Lewis Stone (Who’s Who at MGM, 1937) 🇺🇸
Lewis Stone was born in Worcester, Mass., November 15, the son of Bertrand and Lucy Stone. After finishing college, he became an actor and was nearing Broadway stardom when the Spanish-American war broke out.
The war over, Stone resigned his commission as a lieutenant, and came to Los Angeles to look for another acting job. But General Homer Lee was recruiting American officers to go to China and instruct Chinese troops for the young emperor. Stone accepted a colonelcy — but he resigned at the outbreak of the Boxer rebellion. He is still noted for his military bearing.
Was Matinee Idol
Returning to Los Angeles, he became the matinee idol of the West at the old Belasco Theatre. He appeared in such plays as “The Dollar Mark,” “Girl of the Golden West,” “The Bird of Paradise,” “Side-tracked” and others.
In 1915, when screen production was getting its first real footing in Hollywood, Stone played his first role before the camera in “Honor Altar,” with Bessie Barriscale. Some of his outstanding silent pictures were “Scaramouche,” The Girl From Montmarte, “Don Juan’s Three Nights,” The Blonde Saint, “Three in Love,” “A Prince of Head Waiters” and The Private Life of Helen of Troy.
The outbreak of the World War called him away from the screen. He was commissioned a major of cavalry, instructed at Plattsburg, and still holds his commission in the Army Reserve, training annually at Ord Barracks, Monterey. Aside from that he is colonel of the California Lancers and active in national guard affairs.
Long List of Pictures
Placed under contract to M-G-M shortly before the advent of talkies, he has played outstanding roles in many pictures, including A Woman of Affairs, The Trial of Mary Dugan, “Madame,” “Their Own Desire,” “The Big House,” “Romance,” “The Secret Six,” “Inspiration,” “The Sin of Madelon Claudet,” Mata Hari, “Unashamed,” Grand Hotel, “Divorce in the Family,” “Men Must Fight,” The White Sister, “Looking Forward,” “Son-Daughter,” “Queen Christina,” Treasure Island, The Girl from Missouri, “Vanessa: Her Love Story,” West Point of the Air, China Seas, “Men Without Love,” “Small Town Girl,” “The Unguarded Hour,” “Sworn Enemy,” Suzy, The Thirteenth Chair and Bad Man of Brimstone.
Loves His Ranch
Stone is an expert rider, boxer and fencer, an ardent hunter, and in his spare time cultivates his ranch in San Fernando Valley. He never misses his morning sitting-up exercises, his shave and invariably looks as if he had stepped from a bandbox. He owns the Serena, a 106-foot schooner, and makes frequent sea trips.
He is five feet ten and one-half inches tall, has iron-grey hair and hazel eyes, and weighs 180 pounds.
After twenty-seven years as a motion picture actor, Stone possesses one of the biggest treasure chests of early Hollywood memories. He was the owner of one of the first automobiles in the West and once was “tagged” for speeding at 12 miles an hour. Where the thriving film capital of Hollywood now stands, Stone hunted jackrabbits in the country. His dream of future happiness is to retire from acting, don overalls, work his farm in San Fernando and sail on the Pacific.
Collection: Who’s Who at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1937)