Ben Lyon

Acting

Ben Lyon

Born — Died

1901-02-06 — 1979-03-22

Place of birth

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

62 titles

From Wikipedia Ben Lyon (February 6, 1901 – March 22, 1979) was an American actor and a studio executive at 20th Century Fox. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Lyon entered films in 1918 after a successful appearance on Broadway opposite Jeanne Eagels. He attracted attention in the highly successful film Flaming Youth (1923), and steadily developed into a leading man. He was most successfully paired with some of the leading actresses of the silent era including Pola Negri, Gloria Swanson, Colleen Moore, Barbara La Marr, Viola Dana, Anna Q. Nilsson, Mary Astor and Blanche Sweet. He had success as an actor in the 1930 film Hell's Angels. The film was a major success and brought Jean Harlow to promi…

Known for

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson poster
7.6

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first ten years, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City with occasional trips to Burbank, California; in May 1972, the show moved permanently to Burbank, California. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

1962

Hollywood poster
8.4

A 1980 documentary series exploring the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios and its impact on 1920s culture.

Hollywood

1980

Hell's Angels poster
6.6

As the Great War breaks out in Europe, English brothers Roy and Monte enlist in the Royal Flying Corps to fight for king and country, while their Oxford College friend Karl is ordered back to Germany. As a love triangle develops involving Monte, Roy, and Roy's girlfriend, Helen, the brothers' disparate personalities, and Monte's cowardice in the face of war soon threaten to compromise a top-secret bombing mission over German territory.

Hell's Angels

1930

Hollywood on Parade No. A-1 poster
4.0

In the first entry of this series, the show open with a troupe of dancing chorus girls getting a salute from crossed-eyed Ben Turpin. Then the master of ceremonies, Fredric March, brings on the various acts, starting with a pre-teen Mitzi Green), dressed as an adult and singing "Was That the Human Thing to Do?" , followed by Ginger Rogers and Jack Oakie singing-and-dancing to "The Girl Who Used to be You." Then the Three Brox Sisters do a triple imitation of Marlene Dietrich singing 'Falling in Love Again." 'Jack Duffy' does a drunken hillbilly bit involving a lamp post, the the finale has Eddie Peabody, playing a banjo for some chorus girls on a pedestal.

Hollywood on Parade No. A-1

1932

Hollywood on Parade No. A-3 poster
10.0

Eddie Kane wanders round the studio back-lot, opening various doors to see which stars pop out.

Hollywood on Parade No. A-3

1932

Night Nurse poster
6.8

Lora Hart manages to land a job in a hospital as a trainee nurse. Upon completion of her training she goes to work as a night nurse for two small children who seem to be very sick, though something much more sinister is going on.

Night Nurse

1931

Film credits

1950s · 2 titles

1930s · 31 titles

Hell's Angels poster
6.6

As the Great War breaks out in Europe, English brothers Roy and Monte enlist in the Royal Flying Corps to fight for king and country, while their Oxford College friend Karl is ordered back to Germany. As a love triangle develops involving Monte, Roy, and Roy's girlfriend, Helen, the brothers' disparate personalities, and Monte's cowardice in the face of war soon threaten to compromise a top-secret bombing mission over German territory.

Hell's Angels

1930

Hollywood on Parade No. A-1 poster
4.0

In the first entry of this series, the show open with a troupe of dancing chorus girls getting a salute from crossed-eyed Ben Turpin. Then the master of ceremonies, Fredric March, brings on the various acts, starting with a pre-teen Mitzi Green), dressed as an adult and singing "Was That the Human Thing to Do?" , followed by Ginger Rogers and Jack Oakie singing-and-dancing to "The Girl Who Used to be You." Then the Three Brox Sisters do a triple imitation of Marlene Dietrich singing 'Falling in Love Again." 'Jack Duffy' does a drunken hillbilly bit involving a lamp post, the the finale has Eddie Peabody, playing a banjo for some chorus girls on a pedestal.

