Lew Ayres profile
Actor profile

Lew Ayres

28th December 1908 Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA 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.

96 Movies 63 TV Shows 163 Credits
Filmography

Movies & TV Shows

Reunion poster
Reunion 14th October 1980 as Bob Hollander
She Waits poster
She Waits 28th January 1972 as Dr. Sam Carpenter
Earth II poster
Earth II 28th November 1971 as President Charles Carter Durant
Cocoon poster
Cocoon 20th September 1968 as The Governor
Big News poster
Big News 6th September 1929 as Copyboy (uncredited)
The Sophomore poster
The Sophomore 24th August 1929 as Sophomore Fraternity Brother (uncredited)
L.A. Law poster
L.A. Law 15th September 1986 as Lorimar Henderson
Hotel poster
Hotel 21st August 1982 as Nelson O'Neil
Hawkins poster
Hawkins 13th March 1973 as Gus Bitterman
Columbo poster
Columbo 15th September 1971 as Howard Nicholson
Gunsmoke poster
Gunsmoke 10th September 1955 as Jonathan Cole
Climax! poster
Climax! 7th October 1954 as Bob Kilgore