Ben Lyon

Ben Lyon was born on February 6, 1901, in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Alvine W. (Wiseberg) and Ben Lyon, a traveling salesman. His family was Jewish. He died on March 22, 1979, aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise ship near Honolulu, Hawaii, from a fatal heart attack at the age of 78.

Lyon began his performing career on stage, appearing on Broadway opposite Jeanne Eagels before transitioning to film in 1918. His Broadway credits include the 1923 play Mary the 3rd. That same year, he attracted considerable attention in the film Flaming Youth, and he steadily built a reputation as a leading man throughout the silent era. Among his co-stars during this period were Pola Negri, Gloria Swanson, Colleen Moore, Barbara La Marr, Viola Dana, Anna Q. Nilsson, Mary Astor, and Blanche Sweet.

Lyon's sound-era career included a prominent role in the 1930 film Hell's Angels, in which he played a heroic World War I aviator. The film was a major commercial success and brought Jean Harlow to prominence. Lyon was a personal friend of the film's producer, Howard Hughes. He remained in consistent demand as an actor through the 1930s, though his popularity began to decline in the early 1940s. By the mid-1940s he had transitioned to working as a studio executive at 20th Century-Fox. On July 17, 1946, he met a young aspiring actress named Norma Jeane Dougherty, organized a color screen test for her, renamed her, and signed her to her first studio contract as Marilyn Monroe.

During World War II, while the United States remained neutral, Lyon and his wife, actress Bebe Daniels, settled in London. Lyon served as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Air Forces Special Services during the war, and had earlier served as a pilot in the 322nd Pursuit Squadron in the early 1930s. In London, he and Daniels co-starred alongside comedian Vic Oliver in the radio series Hi, Gang!, which ran from 1940 to 1949. That program was followed in 1950 by Life with the Lyons, which featured Lyon, Daniels, their daughter Barbara, and their adopted son Richard. The series expanded into theatrical films, a BBC television run, and an independent television run lasting from 1954 to 1960. Bebe Daniels received top billing in these productions. Lyon also appeared in an episode of Starlight, in a comedic role, though no episodes of that program are known to survive. In March 1963, he was the subject of This Is Your Life, when host Eamonn Andrews surprised him at the BBC Television Theatre.

Lyon married Bebe Daniels in June 1930. The couple had a daughter, Barbara, born in 1931, and an adopted son, Richard. Daniels suffered a severe stroke in 1963 and withdrew from public life, suffered a second stroke in late 1970, and died at the couple's London home in March 1971. On April 1, 1972, Lyon married actress Marian Nixon, whom he had known since the 1920s. They remained married until his death. Nixon died five years after Lyon, also at the age of 78.

Lyon's body was cremated and is interred in the Chapel Columbarium at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, beside Bebe Daniels. For his contributions to the motion picture industry, he holds a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street.