LA
Lew Ayres
Actor, Director
Died December 30, 1996 (88 years)
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
| 2011 | These Amazing Shadows · as Paul (clip from All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)) |
| 2011 | Lost Forever · as Paul (clip from All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)) |
| 1994 | Hart to Hart: Crimes of the Hart · as Professor Cabel |
| 1991 | Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker · as actor 'Advise and 'Consent' (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| 1986 | Under Siege · as John Pace |
| 1986 | L.A. Law (TV Series) · as Lorimar Henderson |
| 1985 | Lime Street (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1984 | The World of Don Camillo · as Doc |
| 1984 | Highway to Heaven (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1983 | The A-Team (TV Series) · as Bernie Greene |
| 1983 | Hotel (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1982 | Fame (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1981 | Of Mice and Men · as Candy |
| 1981 | Cagney & Lacey (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1981 | Simon & Simon (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1980 | Magnum, P.I. (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1979 | Salem's Lot (TV Series) · as Jason Burke |
| 1979 | Knots Landing (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1979 | Salem's Lot · as Jason Burke |
| 1978 | Damien: Omen II · as Bill Atherton |
| 1978 | Battlestar Galactica (TV Series) · as President Adar |
| 1978 | Greatest Heroes of the Bible (TV Series) · as Noah |
| 1978 | Battlestar Galactica · as President Adar |
| 1977 | End of the World · as Com. Joseph Beckerman |
| 1977 | The Fantastic Journey (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1977 | Fantasy Island (TV Series) · as J.D. Pettigrew |
| 1977 | The Love Boat (TV Series) · as Carl Hooper |
| 1976 | That's Entertainment, Part II · as (archive footage) |
| 1976 | Quincy, M.E. (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1976 | The Bionic Woman (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1975 | Wonder Woman (TV Series) · as Dr. Kenneth Wilson |
| 1974 | The Questor Tapes · as Vaslovik |
| 1974 | Little House on the Prairie (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1973 | The Stranger · as Prof. Dylan MacAuley |
| 1973 | Hawkins (TV Series) · as Gus Bitterman |
| 1973 | Battle for the Planet of the Apes · as Mandemus |
| 1972 | The Biscuit Eater · as Mr. Ames |
| 1972 | The Man · as Noah Calvin |
| 1972 | She Waits · as Dr. Sam Carpenter |
| 1972 | Kung Fu (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1972 | The Streets of San Francisco (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1971 | Earth II · as President Charles Carter Durant |
| 1971 | McMillan and Wife (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1971 | Columbo (TV Series) · as Howard Nicholson |
| 1970 | The Mary Tyler Moore Show (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1969 | Marcus Welby, M.D. (TV Series) · as Dr. Andrew Swanson |
| 1968 | Here Come the Brides (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1968 | The Doris Day Show (TV Series) · as William Tyler |
| 1968 | Hawaii Five-O (TV Series) · as Comm. Reginald Blackwell |
| 1965 | The Big Valley (TV Series) · as Sheriff Roy Kingston |
| 1965 | The F.B.I. (TV Series) · as Marshall Winslow |
| 1965 | I Spy (TV Series) · as Dr. Owen Maclean |
| 1964 | The Carpetbaggers · as 'Mac' McAllister |
| 1963 | Kraft Suspense Theatre (TV Series) · as Dr. Thomas Clay |
| 1962 | Advise & Consent · as The Vice President |
| 1962 | The Virginian (TV Series) · as Judge John Markham |
| 1960 | The Barbara Stanwyck Show (TV Series) · as Dr. Paul Harris |
| 1960 | My Three Sons (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1960 | Route 66 (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1959 | Laramie (TV Series) · as Unknown |
| 1956 | Zane Grey Theater (TV Series) · as Jesse Martin |
| 1955 | Gunsmoke (TV Series) · as Jonathan Cole |
| 1954 | Climax! (TV Series) · as Bob Kilgore |
| 1953 | Donovan's Brain · as Dr. Patrick J. Cory |
| 1953 | No Escape · as John Howard Tracy |
| 1952 | Cavalcade of America (TV Series) · as Matt Needham |
| 1951 | New Mexico · as Captain Erik Hunt |
| 1950 | The Capture · as Lin Vanner / Lindley Brown |
| 1948 | Johnny Belinda · as Dr. Robert Richardson |
| 1946 | The Dark Mirror · as Dr. Scott Elliott |
| 1942 | Dr. Kildare's Victory · as Dr. James Kildare |
| 1941 | Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day · as Dr. James Kildare |
| 1941 | Maisie Was a Lady · as Bob Rawlston |
| 1940 | Dr. Kildare Goes Home · as Dr. James Kildare |
| 1940 | Dr. Kildare's Crisis · as Dr. James Kildare |
| 1940 | The Golden Fleecing · as Henry Twinkle |
| 1940 | Dr. Kildare's Strange Case · as Dr. James Kildare |
| 1939 | Broadway Serenade · as James Geoffrey 'Jimmy' Seymour |
| 1939 | The Secret of Dr. Kildare · as Dr. James Kildare |
| 1939 | The Ice Follies of 1939 · as Eddie Burgess |
| 1938 | Holiday · as Ned Seton |
| 1938 | King of the Newsboys · as Jerry Flynn |
| 1936 | The Leathernecks Have Landed · as Woodruff 'Woody' Davis |
| 1936 | Murder with Pictures · as Kent Murdock |
| 1933 | State Fair · as Pat Gilbert |
| 1932 | The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood · as Lew Ayres |
| 1931 | The Spirit of Notre Dame · as Edward Aloysius "Bucky" O'Brian |
| 1930 | All Quiet on the Western Front · as Paul Bäumer |
| 1930 | The Doorway to Hell · as Louie Ricarno |
| 1929 | Big News · as Copyboy (uncredited) |
| 1929 | The Kiss · as Pierre Lassalle |