Lew Ayres Movies

Want to know the best Lew Ayres movies?  How about the worst Lew Ayres movies?  Curious about Lew Ayres box office grosses or which Lew Ayres movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Lew Ayres movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well, you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Lew Ayres (1908-1996) was an Oscar®-nominated American actor.   Ayres is known his role in 1930’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and for playing Dr. Kildare in nine movies. He was nominated for an Academy Award® for his performance in Johnny Belinda (1948).  His IMDb page shows 119 acting credits between 1944 and 1988.  This page will rank Lew Ayres movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos, uncredited roles, and movies that were not released in North American were not included in the rankings.

1930’s All Quiet on the Western Front

Lew Ayres Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

1938’s Holiday

Lew Ayres Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies any way you want.

  • Sort Lew Ayres movies by his co-stars
  • Sort Lew Ayres movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
  • Sort Lew Ayres movies by domestic yearly box office rank
  • Sort Lew Ayres movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Lew Ayres movie received.
  • Sort Lew Ayres movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
1964’s The Carpetbaggers

Possibly Interesting Facts About Lew Ayers

1. Lewis Frederick Ayres III was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1908.

2.  Lew Ayres was a Big Band musician before becoming an actor. His instruments were tenor banjo, long-neck banjo and guitar.

3. After dropping out of college, Lew Ayres was found by a talent scout in the Coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles and entered Hollywood as a bit player.

4.  Lew Ayres was a conscientious objector during World War II, which made him rather unpopular at the studio.

5.  Lew Ayres appeared in three Best Picture Oscar® nominees: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), State Fair (1933) and Johnny Belinda (1948), with All Quiet on the Western Front the only winner.

Check out Lew Ayres’s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Steve’s Lew Ayres YouTube Movie Ranking Page

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.  Emmy®, Tony®, and Golden Globe® have also registered trademarks.

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42 thoughts on “Lew Ayres Movies”

  1. THE BIGGER PICTURE “Well, Freddie Bartholomew had first billing in Captains Courageous and that drove Spencer Tracy mad. I was billed fourth – and couldn’t have cared less. Joan Crawford once explained to me she was over Clark Gable and William Powell [in MGM’s estimation of their greatest stars] but under Norma Shearer. Powell was under Jean Harlow but above Bob Montgomery and Myrna Loy.”

    Quote from Melvyn Douglas copied from Cogerson’s Melvyn page. And that was the assessment of just one studio: Warners had Bette Davis [and later Doris Day]; Fox had Betty Grable and Shirley Temple; and Universal had Deanna Durbin.

    All of those ladies along with Crawford and Greer Garson in the 1940s whilst they did co-star with other Legends could feature ALONE as the STARS of long runs of acclaimed hits and Grable/Day/Garson/Temple in particula way back in the late 1930s

    All of the other ladies that I have mentioned have in my opinion a much greater claim to be Box Office Queen than the Miss Loy who had to depend to a great extent on the involvement in her movies of the likes of Gable/Bill Powell/Archibald Alec Leach/Ty Power/Charlton Heston/Paul Newman/Burt Reynolds.

    Reply

  2. FLORA: You’re a gem. Thanks ever so much for highlighting that matter. I have actually watched Etude in Black several times recently and was of course aware of the mother figure but did not realise that she was Myrna. That’s probably because it has been 60 years since I last saw Myrna on the big screen; and the film was On the Terrace in which Miss Loy had just a supporting role with Newman and Woodward being the stars. I see that Phil had forgotten The Thin Woman was in Edute in Black.

    PHIL:
    1/Flora is not only usually hammering us over the general “have seen” movie totals but as you can see she has now strayed onto our Columbo patch and taught us both a lesson there as well.

    2/As you say Myrna did not have a plum guest murderer role in Etude in Black but if I were you I wouldn’t be too quick to claim she never had a major role in the Columbo series. You will know that Mrs Columbo the Lieutenant’s wife is referred to often throughout the series but is never seen or heard. Could it be therefore that Myrna has all along been playing Mrs Columbo behind the scenes? The part would be fitting not least because Columbo is very deferential about his wife and seems to think she is the kind of Great Woman that some who frequent this site appear to think Myrna Loy is.

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    1. In my previous post to Flora/Phil I referred to On the Terrace instead of From the Terrace – apologies.

      Reply

    2. That’s interesting Bob, but given her age at the time, I would more easily imagine Myrna as Columbo’s mother than wife. In any case, as I’m sure you know, there was an actress who played Mrs.Columbo in a short-lived spin-off of the series: Kate Mulgrew, later more famous for playing the captain on Star Trek: Voyager. Mulgrew was much too young and sexy for the role and was nothing like the way her husband described her in various episodes. The show itself paled in comparison to Peter Falk’s Columbo, but hey, they had to try to cash in on that character somehow…even if Myrna was too old for the part 🙂

      Reply

  3. You have a pool! The pool club we belonged to the last 17 years did not open this year. Every other pool club in Queens, New York opened. We joined another fancier one that is down the block from where we live. They have a DJ and musicians and a restaurant. Our old one only had a tennis court that no one used.

