
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
1930 · as Paul Bäumer

Damien - Omen II
1978 · as Bill Atherton

Battle for the Planet of the Apes
1973 · as Mandemus

Battlestar Galactica
1978 · as President Adar

Johnny Belinda
1948 · as Robert Richardson

Advise & Consent
1962 · as The Vice President

Under Siege
1986 · as John Pace

Holiday
1938 · as Ned Seton

End of the World
1977 · as Com. Joseph Beckerman

That's Entertainment, Part II
1976 · as (archive footage)

The Dark Mirror
1946 · as Scott Elliott

The Carpetbaggers
1964 · as Mac McAllister

The Unfaithful
1947 · as Larry Hannaford

Remember?
1939 · as Sky Ames

Suddenly, Love
1978 · as Mr. Graham

State Fair
1933 · as Pat Gilbert

Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
1991 · as actor 'Advise and 'Consent' (archive footage) (uncredited)

The Stranger
1973 · as Prof. Dylan MacAuley