Ben Lyon
Photoplayd Industry Rating
Not enough rated films yet to compute a weighted score.
Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
From Wikipedia Ben Lyon (February 6, 1901 – March 22, 1979) was an American actor and a studio executive at 20th Century Fox. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Lyon entered films in 1918 after a successful appearance on Broadway opposite Jeanne Eagels. He attracted attention in the highly successful film Flaming Youth (1923), and steadily developed into a leading man. He was most successfully paired with some of the leading actresses of the silent era including Pola Negri, Gloria Swanson, Colleen Moore, Barbara La Marr, Viola Dana, Anna Q. Nilsson, Mary Astor and Blanche Sweet. He had success as an actor in the 1930 film Hell's Angels. The film was a major success and brought Jean Harlow to prominence, but Lyon's performance as an heroic World War I aviator was also highly regarded. For the next decade he was constantly in demand, but his popularity began to wane by the early 1940s. By the mid-1940s he was working for 20th Century Fox. On July 17, 1946 he met a young aspiring actress named Norma Jeane Dougherty.[2] After his first meeting with her he stated that she was "Jean Harlow all over again!". He organized a color screen test for the actress, renamed her, and finally signed her as Marilyn Monroe to her first studio contract. During World War II, Lyons and his wife, actress Bebe Daniels, settled in London. The couple, along with the comedian Vic Oliver, starred in the radio series Hi, Gang!, which ran from 1940 to 1949. Hi Gang was succeeded in 1950 by Life with the Lyons, which also featured their real life son Richard and daughter Barbara, and had a run on BBC and independent television from 1954 until 1960. Lyon married actress Bebe Daniels in June 1930. They had two children: daughter Barbara in 1932 and a son Richard whom they adopted. Daniels suffered a severe stroke in 1963 and withdrew from public life. She suffered a second stroke in late 1970. She died at the couple's London home in March 1971. In 1974, Lyon married the actress Marian Nixon whom he had known since the 1920s. On March 22, 1979, Lyon and his second wife Marian Nixon were vacationing together on the Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise ship near Honolulu, Hawaii, when Lyon suffered a fatal heart attack. He is interred in the Chapel Columbarium at Hollywood Forever Cemetery next to his first wife, Bebe. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Ben Lyon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street.
Known for
Credits
Hell's Angels (1930)
as Monte Rutledge
Hollywood on Parade No. A-3 (1932)
as Self
Lady with a Past (1932)
as Guy Bryson
Hollywood on Parade No. A-1 (1932)
as Self
Down to the Sea (1936)
as Steve Londos
Night Nurse (1931)
as Mortie
The Women in His Life (1933)
as Roger McKane
Hi Gang! (1941)
as Her Other Half
Painted People (1924)
as Don Lane
Her Majesty, Love (1931)
as Fred von Wellingen
Lummox (1930)
as Rollo Farley
The Stolen Jools (1931)
as Ben Lyon
I Cover the Waterfront (1933)
as H. Joseph 'Joe' Miller
Screen Snapshots Series 14, No. 8 (1935)
Actor
A Soldier's Plaything (1930)
as Georgie
Girl Missing (1933)
as Henry Gibson
The Prince of Tempters (1926)
as Francis
The Custard Cup (1923)
as Dick Chase
The Pace That Thrills (1925)
as Danny Wade
Crimson Romance (1934)
as Bob Wilson
Lily of the Dust (1924)
as Lt. Prell
For the Love of Mike (1927)
as Mike
Life in Hollywood No. 2 (1927)
as Himself
Winds of Chance (1925)
as Pierce Phillips
The Dark Tower (1943)
as Phil Danton
Life with the Lyons (1954)
as Ben Lyon
The Heart of Maryland (1921)
as Bob Telfair
Dancing Feet (1936)
as Peyton Wells
My Past (1931)
as Robert 'Bob' Byrne
Navy Wife (1935)
as Dr. Peter Milford
The Big Timer (1932)
as Cooky Bradford
Bluebeard's Seven Wives (1926)
as John Hart / Don Juan Hartez
Wine of Youth (1924)
as Lynn Talbot
What Men Want (1930)
as Kendall James
Wages of Virtue (1924)
as Marvin
Bought! (1931)
as Nick Amory
I Killed the Count (1939)
as Bernard Froy
The Lyons in Paris (1955)
as Ben
The Air Legion (1929)
as Dave Grayson
Confidential Lady (1939)
as Jim Brent
This Was Paris (1942)
as Butch, Sydney Chronicle Reporter
Hat Check Girl (1932)
as Buster Collins
Together We Live (1935)
as Max
Lightning Strikes Twice (1934)
as Steve Brewster
Aloha (1931)
as Jimmy Bradford
All Faces West (1929)
as Matthew
The Savage (1926)
as Danny Terry
The Perfect Sap (1927)
as Herbert Alden
The Hot Heiress (1931)
as Hap Harrigan
By Whose Hand? (1932)
as Jimmy Hawley
Flaming Youth (1923)
as Monty Standish
The Reckless Lady (1926)
as Ralph Hilliwe
The Quitter (1929)
as Neal Abbott
Week Ends Only (1932)
as Jack Williams
One Way Street (1925)
as Bobby Austin
Potash and Perlmutter (1923)
as Boris Andrieff
Misbehaving Ladies (1931)
as Phil Hunter
The White Moth (1924)
as Douglas Vantine
So Big (1924)
as Dirk DeJong
The Great Deception (1926)
as Cyril Mansfield
Compromised (1931)
as Sidney Brock
Alias French Gertie (1930)
as Jimmy Hartigan
The Necessary Evil (1925)
as Frank Jerome
Indiscreet (1931)
as Tony Blake
The Crooked Circle (1932)
as Brand Osborne
Frisco Waterfront (1935)
as Glenn Burton
I Spy (1934)
as Wally Sawyer
The Tender Hour (1927)
as Wally McKenzie
The New Commandment (1925)
as Billy Morrow
Stardust (1938)
as Roy Harley
The Flying Marine (1929)
as Steve Moran
Open Your Eyes (1919)
as Harold Connors
Das tanzende Wien (1927)
as Jonny Conzaga