--- name: "Lewis Stone" canonical: "https://film.one/person/lewis-stone" roles: ["Actor"] born: "14 November 1879" died: "12 September 1953" reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_fi1m_score: 77 average_as: "actor" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-09-19T22:46:01.521425+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Lewis Stone Actor. Born 14 November 1879 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Died 12 September 1953. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 14 November 1879, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA - **Died:** 12 September 1953 - **Active:** 1928–1935 - **Also known as:** Lewis Shepard Stone, Lewis S. Stone, Mr. Lewis Stone - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination - **Average Fi1m score:** 77, as actor, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1920s 72 (1), 1930s 80 (2) - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 2 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 3, Adventure 1, Crime 1, History 1, Romance 1 - **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $3m across 1 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Stone, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q457220, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0832011/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/29259 ## Streaming the US now - **Tubi:** [*The Big House*](https://film.one/film/the-big-house.md) (78) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Lewis Stone > Lewis Stone did less than anyone else in the frame: a grey head, a still hand, a thought you could watch arrive. MGM kept him for twenty-nine years, and at the end put him behind a judge's bench he could not leave. Turn Lewis Stone away from the camera and he goes on acting. Directors kept noticing it: he could let a decision cross a face he was not showing you, so that a shot of the back of his grey head told you what the man had settled on before he turned round to say it. He had come from the stage, a leading man in stock and on Broadway before the First World War, and most actors who made that journey brought the stage with them. Stone brought the pause. The silents used him as a hero first. He made his name in *The Prisoner of Zenda* (1922) and *Scaramouche* (1923), and was Sir John Roxton in *The Lost World* (1925). MGM signed him in 1924 and did not let him go until he died in 1953, the longest studio contract anyone has recorded. The hair had gone grey early, and the studio saw what that was for: ministers, doctors, wardens, the sophisticated man in the corner who has already worked out how the evening will end. Sound did not trouble him. He stood next to Greta Garbo seven times without looking either overawed or ambitious, and Clarence Brown, who directed him eight times, prized exactly that economy. The film of his we have reviewed is the one nobody can see. In Ernst Lubitsch's *The Patriot* (1928) he was Count Pahlen, the minister who decides that Czar Paul I, played by Emil Jannings, must be removed for Russia's good, with Florence Vidor as the Countess Ostermann between the two men. The notices in 1928 were the kind a director keeps in a drawer. Then the film went missing, and no complete print is known to exist. We minded that more than we usually mind a lost film, because Pahlen is the part his whole method was built for: a man doing his thinking behind a closed face while a louder man rages beside him. There were 113 minutes of it. What is left is a trailer and a handful of scraps. The talkies gave him the warden in *The Big House* (1930), Oxenstierna in *Queen Christina* (1933) and Doctor Otternschlag in *Grand Hotel* (1932), who is handed the film's famous last line. Then, in *You're Only Young Once* (1937), he sat down as Judge James Hardy opposite Mickey Rooney, and he did not get up for fourteen films. They fixed him as the kindly Judge, and he came to feel confined by the bench, which is not hard to understand. A technique made for Lubitsch and Garbo was now being spent on approving of Mickey Rooney. Start with *Grand Hotel* (1932), where he gets the last word. Then, if anyone finds the rest of *The Patriot*, tell us. ## Biography Lewis Stone (also credited as Lewis Shepard Stone and Lewis S. Stone) was an American actor. He appeared as Count Pahlen in the 1928 film *The Patriot* and as Warden James Adams in the 1930 film *The Big House*. Stone was a long-term MGM contract player from 1924 until his death. