Lew Ayres

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 antiwar 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 chaplains 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 deafmute 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 boxoffice 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