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Lew Ayres
Acting
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…
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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.
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BODY OF WORK
Lew Ayres's Filmography
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No Poster
Checking Out: Grand Hotel
as Self (archive footage)
Hart to Hart: Crimes of the Hart
as Professor Cabel
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
as actor 'Advise and 'Consent' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Cast the First Stone
as Martin
Under Siege
as John Pace
Don Camillo
as Doc
Bruised Celluloid
as Himself
Of Mice and Men
as Candy
Reunion
as Bob Hollander
Letters from Frank
as Dan Miller
Suddenly, Love
as Mr. Graham
The Story of Noah
as Noah
Battlestar Galactica
as President Adar
Damien - Omen II
as Bill Atherton
End of the World
as Com. Joseph Beckerman
Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident
as Allen Dulles
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
Heatwave!
as Dr. Grayson
The Questor Tapes
as Vaslovik
Battle for the Planet of the Apes
as Mandemus
The Stranger
as Prof. Dylan MacAuley
The Man
as Noah Calvin
The Biscuit Eater
as Mr. Ames
She Waits
as Dr. Sam Carpenter
Earth II
as President Charles Carter Durant
Marcus Welby, M.D.: A Matter of Humanities
as Dr. Andrew Swanson
Cocoon
as The Governor
The Carpetbaggers
as Mac McAllister
No Poster
The Upper Chamber
Advise & Consent
as The Vice President
The Family Nobody Wanted
as Carl Doss
No Poster
One Against Many
as Dr. John Mohler
Donovan's Brain
as Dr. Patrick J. Cory
No Escape
as John Howard Tracy
New Mexico
as Captain Hunt
The Capture
as Lin Vanner / Lindley Brown
Johnny Belinda
as Robert Richardson
The Unfaithful
as Larry Hannaford
The Way of Peace
as Narrator (voice)
Blow-Ups of 1946
as Self
The Dark Mirror
as Scott Elliott
Fingers at the Window
as Oliver Duffy
Dr. Kildare's Victory
as Dr. James Kildare
Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day
as Dr. James Kildare
The People Vs. Dr. Kildare
as Dr. James Kildare
Maisie Was a Lady
as Bob Rawlston
Dr. Kildare's Crisis
as Dr. James Kildare
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
as Self
Dr. Kildare Goes Home
as Dr. James Kildare
The Golden Fleecing
as Henry Twinkle
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
as Self
Dr. Kildare's Strange Case
as James Kildare
Remember?
as Sky Ames
The Secret of Dr. Kildare
as James Kildare
These Glamour Girls
as Philip S. Griswold III
From the Ends of the Earth
as Self
Calling Dr. Kildare
as Dr. James Kildare
Broadway Serenade
as James Geoffrey 'Jimmy' Seymour
The Ice Follies of 1939
as Eddie Burgess
Spring Madness
as Sam Thatcher
Young Dr. Kildare
as Dr. James Kildare
Rich Man, Poor Girl
as Henry Thayer
Holiday
as Ned Seton
King of the Newsboys
as Jerry Flynn
Scandal Street
as Joe McKnight
Hold 'Em Navy
as Tommy Graham
The Last Train from Madrid
as Bill Dexter
The Crime Nobody Saw
as Nick Milburn
Murder with Pictures
as Kent Murdock
Lady Be Careful
as Chester aka Dynamite
Shakedown
as Bob Sanderson
Panic on the Air
as Jerry
The Leathernecks Have Landed
as Woodruff 'Woody' Davis
Silk Hat Kid
as Eddie Howard
Spring Tonic
as Caleb Enix
The Lottery Lover
as Cadet Frank Harrington
Servants' Entrance
as Erik Landstrom
She Learned About Sailors
as Larry Wilson
Let’s Be Ritzy
as Jimmy Sterling
Cross Country Cruise
as Norman Winthrop
My Weakness
as Ronnie Gregory
Don't Bet on Love
as Bill McCaffrey
State Fair
as Pat Gilbert
Okay, America!
as Larry Wayne
Night World
as Michael Rand
The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood
as Lew Ayres
The Impatient Maiden
as Dr. Myron Brown
Heaven on Earth
as States
The Spirit of Notre Dame
as Edward Aloysius "Bucky" O'Brian
Up for Murder
as Robert Marshall
Iron Man
as Kid Mason
Many a Slip
as Jerry Brooks
East Is West
as Billy Benson
The Doorway to Hell
as Louie Ricarno
Common Clay
as Hugh Fullerton
All Quiet on the Western Front
as Paul Bäumer
The Kiss
as Pierre
Big News
as Copyboy (uncredited)
The Sophomore
as Sophomore Fraternity Brother (uncredited)