Lew Ayres

Acting

Lew Ayres

Born 1908-12-28 · Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

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.

Acting credits

All Quiet on the Western Front poster
7.8

When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during the Great War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat.

All Quiet on the Western Front

1930

Damien - Omen II poster
6.4

Since the sudden and suspicious deaths of his parents, young Damien has been in the charge of his wealthy aunt and uncle and enrolled in a military school. Widely feared to be the Antichrist, he relentlessly plots to seize control of his uncle's business empire — and the world.

Damien - Omen II

1978

Battle for the Planet of the Apes poster
5.7

The fifth and final episode in the Planet of the Apes series. After the collapse of human civilization, a community of intelligent apes led by Caesar lives in harmony with a group of humans. Gorilla General Aldo tries to cause an ape civil war and a community of human mutants who live beneath a destroyed city try to conquer those whom they perceive as enemies. All leading to the finale.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes

1973

Battlestar Galactica poster
6.9

After the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Mankind, the last major fighter carrier leads a makeshift fugitive fleet in a desperate search for the legendary planet Earth.

Battlestar Galactica

1978

Heatwave! poster
6.1

A devastating heatwave hits the Los Angeles area and a young expecting couple try to evade it by escaping to a mountain resort town.

Heatwave!

1974

Heaven on Earth poster
5.3

A young boy finds out that the man he thought was his father actually killed his real father, then adopted him.

Heaven on Earth

1931

Don Camillo poster
5.6

A priest helps the small town he's stationed in to resolve conflicts by working together.

Don Camillo

1984

Advise & Consent poster
7.2

Proposed by the President of the United States to fill the post of Secretary of State, Robert Leffingwell appears before a Senate committee, chaired by the idealistic Senator Brig Anderson, which must decide whether he is the right person for the job.

Advise & Consent

1962

Holiday poster
7.3

Johnny Case, a freethinking financier, has finally found the girl of his dreams — Julia Seton, the spoiled daughter of a socially prominent millionaire — and she's agreed to marry him. But when Johnny plans a holiday for the two to enjoy life while they are still young, his fiancée has other plans & that is for Johnny to work in her father's bank!

Holiday

1938

The Dark Mirror poster
7.0

A sister and her disturbed twin are implicated in a murder and a police detective must figure out which one's the killer.

The Dark Mirror

1946

The Lottery Lover poster
4.3

A crew of young military-school cadets are enjoying their first weekend in Paris. Frank Harrington, a girl-shy cadet, wins the lottery which "They" have organized, an Frank wins the right to woo the star of the Folies Bergere, Gaby Aimee, with her garter serving as proof of conquest. Meanwhile Frank has found the one girl-of-his-heart, Patty, and this serves to complicate matters.

The Lottery Lover

1935

That's Entertainment, Part II poster
7.0

Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.

That's Entertainment, Part II

1976

Johnny Belinda poster
6.9

A small-town doctor helps a deaf-mute farm girl learn to communicate.

Johnny Belinda

1948

The Carpetbaggers poster
5.9

Jonas Cord is a disagreeable young tycoon who's building planes, directing films, and catting around on the corporate make in 1930s Hollywood.

The Carpetbaggers

1964

The Kiss poster
6.4

An unhappily married woman is caught up in scandal and murder when her affection toward a young man is misinterpreted.

The Kiss

1929

Hollywood: Style Center of the World poster
5.8

An MGM short promoting the studio's impact on fashion through film through their chief of costume design, Adrian; in rural America, a mother and daughter are shopping and observe a designer dress worn by Joan Crawford in a recent movie.

Hollywood: Style Center of the World

1940

Under Siege poster
7.5

Terrorists launch an attack against the USA. Their first strike is by a suicide squad that detonates a truckload of explosives at an army base in Washington DC. FBI probes indicate that the attack is by Arab terrorists led by Iranians. Subsequent attacks are via airplanes exploded in mid-air, crowded restaurants, and an attack on a mall. Administration cabinet heads push the President to retaliate. The director of the FBI believes that there may be more to the story than the investigation has revealed and the Secretary of Defense is the only other person urging caution.

Under Siege

1986

The Questor Tapes poster
5.9

Project Questor is brainchild of the genius Dr. Vaslovik: he developed plans to build an android super-human. Although he's disappeared and half of his programming tape was erased in the attempt to decode it, his former colleagues continue the project and finally succeed. But Vaslovik seems to have installed a secret program in Questor's brain: He flees and starts to search for Vaslovik. Since half of his knowledge is missing, he needs the help of Jerry Robinson, who's now under suspect of having stolen the android.

The Questor Tapes

1974

Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day poster
6.8

A variety of predicaments arise to distract Dr. Kildare from his wedding to Nurse Mary Lamont.

Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day

1941

The Unfaithful poster
5.9

Christine Hunter kills an intruder and tells her husband and lawyer that it was an act of self-defense. It's later revealed that he was actually her lover and she had posed for an incriminating statue he created.

The Unfaithful

1947

The Last Train from Madrid poster
4.8

The story of seven people: their lives and love affairs in Madrid during the Civil War.

The Last Train from Madrid

1937

The Biscuit Eater poster
6.2

Nothing warms the heart like the story of a boy and his dog. Lonnie (Johnny Whitaker) and Text (George Spell) are two friends determined, against all odds, to turn a misfit hound into a hero. Tennessee farmer and dog trainer Harve McNeil (Earl Holliman) tells his son Lonnie that his dog, Moreover, is a good-for-nothing "biscuit eater."

The Biscuit Eater

1972

End of the World poster
3.9

After witnessing a man's death in a bizarre accident, Father Pergado goes on a spiritual retreat, where he encounters his alien double bent on world conquest.

End of the World

1977

Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker poster
8.0

This documentary, hosted by actor Burgess Meredith, explores the life and career of movie director Otto Preminger, whose body of work includes such memorable films as Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Laura, Forever Amber, Advise and Consent, In Harm's Way, The Moon Is Blue, The Man with the Golden Arm, and many other movies made from the '30s through the '70s. Interviews with actors Frank Sinatra, Vincent Price, James Stewart, Michael Caine, and others who worked with the flamboyant and sometimes control-obsessed director add information and insight to the story.

Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker

1991

Behind the camera