Born 1901 in Atlanta, Georgia, American actor Ben 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 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.
Lyon had success as an actor in the 1930 film Hell’s Angels. 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. 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.
Lyon died in 1979 at the age of 78. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street. Take a look at these vintage photos to see portraits of a young and handsome Ben Lyon in the 1920s and 1930s.
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