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in *The Patriot*. He appeared in seven films with Greta Garbo, including *Grand Hotel* (1932) and *Queen Christina* (1934). From 1937 he played Judge James Hardy in fifteen films in the Andy Hardy series. Among his other notable roles were Sir John Roxton in *The Lost World* (1925), Andriani in *Mata Hari* (1931) and the Cardinal in the 1952 version of *The Prisoner of Zenda*. Stone died in Los Angeles on 12 September 1953. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) - *David Copperfield* (1935), Fi1m 81, as Mr. Wickfield — [page](https://film.one/film/david-copperfield.md) - *The Big House* (1930), Fi1m 78, as Warden James Adams — [page](https://film.one/film/the-big-house.md) - *The Patriot* (1928), Fi1m 72, as Count Pahlen — [page](https://film.one/film/the-patriot.md) ## Complete filmography (156) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy* (1998), as Judge Hardy (archive footage) - *That's Entertainment, Part II* (1976), as (archive footage) - *The Big Parade of Comedy* (1964), as Baron in 'Suzy' (archive footage) - *All the Brothers Were Valiant* (1953), as Captain Holt - *The Prisoner of Zenda* (1952), as The Cardinal - *Scaramouche* (1952), as Georges de Valmorin - *Talk About a Stranger* (1952), as William J. Wardlaw - *Just This Once* (1952), as Judge Samuel Coulter - *It's a Big Country* (1951), as Church Sexton - *The Unknown Man* (1951), as James V. Hulbrook - *Angels in the Outfield* (1951), as Arnold P. Hapgood - *Bannerline* (1951), as Josh - *Night Into Morning* (1951), as Dr. Horace Snyder - *Grounds for Marriage* (1951), as Dr. Carleton Radwin Young - *Stars in My Crown* (1950), as Dr. Daniel Kalbert Harris, Sr. - *Key to the City* (1950), as Judge Silas Standish - *Any Number Can Play* (1949), as Ben Gavery Snelerr - *The Sun Comes Up* (1949), as Arthur Norton - *State of the Union* (1948), as Sam Thorndyke - *Love Laughs at Andy Hardy* (1946), as Judge Hardy - *Three Wise Fools* (1946), as Judge James Trumbell - *The Hoodlum Saint* (1946), as Father Nolan - *Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble* (1944), as Judge Hardy - *Twenty Years After* (1944), as (archive footage) - *Plan for Destruction* (1943), as Commentator - *Andy Hardy's Double Life* (1942), as Judge Hardy - *The Courtship of Andy Hardy* (1942), as Judge Hardy - *The Bugle Sounds* (1942), as Col. Jack Lawton - *Life Begins for Andy Hardy* (1941), as Judge Hardy - *Andy Hardy's Private Secretary* (1941), as Judge Hardy - *Sporting Blood* (1940), as Davis Lockwood - *Andy Hardy Meets Debutante* (1940), as Judge Hardy - *Andy Hardy's Dilemma: A Lesson in Mathematics... and Other Things* (1940), as Judge Hardy - *Judge Hardy and Son* (1939), as Judge Hardy - *Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President* (1939), as The President - *Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever* (1939), as Judge Hardy - *The Hardys Ride High* (1939), as Judge Hardy - *The Ice Follies of 1939* (1939), as Douglas Tolliver Jr. - *Loews Christmas Greeting (The Hardy Family)* (1939), as Judge James K. Hardy - *Out West with the Hardys* (1938), as Judge Hardy - *The Chaser* (1938), as Delford Prescott - *Love Finds Andy Hardy* (1938), as James Hardy - *Yellow Jack* (1938), as Maj. Walter Reed - *Stolen Heaven* (1938), as Joseph Langauer - *Judge Hardy's Children* (1938), as Judge Hardy - *The Bad Man of Brimstone* (1937), as