Lewis Frederick Ayres III (December 28, 1908 – December 30, 1996) was an American actor whose film and television career spanned 65 years. He is best known for starring as German soldier Paul Bäumer in the film All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and for playing Dr. Kildare in nine films.[1] He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Johnny Belinda (1948).
Early life and career
Ayres was born in Minneapolis[2] to Irma Bevernick and Louis Ayres, who divorced when he was four. Louis, an amateur musician and court reporter, remarried soon afterwards.
As a teen, he and his mother moved with his step-father, William Gilmore,[3] and half brother and sister to San Diego, California.[4]
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 (Warner Brothers, 1927).
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."[citation needed]
He left a national tour to pursue a career as an actor full-time.
Career
Ayres was discovered at a nightclub by talent agent Ivan Kahn. He was cast to play opposite Greta Garbo in The Kiss (1929), but it was his leading role in the original version of All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) that made him a star, secured him a contract with Universal—and made him a conscientious objector to World War II.
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 (and again in a 1950s radio series) while also appearing in light comedies for MGM, including Spring Madness and Rich Man, Poor Girl (both 1938), The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939), and Fingers at the Window (1942). His final film as Dr. Kildare, Born to Be Bad, was re-edited after he was drafted and declared himself a conscientious objector in March 1942.
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 CBSWestern 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. (In 1961, the part went to Richard Chamberlain.) He appeared (as the vice-president) in Advise & Consent (1962), and in The Carpetbaggers (1964), but he was, by then, primarily a television actor, with only occasional film work.
For a guest role in Kung Fu ("The Vanishing Image", 1974) he was nominated for an Emmy.
His documentary film Altars of the World (1976), based on a series of documentaries he made titled Altars of the East (1956), brought his Eastern philosophical beliefs to the screen and earned him critical acclaim and a Golden Globe Award for best documentaryin 1977.[6]
Ayres guest-starred in an episode of The Bionic Woman ("Doomsday is Tomorrow", 1977) as Dr. Elijah Cooper, an elderly nuclear scientist who attempts to blackmail the world into peace. In 1973 he played a similar role on Hawaii Five-O as a nuclear Scientist who in a twist ending ends up dying of radiation from his own bomb.
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 (1994), also starring Wagner.
World War II conscientious objector and medic
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.[6]
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 enlisted in the United States Army on May 18, 1942.[7]
He served as a first aid instructor in the United States Army 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 under fire during the invasion of Leyte to set up evacuation hospitals, 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.[8]
Serving for three and a half years in the Medical Corps, he was awarded 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.[9]
Personal life
Ayres' grave
Ayres was married three times. First to actress Lola Lane from 1931 until 1933, although they were separated much of that period.[10] He met actress Ginger Rogers while starring in the film Don't Bet on Love in 1933 and they wed in 1934. They separated in 1936 and divorced in March 1940.[11] His third marriage, to Diana Hall, lasted from 1964 until his death in 1996.[9] Their son Justin was born in 1968.
^Kovac, Jeffrey. (2009). Refusing War, Affirming Peace: A History of Civilian Public Service Camp #21 at Cascade Locks. Oregon State University Press. p. 54. ISBN978-0870715754
^Braitman, Jacqueline R. (2020). She Damn Near Ran the Studio: The Extraordinary Lives of Ida R. Koverman. University Press of Mississippi. p. 194. ISBN978-1496830388
^"Lew Ayres". Hollywood Walk of Fame. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
^"Lew Ayres". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