    Lew Ayres despite his long career, never appeared on the Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list and he doesn’t even have that many connections on the 2020 list. He does connect to 1 person in a 1930 film and another in a 1931.

    1 CHRISTOPHER LEE End of the World (1977)
    36 ANTHONY QUINN The Last Train from Madrid (1937)
    39 RODDY MCDOWELL Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
    68 JOHN CARRADINE Heaven on Earth (1931)
    126 HENRY FONDA Advise & Consent (1962)
    142 LANCE HENRIKSEN Damien: Omen II (1978)
    154 MARC LAWRENCE The Golden Fleecing (1940)
    200 MARTIN BALSAM The Carpetbaggers (1964)
    207 JEFF COREY New Mexico (1951)
    268 BURGESS MEREDITH Advise & Consent (1962)
    268 BURGESS MEREDITH Spring Madness (1938)
    379 WILLIAM HOLDEN Damien: Omen II (1978)
    406 LIONEL STANDER The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939)
    509 AKIM TAMIROFF Okay, America! (1932)
    621 COLLEEN CAMP Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
    630 CLIFTON JAMES The Biscuit Eater (1972)
    667 PETER LAWFORD Advise & Consent (1962)
    722 JOHN HUSTON Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
    768 EDWARD G. ROBINSON East Is West (1930)
    891 CARROLL BAKER The Carpetbaggers (1964)
    907 WALTER PIDGEON Advise & Consent (1962)
    956 LEE GRANT Damien: Omen II (1978)

    Lew only appeared with 22 Oscar winners.

    ANTHONY QUINN The Last Train from Madrid (1937)
    CHARLES LAUGHTON Advise & Consent (1962)
    DEAN JAGGER End of the World (1977)
    GINGER ROGERS Don’t Bet on Love (1933)
    GREER GARSON Remember? (1939)
    HATTIE MCDANIEL THE CRIME NOBODY SAW (1937)
    HATTIE MCDANIEL THE IMPATIENT MAIDEN (1932)
    HENRY FONDA Advise & Consent (1962)
    JAMES CAGNEY The Doorway to Hell (1930)
    JAMES STEWART The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939)
    JANE DARWELL Cross Country Cruise (1934)
    JANE WYMAN Johnny Belinda (1948)
    JANET GAYNOR Servants’ Entrance (1934)
    JANET GAYNOR State Fair (1933)
    JOAN CRAWFORD The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939)
    KATHARINE HEPBURN Holiday (1938)
    LEE GRANT Damien: Omen II (1978)
    LIONEL BARRYMORE Calling Dr. Kildare (1939)
    LIONEL BARRYMORE Dr. Kildare Goes Home (1940)
    LIONEL BARRYMORE Dr. Kildare’s Crisis (1940)
    LIONEL BARRYMORE Dr. Kildare’s Strange Case (1940)
    LIONEL BARRYMORE Dr. Kildare’s Victory (1942)
    LIONEL BARRYMORE Dr. Kildare’s Wedding Day (1941)
    LIONEL BARRYMORE The People vs. Dr. Kildare (1941)
    LIONEL BARRYMORE The Secret of Dr. Kildare (1939)
    LIONEL BARRYMORE Young Dr. Kildare (1938)
    MARTIN BALSAM The Carpetbaggers (1964)
    OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND The Dark Mirror (1946)
    TERESA WRIGHT The Capture (1950)
    THOMAS MITCHELL THE DARK MIRROR (1946)
    WALTER BRENNAN Cross Country Cruise (1934)
    WALTER BRENNAN The Impatient Maiden (1932)
    WILLIAM HOLDEN Damien: Omen II (1978)

    Lew was in 11 films with Marie Blake who was Jeanette MacDonald’s sister. She is also known as Blossom Rock and played Grandma on the Addams Family TV series. I believe she played the telephone operator in the Dr. Kildare films.

    Laraine Day, Walter Kingsford, Frank Orth and Nell Craig were in 10 films with Lew,

    Reply

    1. Hey Dan…..yep we have a pool. And for 3 months a year……it is both awesome and a pain. Awesome for my kids and their friends…a pain for me to keep clean and blue. It is so fun to go to a pool store….buy lots of expensive chemicals…and then go home and dump them into a big vat of water…lol. Sorry your pool has been closed. Another victim of Covid-19.

      Thanks for the Lew Ayres lists…which are pretty short. If only we were in 1942…then his list would be massive. Good ole Burgess Meredith getting the honors as most frequent Oracle co-star with 2 movies. I would say 22 Oscar winning co-stars is on the low end.

