Lew Ayres
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.
Known For
Acting
1930
asPaul Bäumer
1977
asCom. Joseph Beckerman
1973
asMandemus
1981
asCandy
1978
asBill Atherton
1978
asMr. Graham
1929
asPierre Lassalle
1936
asBob Sanderson
1930
asLouie Ricarno
1953
asDr. Patrick J. Cory
1948
asDr. Robert Richardson
1950
asLin Vanner / Lindley Brown
1946
asDr. Scott Elliott
1974
asVaslovik
1938
asNed Seton
1942
asOliver Duffy
1962
asThe Vice President
1953
asJohn Howard Tracy
1932
asLarry Wayne
1933
asPat Gilbert
1941
asDr. James Kildare
1947
asLarry Hannaford
1940
asDr. James Kildare
1940
asDr. James Kildare
1971
asPresident Charles Carter Durant
1938
asDr. James Kildare
1941
asDr. James Kildare
1939
asDr. James Kildare
1940
asDr. James Kildare
1939
asDr. James Kildare
1942
asDr. James Kildare
1941
asBob Rawlston
1939
asJames Geoffrey 'Jimmy' Seymour
1951
asCapt. Hunt
1930
asBilly Benson
1940
asHenry Twinkle
1938
asJerry Flynn
1937
asNick Milburn
1932
asDr. Myron Brown
1933
asBill McCaffrey
1931
asKid Mason
1936
asKent Murdock
1936
asJerry Franklin
1939
asEddie Burgess
1939
asPhilip S. Griswold III
1935
asCaleb Enix
1972
asNoah Calvin
1938
asHenry Thayer
1939
asSky Ames
1937
asBill Dexter
1938
asSam Thatcher
1930
asHugh Fullerton
1984
asDoc
2004
asSelf (archive footage)
1933
asRonnie Gregory
1931
asRobert Marshall
1932
asMichael Rand
1978
asPresident Adar
1974
asDr. Grayson
1934
asNorman Winthrop
1969
asDr. Andrew Swanson
1929
asCopyboy (uncredited)
1980
asBob Hollander
1929
asSophomore Fraternity Brother (uncredited)
1973
asProf. Dylan MacAuley
1934
asLarry Wilson
1964
asMac McAllister
1931
asStates
1984
asHimself
1972
asDr. Sam Carpenter
1934
asErik Landstrom
1986
asJohn Pace
1994
asProfessor Cabel
1989
asMartin
1936
asWoodruff 'Woody' Davis
1937
asTommy Graham
1947
asNarrator (voice)
1976
asAllen Dulles
1940
asSelf
1931
asEdward Aloysius "Bucky" O'Brian
1935
asCadet Frank Harrington
1934
asJimmy Sterling
1935
asEddie Howard
1972
asMr. Ames
1978
asNoah
1936
asChester aka Dynamite
1946
asSelf
1932
asLew Ayres
1940
asSelf
1976
as(archive footage)
1939
asSelf
1938
asJoe McKnight
1991
asactor 'Advise and 'Consent' (archive footage) (uncredited)
1979
asDan Miller
1968
asThe Governor
1931
asJerry Brooks
1956
asDr. John Mohler
1956
asCarl Doss
asSidney Dollinger
asHoward Nicholson
as
asBeaumont
asLorimar Henderson
asBernie Greene
as
as
asDr. Thomas Clay
as
asMarshall Winslow
asCarl Hooper
as
as
asThe Governor
as
as
as
as
asGus Bitterman
as
as
asAndrew Douglas
as
as
asJonathan Cole
as
asDr. Kenneth Wilson
as
as
as
as
as
as
asJudge John Markham
asRayat
as
asHenry Wade Culver
asBob Kilgore
asSheriff Roy Kingston
as
as
asMax Braden
asOliver Hawthorne
asArthur
as
as
as
asClint Howard
asMatt Needham
as
asJason Burke
as
asHoward Moon
asDr. John Mohler
as 
asDr. Paul Harris
asJason Fleet
asJud Lester
asJesse Martin
asDr. Elias Haig
asComm. Reginald Blackwell
asPresident Adar
asself
Production
Crew
Directing
1936
as
1976
as
