Lew Ayres
Acting
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.
All Quiet on the Western Front
as Paul Bäumer
Age 21 (now 88)
Battle for the Planet of the Apes
as Mandemus
Age 64 (now 88)
Checking Out: Grand Hotel
as Self (archive footage)
Age 95 (now 88)
Hart to Hart: Crimes of the Hart
as Professor Cabel
Age 85 (now 88)
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
as actor 'Advise and 'Consent' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Age 82 (now 88)
Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident
as Allen Dulles
Age 67 (now 88)
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
Age 67 (now 88)
Battle for the Planet of the Apes
as Mandemus
Age 64 (now 88)
Marcus Welby, M.D.: A Matter of Humanities
as Dr. Andrew Swanson
Age 60 (now 88)
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
as Self
Age 31 (now 88)
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
as Self
Age 31 (now 88)
The Leathernecks Have Landed
as Woodruff 'Woody' Davis
Age 27 (now 88)
The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood
as Lew Ayres
Age 23 (now 88)
The Spirit of Notre Dame
as Edward Aloysius "Bucky" O'Brian
Age 22 (now 88)
All Quiet on the Western Front
as Paul Bäumer
Age 21 (now 88)
San Francisco International Airport
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
as Dr. Paul Harris
Age 51 (now 88)
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
as Howard Moon
Age 50 (now 88)
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
as Jud Lester
Age 47 (now 88) Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
as Jesse Martin
Age 47 (now 88) Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
as Clint Howard
Age 47 (now 88)
Screen Director's Playhouse
as Dr. John Mohler
Age 46 (now 88)
Gathering insights...
Also Known As
Lewis Frederick Ayre III
IMDB
nm0000817