Lew Ayres was an American actor, best known for starring as German soldier
Paul Bäumer in the film classic All Quiet on the Western Front and for
playing Dr. Kildare in nine movies. Early life
Ayres was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Irma and Louis Ayres, who divorced
when he was four. Louis, an amateur musician and court reporter, remarried
soon after. As a teen, Lew and his mother moved with his step-father and
half brother and sister to San Diego, California.
Career as a musician Leaving high school before graduating,
he started a small band which traveled to Mexico. He returned months later to
pursue an acting career, but continued working full-time as a musician. He
played banjo and guitar for big bands, including the Henry Halstead Orchestra.
He recorded one of the earliest Vitaphone movie shorts called Carnival
Night in Paris. Ayres wrote, "I was a member of Henry Halstead's orchestra in
1927 at the Mission Beach Ballroom in San Diego, California for the summer. My
instruments were tenor banjo, long-neck banjo and guitar. After a hiatus, I
rejoined Mr. Halstead with a new group, including Phil Harris, on New Year's Eve
the same year for the opening night of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, a memorable
occasion." He left a national tour to pursue a career as an actor full-time.
Acting Ayres was discovered at a night club by
talent agent Ivan Kahn. In 1929 he was cast to play opposite Greta Garbo in
1929's The Kiss, but it was his leading role in the 1930 version of All Quiet on
the Western Front which made him a star, secured him a contract with
Universal—and made him a conscientious objector to World War II. He made a
number of mostly forgotten B movies for Universal, with the exception of Iron
Man. His most successful movies at this time were those he made on loan to other
studios, including Doorway to Hell, and as Janet Gaynor's leading man in both
State Fair and Servants' Entrance, which featured a combination of live action
and Walt Disney animation in a musical dream sequence, both for Fox Films.
He left Universal to sign with Fox Films, before moving to poverty row
studio Republic Pictures to pursue a second career as a director, including
the film Hearts in Bondage in 1936, starring James Dunn and Mae Clarke. He
moved to Paramount Pictures before finally being signed to MGM in 1938.
In 1938, he was loaned from Paramount to play the role of Ned in Holiday. The
role earned him considerable critical attention, including interest from MGM
to put him under contract specifically for the role of Dr. James Kildare in an
upcoming film series. Ayres played the role in nine films from 1938 to 1942
while also appearing in light comedies for MGM, including Spring Madness, Ice
Follies of 1938, Rich Man, Poor Girl, and Fingers At the Window.
His final film as Dr. Kildare, Born to Be Bad, was re-edited after he was
drafted and controversially declared himself a conscientious objector in
March 1942. This stance almost destroyed Ayres's reputation until it was revealed
that he had served honorably as a non-combatant medic from 1942 to 1946.
He returned to acting in the films Dark Mirror and The Unfaithful with Ann
Sheridan. In 1948, his role in Johnny Belinda earned him an Academy Award
nomination for Best Actor. The film was nominated for 13 Oscars, but only won
Best Actress for Jane Wyman. Ayres lost that year to Laurence Olivier's
portrayal of the title role in Hamlet, which also won Best Picture.
Ayres gradually moved to television, appearing in several anthology series in
guest roles. In the summer of 1958, he hosted eleven original episodes of a CBS
Western anthology television series called Frontier Justice, a production of
Dick Powell's Four Star Television. He was offered the part of Dr. Kildare in
an NBC series. But his prescient request that the show have no cigarette
advertising led to the offer being withdrawn, and the part going, in 1961,
to Richard Chamberlain. In 1962 he appeared as the Vice-President in Advise
and Consent, and in The Carpetbaggers in 1964, but he was by then primarily a
television actor, with only occasional film work every few years. In 1975, he
was nominated for an Emmy as best guest actor on Kung Fu, for the episode "The
Vanishing Image." His 1976 documentary film Altars of the
World brought his Eastern philosophical beliefs to the screen and earned him
critical acclaim and a Golden Globe Award for best documentary in 1977. In
1985, he was cast in his first series as a regular cast member, as the father of
Robert Wagner in the short-lived series Lime Street. His last role was in the
made-for-TV film Hart to Hart: Crimes of the Heart, also starring Wagner, in
1994. = World War II controversy=
In March 1942, Ayres was identified as a 4E conscientious objector and sent to a
CO camp. As expected, the announcement that a Hollywood actor objected to the
war was a major source of public outcry and debate. Within a month it was
determined that he had initially requested to be A-O-1, so that he could
serve as a non-combat medic. However, the military's policy that servicemen
cannot request, or be guaranteed, where they will serve, forced him to request a
4E status. The U.S. military confirmed that they would place him as a medic and
in April 1942, his status was changed. He served as a First Aid instructor in
the military before requesting a drop in rank in order to serve as a medic and
chaplain's assistant in the Pacific. He was one of 16 medics who arrived during
the invasion of Leyte to set up evacuation hospitals under fire, and
there he provided care to soldiers and civilians in the Philippines and New
Guinea. He donated all the money he had earned as a serviceman to the American
Red Cross. Serving for three and a half years in the Medical Corps, he won three
battle stars. After the war, he resumed his career and made scores of movies,
but never reached the peak of his early Hollywood stardom.
Personal life Ayres was married three times. He was
married to actress Lola Lane from 1931 to 1933, and to actress Ginger Rogers,
whom he met while starring in the film Don't Bet on Love, from 1934 to 1940. He
was separated from both women considerably earlier than their legal
divorces. His third marriage, to Diana Hall, lasted from 1964 until his death
in 1996. They had one son, Justin, born in 1968. He had a brief affair with
actress Jane Wyman, who supposedly ended her marriage to Ronald Reagan to pursue
a relationship with Ayres in 1948. Death
Lew Ayres died December 30, 1996, of complications from a coma, just two days
after his 88th birthday. He was survived by his wife of 32 years, actress Diana
Hall, and their son Justin Ayres. He was buried under a simple headstone at
Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California next to the unmarked grave of
musician Frank Zappa. Nominations
Ayres was nominated for the 1948 Academy Award for Best Actor for Johnny Belinda.
In 1975 he was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Single Performance by a
Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Series in the Kung Fu episode "The
Vanishing Image." He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6385 Hollywood
Blvd. Partial filmography
Radio Philip Morris Playhouse - episode Dark
Victory References
Sources Coffin, Lesley L. Lew Ayres: Hollywood's
Conscientious Objector. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2012.
781848522 External links
Lew Ayres at the Internet Movie Database Lew Ayres at AllMovie
Lew Ayres at Find a Grave Classic Images
Photographs of Lew Ayres