LEWIS STONE

Lewis Stone was born in 1879, and he was one of those actors who looked "old" even when he was in his thirties, and he continued acting until his late sixties, making over 200 movies, including many silents. He seemed destined to be a second tier actor, never quite being a major star, but in 1937 his studio, MGM, made a movie centered around a kindly judge and his family in a small town, You're Only Young Once, and Stone had the lead role as Judge James K. Hardy. But while the movie proved very successful, and spawned a slew of sequels, it was the judge's teen son, Andy Hardy, played by Mickey Rooney, who proved most popular, even though he was a pretty minor character in that first movie (note that MGM did not even picture him on the original poster!). The focus of the series quickly spread to that character, although Lewis Stone would remain in to the series, proving to be America's most quintessential "father figure" (at least until Robert Young came along in radio and TV's "Father Knows Best"). Some of his other movies include: The Patriot (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), Queen Christina, Grand Hotel, Scaramouche, Lost World, and Prisoner of Zenda. Stone passed away in 1953 at the age of 73.