Lew Ayres

Lew Ayres - Biography Born December 28, 1908 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Died December 30, 1996 in Los Angeles, California, USA (complications from a coma) Birth Name Lewis Frederick Ayer III Height 5' 9½" (1.77 m) Mini Bio (1) 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. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Bruce Cameron Spouse (3) Diana Hall (7 February 1964 - 30 December 1996) ( his death) ( 1 child) Ginger Rogers (14 November 1934 - 20 March 1941) ( divorced) Lola Lane (15 September 1931 - 3 February 1933) ( divorced) Trivia (16) Died in his sleep after being in a coma for several days. Born at 12:15am-CST Following his death, he was interred next to Frank Zappa at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Zappa's grave is unmarked but to the right of Ayres. Had portrayed the title character for the syndicated radio show "The Story of Dr. Kildare" (1950-1951). Big Band musician before becoming an actor. His instruments were tenor banjo, long-neck banjo and guitar. Had one son with Diana Hall: Justin Ayres. As a child, he wanted to be a doctor. His wife, Diana Hall, is a former flight attendant. Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 22-23. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. He was awarded 2 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 6385 Hollywood Boulevard; and for Radio at 1724 Vine Street in Hollywood, California. He was a conscientious objector during World War II, which made him rather unpopular at the studio. Had played the Vice-President of the United States twice (in Advise & Consent (1962) and The Man (1972)), the President twice (in Advise & Consent (1962) and Earth II (1971)), and the Galactic President (in Battlestar Galactica (1978)). Appears in three Best Picture Oscar nominees: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), State Fair (1933) and Johnny Belinda (1948), with All Quiet on the Western Front the only winner. He was a lifelong conservative Republican. In 1960, MGM toyed with the idea of doing an all-male remake of 1939's The Women which would have been entitled, Gentlemen's Club. Like the female version, this would have involved an all masculine cast and the plot would have involved a man (Jeffrey Hunter) who recently discovers among his comrades that his wife is having an affair with another man (Earl Holliman) and after going to Reno to file for divorce and begin a new life, he later finds himself doing what he can to rectify matters later on when he discovers that the other man is only interested in money and position and he decides to win his true love back again. Although nothing ever came of this, it would have consisted of the following ensemble had it did: Jeffrey Hunter (Martin Heal), Earl Holliman (Christopher Allen), Tab Hunter (Simon Fowler), Lew Ayres (Count Vancott), Robert Wagner (Mitchell Aarons), James Garner (Peter Day), Jerry Mathers (Little Martin), James Stewart (Mr. Heal), Ronald Reagan (Larry), Troy Donahue (Norman Blake), and Stuart Whitman (Oliver, the bartender who spills the beans about the illicit affair). On August 28, 2018, he was honored with a day of his film work during the TCM Summer Under The Stars. Personal Quotes (5) To me, war was the greatest sin. I couldn't bring myself to kill other men. [on the closing scene in All Quiet on the Western Front, in 1984]: And everyone remembers that, they always say to me: "Oh, but I remember the butterfly scene!" I kind of analyzed why they remember that so well and it seemed to be that in a subliminal way, in a kind of another sense, the butterfly, which emerges from being only a caterpillar, is a little bit like - maybe they don't think that way - men reaching for his soul. I never had a great talent, but I suppose I must have had something to hang around for 50 years. I don't have any proclivity for acting. It was always difficult for me to learn my lines, which is something that should come easily to any actor. I considered myself a Hollywood success, but there was something wrong with that success. I had everything, yet I had nothing. I had my books, my home, my companions, my music. But somehow, I was lonely." I've always tried to make characters real and vulnerable. How I do this I'd be hard-pressed to say, but when you do achieve it, when you are totally credible, the audience can forget itself and live through you on the screen. An audience needs to forget itself, if only for a little while.