Hollywood on Parade No. A-1

1932

Hollywood on Parade No. A-3 poster
10.0

Eddie Kane wanders round the studio back-lot, opening various doors to see which stars pop out.

Hollywood on Parade No. A-3

1932

Night Nurse poster
6.8

Lora Hart manages to land a job in a hospital as a trainee nurse. Upon completion of her training she goes to work as a night nurse for two small children who seem to be very sick, though something much more sinister is going on.

Night Nurse

1931

Lady with a Past poster
6.2

A wealthy girl hires a male escort to make one of her male friends jealous. She spreads rumours about her character that makes her popular amongst all bachelors in the city including her friend.

Lady with a Past

1932

Together We Live poster
7.0

A ham-handed cautionary fable against communism, the film concerns a group of Civil War veterans who are appalled by the burgeoning radical movement in America.

Together We Live

1935

The Women in His Life poster
4.3

An immensely successful criminal lawyer is blindsided when he learns that his new case involves his ex-wife, who left him.

The Women in His Life

1933

By Whose Hand? poster
6.6

On the night express train from Los Angeles to San Francisco everyone’s a suspect when a jewelry magnate is found stabbed to death and an escaped killer is feared on board. It’s up to newspaper reporter Jimmy Hawley (Ben Lyon) to unravel the secrets of the motley group of passengers and find the killer before he strikes again in this tense and atmospheric whodunit.

By Whose Hand?

1932

The Crooked Circle poster
5.3

A group of amateur detectives sets out to expose The Crooked Circle, a secretive group of hooded occultists.

The Crooked Circle

1932

Her Majesty, Love poster
6.7

The wealthy von Wellingens are shocked when the father of their son Fred's fiancée Lia juggles desserts at a formal dinner. They encourage Fred to break the engagement. Lia goes to Berlin to marry a Baron von Schwarzdorf, and Fred goes to stop the marriage.

Her Majesty, Love

1931

The Stolen Jools poster
5.6

Famous actress Norma Shearer's jewels are stolen… (Star-packed promotional short film intended to raise funds for the National Variety Artists Tuberculosis Sanatorium.)

The Stolen Jools

1931

I Cover the Waterfront poster
5.1

An investigative reporter romances a suspected smuggler's daughter.

I Cover the Waterfront

1933

Dancing Feet poster
6.0

Peyton Wells (Ben Lyon) rescues Judy Jones (Joan Marsh) from a very dull young man, at a sedate party given for her by her multi-millionaire grandfather Silas P. Jones (Purnell Pratt.) Judy refuses to accompany Peyton on a slumming trip to a cheap dance hall, and Peyton dances with several of the dowagers and tells them that Silas is practically dying of scarlet fever. The guests hastily depart and Joan joins Peyton at the Dreamland Dance Hall. She is mistaken by Jimmy Cassidy (Edward J. Nugent) as one of the hostesses and decides to dance with him as a lark. One thing follows another and Judy gets disinherited and takes a job at the dance hall through Jimmy and his friend Mabel(Isabel Jewell.) Jimmy confides to Judy his ambition to become a dance instructor over the radio and Judy decides to help him but can't get the needed financial backing. She gets Peyton to front the money, promising him she will reconsider his offer of marriage if Jimmy's plan fails.

Dancing Feet

1936

No artwork available
5.3

Greek sponge divers in Tarpon Springs, Florida duel over diving methods and fight over the same girl, and only one will survive.

Down to the Sea

1936

What Men Want poster
3.3

A playboy's mistress falls in love with another man. Her younger sister arrives in town. Complications ensue.

What Men Want

1930

Alias French Gertie poster
6.2

A safecracker poses as a French maid in order to gain access to wealthy homes. In the midst of a nocturnal search for a cache of valuables, she is interrupted by another safecracker. Narrowly escaping arrest, they decide to pool their talents, but she gets the urge to reform and encourages him to do the same.

