25 Facts About Lew Ayres

Lewis Frederick Ayres III was an American actor whose film and television career spanned 65 years.

Lew Ayres is best known for starring as German soldier Paul Baumer in the film All Quiet on the Western Front and for playing Dr Kildare in nine films.

Lew Ayres was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Johnny Belinda.

Lew Ayres returned months later to pursue an acting career, but continued working full-time as a musician.

Lew Ayres played banjo and guitar for big bands, including the Henry Halstead Orchestra.

Lew Ayres recorded one of the earliest Vitaphone movie shorts called Carnival Night in Paris.

Lew Ayres left a national tour to pursue a career as an actor full-time.

Lew Ayres was discovered at a night club by talent agent Ivan Kahn.

Lew Ayres made a number of mostly forgotten B movies for Universal, with the exception of Iron Man, with Jean Harlow.

Lew Ayres moved to poverty row studio Republic Pictures to pursue a second career as a director, including the film Hearts in Bondage, starring James Dunn and Mae Clarke.

Lew Ayres moved to Paramount Pictures before finally being signed to MGM in 1938.

Lew Ayres played the role in nine films from 1938 to 1942 while appearing in light comedies for MGM, including Spring Madness and Rich Man, Poor Girl, The Ice Follies of 1939, and Fingers at the Window.

Lew Ayres's 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.

Lew Ayres returned to acting in the films The Dark Mirror with Olivia de Havilland and The Unfaithful with Ann Sheridan.

Lew Ayres gradually moved to television, appearing in several anthology series in guest roles.

Lew Ayres 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Kildare in an NBC series but his prescient request that the show have no cigarette advertising led to the offer being withdrawn, and the part going, in 1961, to Richard Chamberlain.

Lew Ayres guest-starred in an episode of The Bionic Woman as Dr Elijah Cooper, an elderly nuclear scientist who attempts to blackmail the world into peace.

In March 1942, Lew Ayres was identified as a 4E conscientious objector and sent to a CO camp.

Lew Ayres enlisted in the United States Army on May 18,1942.

Lew Ayres 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.

Lew Ayres 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.

Lew Ayres donated all the money he had earned as a serviceman to the American Red Cross.

Lew Ayres met actress Ginger Rogers while starring in the film Don't Bet on Love in 1933 and they wed 1934.

In 1960, Lew Ayres was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with two stars.

Lew Ayres's body was buried under a simple headstone at Westwood Memorial Park in Westwood, Los Angeles.