. Kenneth Wilson
The Interns
TV • 1970
Bus Stop
TV • 1961
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
TV • 1958
McMillan & Wife
TV • 1971
San Francisco International Airport
TV • 1970
Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law
TV • 1971
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Judge John Markham
The Fantastic Journey
TV • 1977
Rayat
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
TV • 1951
Lime Street
TV • 1985
Henry Wade Culver
Climax!
TV • 1954
Bob Kilgore
The Big Valley
TV • 1965
Sheriff Roy Kingston
Slattery's People
TV • 1964
Here Come the Brides
TV • 1968
The Magician
TV • 1973
Max Braden
Finder of Lost Loves
TV • 1984
Oliver Hawthorne
ABC Stage 67
TV • 1966
Arthur
Ben Casey
TV • 1961
Laramie
TV • 1959
MGM: When the Lion Roars
TV • 1992
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
TV • 1956
Clint Howard
Cavalcade of America
TV • 1952
Matt Needham
Saints and Sinners
TV • 1962
Salem's Lot
TV • 1979
Jason Burke
Flying High
TV • 1978
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
TV • 1959
Howard Moon
Screen Director's Playhouse
TV • 1955
Dr. John Mohler
The Ken Murray Show
TV • 1950
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
TV • 1960
Dr. Paul Harris
The Big Valley
TV • 1965
Jason Fleet
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
TV • 1956
Jud Lester
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
TV • 1956
Jesse Martin
Hawaii Five-O
TV • 1968
Dr. Elias Haig
Hawaii Five-O
TV • 1968
Comm. Reginald Blackwell
Battlestar Galactica
TV • 1978
President Adar
MGM Parade
TV • 1955
self