Ben Lyon

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: Acting

Born: Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 1901-02-06

Died: 1979-03-22

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1919	Open Your Eyes	Harold Connors	60
2	1921	The Heart of Maryland	Bob Telfair	0
3	1923	The Custard Cup	Dick Chase	0
4	1923	Potash and Perlmutter	Boris Andrieff	0
5	1924	Painted People	Don Lane	0
6	1924	The White Moth	Douglas Vantine	58
7	1924	Lily of the Dust	Lt. Prell	0
8	1924	Wine of Youth	Lynn Talbot	80
9	1924	Wages of Virtue	Marvin	0
10	1924	So Big	Dirk DeJong	0
11	1925	The Necessary Evil	Frank Jerome	0
12	1925	Winds of Chance	Pierce Phillips	48
13	1925	The Pace That Thrills	Danny Wade	0
14	1925	The New Commandment	Billy Morrow	0
15	1926	Bluebeard's Seven Wives	John Hart / Don Juan Hartez	0
16	1926	The Reckless Lady	Ralph Hilliwe	0
17	1926	The Savage	Danny Terry	0
18	1926	The Great Deception	Cyril Mansfield	0
19	1926	The Prince of Tempters	Francis	0
20	1927	The Tender Hour	Wally McKenzie	0
21	1927	For the Love of Mike	Mike	50
22	1927	Life in Hollywood No. 2	Himself	0
23	1927	Das tanzende Wien	Jonny Conzaga	0
24	1929	All Faces West	Matthew	0
25	1929	The Quitter	Neal Abbott	0
26	1929	The Flying Marine	Steve Moran	0
27	1930	Lummox	Rollo Farley	0
28	1930	Alias French Gertie	Jimmy Hartigan	50
29	1930	What Men Want	Kendall James	10
30	1930	A Soldier's Plaything	Georgie	45
31	1930	Hell's Angels	Monte Rutledge	65
32	1931	The Hot Heiress	Hap Harrigan	53
33	1931	The Stolen Jools	Ben Lyon	56
34	1931	Misbehaving Ladies	Phil Hunter	0
35	1931	Indiscreet	Tony Blake	60
36	1931	Aloha	Jimmy Bradford	0
37	1931	My Past	Robert 'Bob' Byrne	38
38	1931	Night Nurse	Mortie	67
39	1931	Bought!	Nick Amory	60
40	1931	Compromised	Sidney Brock	10
41	1931	Her Majesty, Love	Fred von Wellingen	60
42	1932	Lady with a Past	Guy Bryson	58
43	1932	The Big Timer	Cooky Bradford	42
44	1932	Week Ends Only	Jack Williams	0
45	1932	By Whose Hand?	Jimmy Hawley	60
46	1932	Hollywood on Parade No. A-1	Self	40
47	1932	The Crooked Circle	Brand Osborne	48
48	1932	Hat Check Girl	Buster Collins	60
49	1932	Hollywood on Parade No. A-3	Self	0
50	1933	Girl Missing	Henry Gibson	51
51	1933	I Cover the Waterfront	H. Joseph 'Joe' Miller	51
52	1933	The Women in His Life	Roger McKane	40
53	1934	I Spy	Wally Sawyer	60
54	1934	Crimson Romance	Bob Wilson	35
55	1934	Lightning Strikes Twice	Steve Brewster	47
56	1935	Screen Snapshots Series 14, No. 8		0
57	1935	Together We Live	Max	0
58	1935	Navy Wife	Dr. Peter Milford	50
59	1935	Frisco Waterfront	Glenn Burton	0
60	1936	Dancing Feet	Peyton Wells	52
61	1936	Down to the Sea	Steve Londos	45
62	1938	Stardust	Roy Harley	40
63	1939	I Killed the Count	Bernard Froy	0
64	1939	Confidential Lady	Jim Brent	20
65	1941	Hi Gang!	Her Other Half	55
66	1942	This Was Paris	Butch, Sydney Chronicle Reporter	55
67	1943	The Dark Tower	Phil Danton	61
68	1954	Life with the Lyons	Ben Lyon	60
69	1955	The Lyons in Paris	Ben	35

No.

Year

Title

Role

Vote Average

1919