Alias French Gertie

1930

My Past poster
4.0

A stage star finds herself torn between a wealthy older man and a handsome younger one.

My Past

1931

Misbehaving Ladies poster
9.0

Ellen, a young American girl who married a European prince and moved to his country, is preparing to return to the US, after having paid off all the debts left by her now-deceased husband. However, when she returns early, no one recognizes her and even her aunt Kate mistakes her for the princess' dressmaker. Her ex-boyfriend Joe, who recognizes her immediately, suggests that Ellen continue with the charade and have some fun, but a series of misunderstandings causes trouble for her.

Misbehaving Ladies

1931

Girl Missing poster
5.2

Showgirls Kay and June are stranded on Palm Beach when they become involved in the case of a fellow chorine who has gone missing on her wedding night.

Girl Missing

1933

A Soldier's Plaything poster
5.4

A pair of hapless half-wits get into continuous mischief during the occupation of Germany after WW I.

A Soldier's Plaything

1930

Hat Check Girl poster
7.5

Gerry Marsh is a hat-check girl in a nightclub surrounded by bootleggers, blackmailers and others before she falls in love with millionaire playboy Buster Collins. Gerry is supported by her girlfriend Jessie.

Hat Check Girl

1932

Crimson Romance poster
5.5

After Fred von Bergen, a German immigrant in America, is forced from his job by anti-German hysteria before the first world war, he and his friend Bob Wilson leave America and join the German air force. There, both men fall in love with ambulance driver Alida Hoffman. When America enters the war, Bob is caught between loyalty to his home country and the threat of execution for desertion and treason to Germany. It remains for his friend Fred to extricate him from the dilemma - but at what cost?

Crimson Romance

1934

Indiscreet poster
6.1

A young woman jeopardizes the relationship with the man she loves when a no-account from her past shows up.

Indiscreet

1931

Aloha poster
8.0

In the South Seas, a half-caste island girl refuses to follow tradition and marry a fellow islander, instead falling in love with a white man and heir to an American fortune.

Aloha

1931

Frisco Waterfront poster
9.0

As California gubernatorial candidate Burton is about to cast his vote a truck crashes into the polling booth, critically injuring him and his opponent. A flashback traces his career from unemployed veteran to dockworker to lawyer. A side thread traces his tortured relationship with his wife.

Frisco Waterfront

1935

Lummox poster
8.0

Lummox is a 1930 American Pre-Code sound film directed by Herbert Brenon, released through United Artists, and based on a 1923 novel by Fannie Hurst. The story of Bertha, a young immigrant woman who cleans the homes of the rich and is largely ignored by them, except for a young poet who considers her a muse.

Lummox

1930

No artwork available
7.0

Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Davidson is trying to determine who murdered the much-hated Count Matton. The dilemma isn't that the Detective is suffering from a lack of witnesses but that four different people have come forth to confess to the killing, each of them with plenty of motive and opportunity.

I Killed the Count

1939

Lightning Strikes Twice poster
5.2

An actress goes up to a dude ranch for relaxation, when she falls in love with a ranch owner recently acquitted of his wife's murder.

Lightning Strikes Twice

1934

Compromised poster
4.0

Poor working-class girl Stella marries wealthy Sidney Brock, recently jilted by his fiancée and social equal Connie. The two go through contentious times with the Brock patriarch, but when Stella becomes a mother, she seems to becomes accepted, although it's used as a way to shift Sidney's and the child's affections from her. Connie comes back into their lives, now seeking to reclaim Sidney, and manipulates the situation to convince Stella that he's been seeing her. So Stella decides to get a divorce, but fortunately, Sidney becomes aware of the deception in time.

Compromised

1931

Navy Wife poster
6.0

A Hawaiian naval nurse weds a widowed officer partly because he has a crippled daughter.

Navy Wife

1935

The Hot Heiress poster
6.2

Classes clash when a poor riveter and wealthy society woman fall in love with each other, much to the shock of her friends and family.

