The Picture Show Annual (1927)

Picture Show Annual 145 fDONT CALL HIM A SHEIK! ^en Lyon Refuses to Answer to this Title T here is nothing to which Ben Lyon objects more than being called a sheik. Whenever it has come to his notice he has muttered dire threats. I am not a sheik," he has asserted vehemently- ** I am not a ‘ heavy lover,’ nor a heart-breaker. 1 want to be judged by my acting, not by my looks.” If anybody applied the term to Mr. Lyon in his presence, and it happened to be a man, Ben would be quite capable of punching his head. He is just as much disgusted with his fame as a heart-breaker as any other clean-cut, well-bred young man would be. His Ambition Realised Ben Lyon was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and was brought up in Baltimore, Mary- land, where he went to college. Ben was very keen on his college, but he sacrificed a good deal of the time he might have spent there, because of a greater interest —that of becoming an actor. We have often heard of young actors who have gone on the screen—usually in " crowds ”—because they cannot get an engagement on the stage ; but Ben Lyon reversed the order of affairs. He wanted to go on the films, and being unsuccessful he turned at last in despair to the stage. He appeared in several plays, but his first real stage hit was as the hero in “ Mary The Third." Samuel Goldwyn happened to see him in this play, and immediately made him an offer to appear in the screen version of “ Potash and Perlmutter,” and so Ben Lyon’s ambition was realised at last. Since then he has played with Colleen Moore in “ Flaming Youth" and “Painted People,’,’ with Pola Negri in “ Lily of the Dust," with Gloria Swanson in ’’ Wages of Virtue,” with Barbara La Marr in " The White Moth,” with Colleen Moore once more in “ So Big," with Anna Q. Nilsson in “ One Way Street” and “ Winds of Chance,” with Viola Dana in “ The Necessary Evil ’’; and he has also played in “ The Pace That Thrills ’’ and “ The New Commandment," to mention just a few of his successes. m K •‘/r