Lewis Dayton

Lewis Dayton, born Henry Wallenstein Ryan Lewis on 3 February 1888, was a British actor whose career spanned both film and stage. He died in January 1963.

Dayton built an early career in cinema during the silent and early sound eras, working primarily in supporting roles though he occasionally took on male leads. His film work began in 1918 with A Daughter of Uncle Sam and continued through the following decade with titles including The Shadow Between (1920), A Rank Outsider (1920), The Great Day (1921), The Marriage Lines (1921), and The Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown (1921). The early 1920s saw him appear in The Lilac Sunbonnet (1922), Yesterday's Wife (1923), Slander the Woman (1923), A Wife's Romance (1923), and Cordelia the Magnificent (1923). He continued working in film through the mid-to-late 1920s with The Cost of Beauty (1924), Around a Million (1924), What Fools Men (1925), Spangles (1928), S.O.S. (1928), The Celestial City (1929), and The Runaway Princess (1929). As the sound era arrived, Dayton appeared in the serial Detective Lloyd (1931), followed by Lloyd of the C.I.D. (1932) and The Strangler (1932).

Alongside his film career, Dayton established a presence on the Broadway stage, performing there between 1932 and 1938. His stage credits during this period included Libel, St. Helena, Many Mansions, Once is Enough, and Oscar Wilde, among other productions.