This Is Your Life in March 1963, when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre. Military service Lyon served as a pilot in the 322nd Pursuit Squadron in the early 1930s. During World War II he returned to the colours as a lieutenant colonel in charge of US Army Air Forces Special Services. Personal life Lyon married actress Bebe Daniels in June 1930. They had two children, daughter Barbara in 1932 and a son, Richard, whom they adopted from a London orphanage. In an issue of the contemporary magazine Radio Pictorial, Bebe explained how she saw Richard peering through the railings and instantly thought "A brother for Barbara". Daniels suffered a severe stroke in 1963 and withdrew from public life. She suffered a second stroke in late 1970. She died at the couple's London home in March 1971. On April 1, 1972, Lyon married the actress Marian Nixon, whom he had known since the 1920s. They remained married until his death. She died five years later, also at age 78. Death On March 22, 1979, Lyon and his second wife, Marian Nixon, were vacationing together on the Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise ship near Honolulu, Hawaii, when Lyon suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 78 years old. His body was cremated and is interred in the Chapel Columbarium at Hollywood Forever Cemetery next to his first wife, Bebe Daniels. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Ben Lyon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street. A biography, Bebe and Ben, was written by Jill Allgood, a personal friend who worked with them at the BBC. Selected filmography Bibliography References External links Photographs of Ben Lyon and bibliography BBC Desert Island Discs 1901 births 1979 deaths 20th-century American male actors Jewish American male actors American expatriate male actors in the United Kingdom American film studio executives American male film actors American male radio actors American male silent film actors American male stage actors American male television actors Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery Male actors from Atlanta 20th-century American businesspeople United States Army colonels People who died at sea 20th-century American Jews