The Hot Heiress

1931

1920s · 24 titles

Bluebeard's Seven Wives poster
10.0

Bank clerk John Hart is about to marry Mary Kelly, but she insists that before that happens he must grow a mustache. The idea of that shakes him up so much that he gets distracted at work, comes up short in his accounts and gets fired. Unable to find another job, he begins to work as an extra at a nearby film studio to earn money. One day the leading man of a picture John is working on gets into an argument with the director and storms off the set. Angered, the director sees John and, deciding that he'll show his arrogant star that he can make a movie idol out of just about anybody, picks John to replace him. As it turns out, John has a real talent for acting and before he knows it he becomes a star. Unfortunately, "stardom" isn't what John thought it would be.

Bluebeard's Seven Wives

1926

Wages of Virtue poster
8.0

A carnival strongman and his girlfriend flee to Algiers to escape a murder charge but there they are caught again in a web of jealousy, deceit and murder.

Wages of Virtue

1924

The Pace That Thrills poster
9.0

Paula, a chorus girl, marries into an aristocratic family. Unfortunately, her husband is a drunk. When he tries to give some liquor to their infant son, she brandishes a pair of scissors at him. He wrestles them away from her, then falls down the stairs and stabs himself. Due to the perjured testimony of the maid and butler, Paula is convicted of murder and sent to jail. Her son, Danny, grows up to be a movie star. There is a controversy surrounding him because he refuses to do his own stunts. The reason he won't take any chances is that he is using all his money to get his mother out of jail. Finally, to redeem himself, he agrees to participate in a charity auto race, but his mother's hearing is scheduled for the race day.

The Pace That Thrills

1925

Flaming Youth poster
3.8

When Mona Frentiss dies, she has her confidante "Doctor Bobs" watch over her family, especially her youngest daughter Patricia. The family has been raised in a most unconventional manner, with Mona having a much younger lover and the father Ralph keeping his own lover on the side. As Patricia grows older, she attracts the attention of her mother's former lover, the much older (than Patricia, who in the book is in her early to mid teens) Carey Scott. Patricia tempts fate with her wild ways, nearly loses her virtue to a musician aboard an ocean-going boat, and is saved in time by Carey. Realizing that he is the man for her, she settles down into an experimental marriage.

Flaming Youth

1923

The New Commandment poster
10.0

Billy Morrow (Ben Lyon), who comes from a wealthy family, is sailing to Europe with his father (Holbrook Blinn) on their yacht. Along for the ride is Mrs. Parr (Claire Eames) and her stepdaughter. Near the French coast, Billy discovers that Mrs. Parr wants to arrange a marriage between him and the girl, so he escapes and takes a lifeboat ashore.

The New Commandment

1925

The Savage poster
9.0

Rivalry between two behavioral scientists gets out of hand...

The Savage

1926

So Big poster
9.0

After graduating from a fashionable finishing school and touring Europe with her father, Selina Peake returns to the United States, where her father is accidentally killed after losing his fortune in a gambling den. Selina is reduced to teaching in a high school in the Dutch community at High Prarie near Chicago. She boards in the farmhouse of Klass Poole, a dull-witted market gardener, and finally marries Pervus DeJong, a poor and backward farmer. She shares the drudgery of her husband's futile life and finds happiness only in their small son, Dirk, whom she calls "So-Big."

So Big

1924

Winds of Chance poster
6.5

A love triangle set against the turn-of-the-century gold rush.

Winds of Chance

1925

The White Moth poster
6.1

When a girl tries to drown herself in the Seine, she is rescued by dancer Gonzalo Montrez. She then becomes a famous dancer known as the White Moth.