Jackson Douglas - *You're Only Young Once* (1937), as Judge Hardy - *The Man Who Cried Wolf* (1937), as Lawrence Fontaine - *The Thirteenth Chair* (1937), as Inspector Marney - *Outcast* (1937), as Anthony Abbott - *Don't Turn 'em Loose* (1936), as John Webster - *Sworn Enemy* (1936), as Doctor Simon 'Doc' Gattle - *Suzy* (1936), as Baron - *Small Town Girl* (1936), as Dr. Dakin - *The Unguarded Hour* (1936), as General Lawrence - *Three Godfathers* (1936), as James 'Doc' Underwood - *Shipmates Forever* (1935), as Adm. Richard Melville - *China Seas* (1935), as Tom Davids - *Woman Wanted* (1935), as District Attorney - *Public Hero Number 1* (1935), as Prison Warden - *West Point of the Air* (1935), as Gen. Carter - *Vanessa: Her Love Story* (1935), as Adam Paris - *David Copperfield* (1935), as Mr. Wickfield — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/david-copperfield.md) - *Treasure Island* (1934), as Captain Smollett - *The Girl from Missouri* (1934), as Frank Cousins - *Hollywood on Parade No. B-1* (1934), Actor - *The Mystery of Mr. X* (1934), as Police Superintendent Connor - *Queen Christina* (1934), as Oxenstierna - *You Can't Buy Everything* (1934), as John Burton - *Bureau of Missing Persons* (1933), as Police Captain Webb - *Looking Forward* (1933), as Gabriel Service Sr. - *The White Sister* (1933), as Prince Guido Chiaromonte - *Men Must Fight* (1933), as Edward Seward - *The Son-Daughter* (1932), as Dr. Dong Tong - *The Mask of Fu Manchu* (1932), as Nyland Smith - *Grand Hotel* (1932), as Doctor Otternschlag - *Divorce In The Family* (1932), as John Parker - *Unashamed* (1932), as Henry Trask - *Red-Headed Woman* (1932), as William 'Will' Legendre Sr. - *Night Court* (1932), as Judge William Osgood - *New Morals for Old* (1932), as Mr. Thomas - *Letty Lynton* (1932), as District Attorney Haney - *The Wet Parade* (1932), as Roger Chilcote - *Mata Hari* (1931), as Andriani - *Strictly Dishonorable* (1931), as Judge Dempsey - *The Sin of Madelon Claudet* (1931), as Carlo Boretti - *The Phantom of Paris* (1931), as Inspector Costaud - *The Bargain* (1931), as Maitland White - *Always Goodbye* (1931), as John Graham - *My Past* (1931), as John Thornley - *The Secret Six* (1931), as Richard 'Newt' Newton - Attorney at Law - *Father's Son* (1931), as William Emory - *Inspiration* (1931), as Raymond Delval - *Passion Flower* (1930), as Antonio Morado - *The Office Wife* (1930), as Larry Fellowes - *Romance* (1930), as Cornelius 'Conny' Van Tuyl - *The Big House* (1930), as Warden James Adams — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/the-big-house.md) - *Strictly Unconventional* (1930), as Clive Champion-Cheney - *Their Own Desire* (1929), as Henry 'Hal' Marlett - *Madame X* (1929), as Louis Floriot - *Wonder of Women* (1929), as Stephen Tromholt - *The Trial of Mary Dugan* (1929), as Edward West - *Wild Orchids* (1929), as John Sterling - *A Woman of Affairs* (1928), as Dr. Hugh Trevelyan - *Freedom of the Press* (1928), as Daniel Steele - *The Patriot* (1928), as Count Pahlen — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/the-patriot.md) - *The Foreign Legion* (1928), as Col. Destin - *The Private Life of Helen of Troy* (1927), as Menelaus - *The Prince of Headwaiters* (1927), as Pierre - *Lonesome Ladies* (1927), as John Fosdick - *The Notorious Lady* (1927), as Patrick Marlowe / John Carew - *An Affair of the Follies* (1927), as Hammersley - *The Blonde Saint* (1926), as Sebastian Maure - *Midnight Lovers* (1926), as Maj. William Ridgewell, RFC - *Don Juan's 3 Nights* (1926), as Johann Aradi - *Old Loves and New* (1926), as Gervas Carew - *The Girl from Montmartre* (1926), as Jerome Hautrive - *Too Much Money* (1926), as Robert Broadley - *What Fools Men* (1925), as Joseph Greer - *Fine Clothes* (1925), as Earl of Denham - *The Lady Who Lied* (1925), as Horace Pierpont - *The Talker* (1925), as Harry Lennox - *Confessions of a Queen* (1925), as The King - *Cheaper to Marry* (1925), as