Lew Ayres

Lewis Frederick Ayres III (December 28, 1908 – December 30, 1996), known professionally as Lew Ayres, was an American actor whose film and television career spanned 65 years. He is best known for starring as German soldier Paul Bäumer in the film classic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and for playing Dr. Kildare in nine movies.

Early life

Ayres was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Irma and Louis Ayres, who divorced when he was four. Louis, an amateur musician and court reporter, remarried soon after. As a teen, Lew and his mother moved with his step-father and half brother and sister to San Diego, California.

Career as a musician

Leaving high school before graduating, he started a small band which traveled to Mexico. He returned months later to pursue an acting career, but continued working full-time as a musician. He played banjo and guitar for big bands, including the Henry Halstead Orchestra. He recorded one of the earliest Vitaphone movie shorts called Carnival Night in Paris (Warner Brothers, 1927). Ayres wrote, "I was a member of Henry Halstead's orchestra in 1927 at the Mission Beach Ballroom in San Diego, California for the summer. My instruments were tenor banjo, long-neck banjo and guitar. After a hiatus, I rejoined Mr. Halstead with a new group, including Phil Harris, on New Year's Eve the same year for the opening night of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, a memorable occasion." He left a national tour to pursue a career as an actor full-time.

Under Siege

Under Siege is a 1992 American action-thriller film directed by Andrew Davis and written by J.F. Lawton. It stars Steven Seagal as an ex-Navy SEAL who must stop a group of mercenaries, led by Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey, on a U.S. Navy battleship. It is Seagal's most successful film in critical and financial terms, including two Academy Award nominations for sound production. The musical score was composed by Gary Chang. It was followed by a 1995 sequel, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.

Plot

The battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) arrives at Pearl Harbor, where George H. W. Bush announces that the ship will be decommissioned in California, making the trip her final voyage. Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal), a Chief Petty Officer assigned as a cook, prepares meals in celebration of the birthday of Captain Adams (Patrick O'Neal), against the orders of Commander Krill (Gary Busey), who is having food and entertainment brought by helicopter.

Krill provokes a brawl with Ryback. Unable to imprison Ryback in the brig without clearance from the captain, Krill detains Ryback in a freezer and places an inexperienced Marine, Private Nash (Tom Wood), on guard. A helicopter lands on the ship's deck with musicians and caterers who are really a band of mercenaries led by ex-CIA operative William "Bill" Strannix (Tommy Lee Jones) who is dressed as a rock musician. Playmate Jordan Tate (Erika Eleniak) is also on board, but she is not involved in the plot.

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory is a 1995 American action film set on board a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Los Angeles. Directed by Geoff Murphy, it stars Steven Seagal as the ex-Navy SEAL, Casey Ryback, and is the sequel to the 1992 film Under Siege also starring Seagal. The title refers to the railroading term that the subject train was travelling through dark territory, a section of railroad track that has no train signals and in which communications between train dispatchers and the railroad engineers were impossible, and on which the train is on a collision course with another train.

The film was produced by Seagal along with Arnon Milchan and Steve Perry. The film's cast also included Eric Bogosian, Everett McGill, Morris Chestnut, Peter Greene, Kurtwood Smith and Katherine Heigl. Nick Mancuso, Andy Romano, and Dale Dye also reprised their roles from the first film.

Plot

Casey Ryback has retired from the United States Navy and is a chef at the Mile High Cafe in Denver, Colorado. Casey is taking his estranged niece Sarah to Los Angeles to visit the grave of Sarah's father. Sarah and Casey board the Grand Continental, a train traveling from Denver to Los Angeles through the Rocky Mountains. Armed mercenaries, led by former U.S. government computer hacker and computer genius Travis Dane and mercenary leader Marcus Penn, hijack the train. Dane worked on Grazer One, a top-secret military satellite particle weapon designed to destroy underground targets. The military fired Dane because of his mental instability; Dane later faked his suicide.

Under Siege (2005 video game)

Under Siege (Taht-al-hissar تحت الحصار) is a sequel to the video game Under Ash designed by Radwan Kasmiya. Like Under Ash, it is a first-person shooter, with the option of playing the game as a third-person shooter. The game focuses on the lives of a Palestinian family between 1999 and 2002 during the second Intifada. The player shoots at Israeli Defense Force soldiers throughout most of the game. Shooting at civilians or otherwise hurting them ends the game.

The game has been described as a docugame, since all the game levels are based on actual events documented by United Nations records (1978–2004).

Under Siege is about the modern history of Palestine and it focuses on the lives of 5 Palestinian family members, during the second Intifada 1999–2002.