The White Moth

1924

Painted People poster
10.0

Ellie Byrne and Don Lane, chums, living in the poor section of a factory town, go away to make their fortunes. Ellie wishes to become a lady so that she can marry Preston Dutton, a society chap, and Don becoming infatuated with Stephanie Parrish, daughter of a wealthy man. Ellie becomes a leading actress and Don the author of her first play. Ellie refuses Dutton’s suit when she learns he is after her money, and Stephanie returns Don’s engagement ring. Ellie and Don go back to the factory town disillusioned. They realize that they love each other and in reality had not bettered themselves for someone else but for each other. A lost film.

Painted People

1924

The Flying Marine poster
8.0

Released in both a silent and a sound version: Mitch Moran, a veteran WWI pilot and now a commercial pilot, takes his young irresponsible brother, Steve, under his guidance. Steve heeds little of what Mitch is selling but does find time to steal Mitch's sweetheart Sally.

The Flying Marine

1929

For the Love of Mike poster
7.0

Three men join forces to raise an adopted son. A lost film.

For the Love of Mike

1927

Life in Hollywood No. 2 poster
9.0

Part of a 7-part series exploring all aspects of Hollywood.

Life in Hollywood No. 2

1927

The Air Legion poster
9.0

The Air Legion is a 1929 American aviation silent film about airmail directed by Bert Glennon.

The Air Legion

1929

The Necessary Evil poster
8.0

Ben Lyon and Viola Dana co-star in this heavy society drama

The Necessary Evil

1925

Potash and Perlmutter poster
9.0

The film is based on an ethnic Jewish comedy with characters created by Montague Glass and Charles Klein.

Potash and Perlmutter

1923

No artwork available
7.0

When the Civil War breaks out, Alan Kendrick, an army officer born in the South, stays in the army to fight for the Union, but his sweetheart Maryland sides with the South. She soon discovers that Alan was captured by Confederates in a battle near her home and is to be executed. Although he is fighting for her enemy, she cannot bring herself to let him be killed and devises a plan to help him escape.

The Heart of Maryland

1921

The Prince of Tempters poster
9.0

Francis, the result of a clandestine marriage between the Duke of Chatsfield and a peasant girl, after being raised in a monastery following his parents death assumes his title but falls victim to a pair of schemers leading to much heartache before all is set aright before the fadeout.

The Prince of Tempters

1926

Lily of the Dust poster
8.0

Lily, a poor and friendless orphan, is married to a sensual and elderly Colonel in the German army who divorces her when he finds her with a former officer sweetheart. Introduced by a girl friend to Bohemian society, Lily loses the love of the young officer and marries her former lover, a wealthy art connoisseur.

Lily of the Dust

1924

All Faces West poster
9.0

Outlaw trio joins wagon train, planning to rob it.

All Faces West

1929

The Perfect Sap poster
7.0

Wealthy young Herbert Alden, a would-be detective, is practicing housebreaking with his valet, an ex-convict, when he meets George and Polly, two real thieves; they are discovered and, following a chase, they go to Herbert's city apartment. George arranges with one of them, Tony-the-Lizard, to rob the guests at a ball given by Herbert's father at his country home. Herbert discovers that Tony is Tracy Sutton, a social lion engaged to Herbert's sister Roberta; and believing Herbert to be a famous criminal, Tony seeks his advice.

The Perfect Sap

1927

Das tanzende Wien poster
10.0

A cabaret singer in Germany is in love with a young American boy, and must convince his disapproving father that she is worthy of his son.

Das tanzende Wien

1927

The Quitter poster
8.0

Neal Abbott (Ben Lyon), a disgraced surgeon, regains his self-respect after operating on and saving the life of cafe-owner Duffy Thompson (Fred Kohler).

The Quitter

1929

One Way Street poster
9.0

Bobby Austin is sent to Madrid on a diplomatic mission. He is followed by Lady Sylvia Hutton, a society adventuress who is infatuated with him. She takes him on a yachting trip to Monte Carlo where he meets Kathleen Lawrence, a notorious "kept" woman, who tries to save him from the ruin that Lady Sylvia bears in her wake.

One Way Street

1925

Series credits