2847 Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Why did MGM hang on to him for so long. He must have had some connection with L.B. Mayer. Too old looking for his roles as a romantic lead. Or Andy Hardy's father. So many of his roles could have been done by someone else. He reminds me of a person that was told you will always have a job with me.(MGM). Anyone know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Faiola Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Some performers used to be regarded as "good luck charms" by studios. Stone was probably one of them. Though I've never thought he was a particuarly good actor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audreyforever Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 I've always been partial to Stone, even though he may have been too old for his parts. He definitely could be sophisticated when needed, or wholesome when he was playing a small-town judge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredbaetz Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Supposedly Stone had a lifetime contract with MGM. He was there in 1924 when Metro became MGM. He's in the Guinness Book as the artist with the longest contract to one studio. 29 years. Although he only worked for 12 weeks in his last years, L.B. Mayer saw that he was paid for 40 weeks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audreyforever Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 He seems like he was just a genuine, lovable man. And I think he was a fine actor in the films I have seen him in. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 >Too old looking for his roles as a romantic lead. Harrison Ford is 69 this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BingFan Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Lewis Stone seems to have been someone whom younger actors admired back in the MGM glory days. In MGM: WHEN THE LION ROARS, there's an interview excerpt with Joan Crawford in which she says that Stone was one of the actors she looked up to. I wouldn't be surprised if others felt the same. I've never seen him in a romantic lead, although I know that he did some in the silent days, but I've always thought he was a fine actor and particularly suitable for roles calling for an older character with gravitas. Thinking about it now, I can't recall ever seeing him give less than a very solid performance. His career options were probably limited somewhat by his prematurely grey hair and gaunt appearance, making him look a good bit older than he actually was. But his appearance often worked to the benefit of the characters he played by giving him a mature and sage appearance. When he started playing Judge Hardy, for example, he was only 58, which was probably an appropriate age for the father of an adult daughter and teenage son -- keeping in mind that the judge went to both college and law school and probably didn't get married until his law practice was on its feet. (There's a conversation in one of the later Hardy films where Judge Hardy tells Andy how long it took his law career to get started.) Anyway, I guess it's a matter of opinion, but I think Lewis Stone really benefits the films he's in -- at least the ones I've seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Too bad about Stone. Understand he suffered a heart attack and died chasing some punks off of his property. Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audreyforever Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 > {quote:title=Sepiatone wrote:}{quote}Too bad about Stone. Understand he suffered a heart attack and died chasing some punks off of his property. Oh my Gosh! That's horrible; I never heard that one... Edited by: audreyforever on Jan 14, 2012 11:58 AM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willbefree25 Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 And, Harrison Ford is too old looking (or, looks too old) for his roles as a romantic lead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 He could have passed for Andy Hardy's great-grandfather. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audreyforever Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 > {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}He could have passed for Andy Hardy's great-grandfather. I used to think that too but, as mentioned earlier, being only 58 does seem to work out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprocket_Man Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 > Although (Stone) only worked for 12 weeks in his last years, L.B. Mayer saw that he was paid for 40 weeks... Well, the final two years of Stone's career were after Nicholas Schenck accepted Mayer's threat to resign and Dore Schary was running the studio. > I used to think that too but, as mentioned earlier, being only 58 does seem to work out. As Peter Bailey says to his elder son in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: "You were born old, George," and so it probably was with Stone. Then, too, when you were 58 in the late 1930's, you were older, due to the shorter lifespans and the rapidity with which people seemed to age back then (it did provide some wonderfully wizened faces for the movies, though -- take a look at the extras in 1935's A TALE OF TWO CITIES sometime -- that you can scarecely find nowadays, at least in the U.S. You have to go Third World countries with shorter life expectancies if you want to fill your movies with the same kind of craggy, gap-toothed mugs). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottman1932 Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Lewis Stone turns in a fine performance for director Rex Ingram in THE PRISINOR OF ZENDA (1922). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprocket_Man Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 >Lewis Stone turns in a fine performance for director Rex Ingram in THE PRISINOR OF ZENDA (1922). In one of his last roles, Stone also played the Cardinal in the 1952 Stewart Granger PRISONER OF ZENDA. Quite a pair of bookends, those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audreyforever Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 I vaguely remember him in All the Brothers Were Vailant from 1953; I watched that on TCM a few years ago at like 1 AM. This must of been right before he passed on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly125 Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Personally I think he was fine actor yeah I hear about Lewis Stone chasing some punks down they messing with his prized flower beds I could understand why Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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