      Good trivia about Marie Blake….I had know idea she was Jeanette MacDonald’s sister. Thanks for sharing the 4 Person 10 Movie Lew Club. Good stuff as always.

      Reply

        1. Hey Dan…..you can’t hide money….lol. Glad you have a fancier pool club…..sounds pretty awesome. I had a friend that I visited in Louisville, Kentucky. We went to his pool club….and it sounds a lot like the one you mentioned. Good stuff.

          Reply

  4. PHIL:

    Kim Hunter is the in Don Ameche Columbo episode [Suitable for Framing aired in 1971] and NOT the Lew Ayres one. Apologies for my initial loss of concentration.

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      1. “Cogerson
        July 16, 2020 at 8:17 am Hey Bob….we have decided to grant you clemency for your “initial loss of concentration”….just do not let it happen again…lo”

        WORK HORSE

        Your face I may forget but your kindness – never!

        See also my response to Phil. Would The Thin Woman instead of Janet Leigh and Anne Baxter have been respectively more suitable for the Forgotten Lady/Falling Star parts?

        Reply

    2. Hi Bob, no harm done, I trust Columbo solved the crime either way. Yes, lot’s of solid stars made good murderers in the series: Ray Milland, George Hamilton, Dick Van Dyke, Roddy McDowall, Donald Pleasance, Louis Jourdan, Robert Culp, Vera Miles, Faye Dunaway, Robert Conrad, Robert Vaughn, Ricardo Montalban, Lee Grant and even Johnny Cash, just to recall a few others off the bat.

      Reply

      1. HI PHIL

        Good cast. Beats those ensemble line-ups in the action/superhero films that Bruce and Steve live off!

        Off the top of my head I would add Janet Leigh and John Payne together in Forgotten Lady 1975 and Anne Baxter and Mel Ferrer delicious as a team with Kevin McCarthy and Edith Head [whom Bruce drools over at the Oscars] thrown in for good measure in Requiem for a Falling Star in 1973. Guys like the Work Horse don’t know what they’re missing!

        The pilot episode back in 1968 Prescription Murder had sauve Gene Barry and Nina Foch in it with Gene as the murderer playing cat and mouse with Columbo. All the people that we’ve mentioned were of course past their big screen heyday when they were hired; so I have often wondered why Myrna Loy didn’t show up in it as somebody’s mother or aunt like Kim Hunter in the Don Ameche outing.

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        2. Hi Bob,
          Good point about Myrna Loy, she should have been in a Columbo. But to be fair, if she had been cast in the early 1970s, her stature would probably have entitled her to more than aunty role. I think she could have been the main guest star, hence getting the opportunity to commit a murder. I’m getting the idea for a script here where Myrna plays long fading movie star who murders a famous producer out of rage for deriding her box office appeal:
          ” I am the Queen of Hollywood, Damn you!!”
          – But darling, that was for a brief period in the late 1930s, and we both know the success of your films had more to do with the box office popularity of your male co-stars, hahaha.
          – Oh yeah? In the future, someone called UMR will prove your wrong! In the mean-time, take this!
          LOUD BANG

          Reply

          1. Hi Phil

            Main guest star would have been a promotion forThe Thin Woman.

            As regards her insisting she was queen of Hollywood –

            Would some power
            The gift to gee us
            To see ourselves
            As others see us.

            ROBERT BURNS

          2. Bob and Phil – Myrna Loy played Blythe Danner’s mother in “Etude in Black” where John Cassavetes plays the murderer

          3. Wow! Thanks Flora, great catch. I did see that episode and remember Cassavates but not Loy. So Bob got his wish and can happily see Myrna playing a relatively small role in a Columbo 🙂

          5. Hey Bob….have you noticed that we have added about 17 movies to the Loy page….she now has over 90 movies ranked there and her career gross is getting close to $10 billion. But I am sure you send lots of time on our Loy page…and you already know this information….lol.

  5. I don’t know much about Lew Ayres so it’s educational to see this page! I have seen 7 of his films and only remember him clearly in 3 of them. My favorites are All Quiet in the Western Front and Advise and Consent. All Quiet was of course a landmark anti-war film and seems to have influenced Ayres into becoming a conscientious objector during WWII (the merits of which can be debated when the point was to fight Hitler). Advise and Consent is one my favorite political dramas. Ayres had a relatively small part in it but he made quite a good and likeable vice-president…perhaps too nice to be credible 🙂 The Dark Mirror is another one of Ayres’ films I enjoyed, though I remember more Olivia de Havilland’s double performance.

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    1. Hey PhilHoF17….glad our Lew Ayres page was educational. Tally counts: 26 for Flora, 8 for bob cox, 7 for you and Steve and 5 for me. I think you are correct…All Quiet On The Western Front was probably very influential in his decision to become a conscientious objector during WWII. I agree with you about his role in Advise and Consent. I have not seen The Dark Mirror, but I want to. As always, good stuff.

      Reply

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