Jim Knight - *The Lost World* (1925), as Sir John Roxton - *Inez from Hollywood* (1924), as Stewart Cuyler - *Husbands and Lovers* (1924), as James Livingston - *Cytherea* (1924), as Lee Randon - *Why Men Leave Home* (1924), as John Emerson - *The Stranger* (1924), as Keith Darrant - *Scaramouche* (1923), as The Marquis de la Tour d'Azyr - *You Can't Fool Your Wife* (1923), as Garth McBride - *The Dangerous Age* (1923), as John Emerson - *The World's Applause* (1923), as John Elliott - *Trifling Women* (1922), as The Marquis Ferroni - *The Prisoner of Zenda* (1922), as Rudolf Rassendyll / King Rudolf - *A Fool There Was* (1922), as John Schuyler - *The Rosary* (1922), as Father Brian Kelly - *The White Mouse* (1921), as Sgt. Blake, R.C.M.P. - *Pilgrims of the Night* (1921), as Philip Champion / Lord Ellingham - *The Child Thou Gavest Me* (1921), as Edward Berkeley - *Don't Neglect Your Wife* (1921), as Langdon Masters - *The Golden Snare* (1921), as Sergeant Philip Raine - *The Northern Trail* (1921), as Jan Ducet - *Beau Revel* (1921), as Lawrence 'Beau' Revel - *The Concert* (1921), as Augustus Martinot - *Held by the Enemy* (1920), as Capt. Gordon Haine - *Nomads of the North* (1920), as Cpl. O'Connor - *Milestones* (1920), as John Rhead - *The River's End* (1920), as Derwent Conniston/John Keith - *Man's Desire* (1919), as Tom Denton · Writer - *The Man of Bronze* (1918), as John Adams - *Inside the Lines* (1918), as Captain Cavendish - *According to the Code* (1916), as Basil Beckenridge - *The Havoc* (1916), as Richard Craig - *Honor's Altar* (1916), as Warren Woods ## Gallery - ![Lewis Stone](https://film.one/media/person/1224552/gallery-e5d2039fd6b6.jpg) Lewis Stone — Keyes, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Lewis_Stone_Photoplay_Feb_1923.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![publicity photo for the 1924 film Cytherea](https://film.one/media/person/1224552/gallery-96a94b165c2e.jpg) publicity photo for the 1924 film Cytherea — Samuel Goldwyn Productions, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Cytherea1924publicityphotoA.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![publicity photo for the 1924 film Cytherea](https://film.one/media/person/1224552/gallery-f5b43b863d13.jpg) publicity photo for the 1924 film Cytherea — Samuel Goldwyn Productions, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Cytherea1924publicityphotoB.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![publicity photo for the 1924 film Cytherea (some digital artifacts from removal of unwanted watermark)](https://film.one/media/person/1224552/gallery-14a05192556d.jpg) publicity photo for the 1924 film Cytherea (some digital artifacts from removal of unwanted watermark) — Samuel Goldwyn Productions, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Cytherea1924publicityphotoC.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Still from the film Cytherea (1924) with Lewis Stone and Alma Rubens. Subjects: motion pictures, actors, actresses](https://film.one/media/person/1224552/gallery-d027d416f778.jpg) Still from the film Cytherea (1924) with Lewis Stone and Alma Rubens. Subjects: motion pictures, actors, actresses — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Cythera_%28SAYRE_14596%29.jpg/1280px-Cythera_%28SAYRE_14596%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Still from the American romantic drama film Don Juan's Three Nights (1926). Subjects (LCTGM): motion pictures, actors](https://film.one/media/person/1224552/gallery-566894da8e6b.jpg) Still from the American romantic drama film Don Juan's Three Nights (1926). Subjects (LCTGM): motion pictures, actors — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Don_Juan%27s_Three_Nights_%28SAYRE_13984%29.jpg/1280px-Don_Juan%27s_Three_Nights_%28SAYRE_13984%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1929: Best Actor (nominated), for *The Patriot* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/lewis-stone