#ac lyles

[oldshowbiz]

The modest Bel Air home of Paramount B unit producer AC Lyles

[spawksstuff]

90 06 Creation Tribute to De - AC Lyles

Adam: Okay, we're ready for A.C. now? We have a very distinguished guest here. This gentleman's been a producer at Paramount for many, many years and has worked closely with De for many years, a very close friend of De's. Please join me in welcoming Mr. A.C. Lyles.

De: Years ago, let me preface something that I don't know whether A.C. remembers or not. But this man, this man was with me on the first movie that I made, a thing called, a little, not a thing-

A.C.-Don't hold that against me.

De: What, the microphone? Called Fear in the Night. And he had a magazine writer come out from the east to do a story on me and we were going to lunch. We were in the car. A.C.-  I was sitting in front and A.C. was in the back and I was telling him about a story when I first came to Hollywood as a very young man. And my father, who had been a minister in the south, had done a favor of some sort for a family here who had a young boy who was in pictures and he said, why don't you go by and say hello and tell them you're my son? So I drove to Hollywood and I did. And a lady came to the door and I asked for this young man and she said, he's not here. And I started to walk away, I thanked her, and she said, young man. And I said, yes? She said, are you here in Hollywood to try to get into the movies? And I said, No, Ma'am, not at all. And she said, I just want to tell you, there's a young man who lives here, who knows everybody in Hollywood and said, he can't get a job. And I said, Oh. A.C., sitting in the back seat listening to the story, he says, De wait a minute, I was that young man that couldn't get a job.

A.C.: You know, I have to tell you, I've been at Paramount 52 years, and I look every night of it, don't I? But this rascal here and he is a rascal, at one time or another, as De said, I've known everybody that's worked at Paramount or in the industry and I don't know of anyone that is more beloved at Paramount than DeForest. Not too long ago, I was given an award by the Boy Scouts and those of you that are Boy Scouts know that a Boy Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. And the first time I heard that, I thought they were talking about De. [unintelligible]

And I have to tell you, this fellow here, I've never known anybody who can be as laid back as DeForest Kelley. You see Henry Fonda on the screen, easy, Bill Cosby, easy, you hear Bing Crosby sing, easy, you hear Perry Como, he sounds like he's just waking up, and Dean Martin. But DeForest Kelley can do lazy better than anybody I have ever known in my life. Now if you notice his smile when you tell him something he gets- it takes a couple of minutes for it to register because he is sort of working up to it, you see. First his eyes sorta twinkle and then there's a little expression and a change of facial muscles and then there's a little uh, uh, uh, uh. It's sorta like Jack Benny's car trying to start, you know like that. And then if you really give him a whammo, once in a while he'll lower his head like that to do that.

But De, before I started out, I was in publicity on the first picture that De did, Fear in the Night, and Paramount knew right away they had a big star there. Later when I became a producer, I started making westerns and De did a lot of those westerns for me and graced my reputation a lot by coming in and being in it with us. I remember one time we were making a picture, De, I think with Jane Russell and maybe it was Richard Widmark. Anyway, De was the heavy and this man plays a heavy like nobody else in town. He is very good. Ask Gene Roddenberry. I want you to know on that picture he was MEAN!. Now the Indians had attacked the wagon train and they captured De and De was lashed to the wagon wheel and we-

De: Apache Uprising.

A.C.: Apache Uprising. We had a rain sequence and the rain was going and the Indians are shooting bows and arrows at him. The idea was to see how close they could come to him without actually nipping him. And it was right around noon time. The cast and crew were hungry so the director called lunch. We went over, we were eating lunch and halfway through lunch, someone said, what happened to De?  Gees, he's back tied down. So we rushed back, got the poor guy out.

Now we're making another picture at the studio, another western and De is in it and he's a heavy and there's a fight with Dana Andrews. And I was in the commissary and Michael Landon came over to me and said, A.C. Michael was then doing Bonanza. That was before he did Little House on the Prairie. And he said, A.C., you could do me a big favor and I said, what's that? And he said, well, you've got a fight next Friday with DeForest Kelley and Dana Andrews and he said, a fellow named Bob Miles, who's a stunt man, is gonna do Dana Andrew's double. I'd like to double DeForest Kelley in the fight. I said, Gee, Michael, I can't do that, You're in the series. I said, Suppose you get hurt, break a leg. The series would break down. I said, David Dortort, the producer would kill me and NBC would sue me. So he said, Suppose I get it okayed?

An hour later I got a call from David Dortort. He said, It's okay for him to do it, and I said, what about NBC? An hour later, I got a call from NBC and they said they'd give me a letter not holding me responsible if Michael Landon broke a leg or something doubling DeForest Kelley in this fight. So Michael Landon came over to do the double, doubling De with Bob Miles for Dana Andrews and he put on the greatest fight in the whole world. It was wonderful. It disrupted Bonanza because everybody from Bonanza came over to watch Michael Landon doubling DeForest Kelley in this fight. Three months later, De goes to Universal to do a picture and there's another fight in it and the producer says, De, we have to find a stunt double to do your fight. Who doubles you these days? He says, Michael Landon. (laughter and applause) But I have to tell you, Michael Landon, bless his heart, might have doubled De in the picture but NOBODY, NOBODY can double this guy in real life. He is very special not only to you people, he's very special to us at Paramount and to all the Star Trek people and we just love him.

De: That's the first time he ever got me doubled in a movie.

A.C.-I want to thank you folks for letting me come here and say a few things about my good buddy. I've known him so long that when I knew him, his hair was black and I had hair. Thank you very much.

[spawksstuff]

1991 Dec 18 De's Star Photos - Speakers

A.C. Lyles

Leonard Nimoy

George Takei

Walter Koenig

Nichelle Nichols

Grace Lee Whitney

Harve Bennett

[oldshowbiz]

Echo Park Lake as seen in Rogue's Gallery (1968)

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A.C. Lyles presents Hostile Guns (1967)

[oldshowbiz]

Edgar Bergen as the killer in Rogue's Gallery (1968)

[oldshowbiz]

[oldshowbiz]

The unit run by A.C. Lyles at Paramount in the 1960s was basically a welfare program for old actors who had been marginalized by the industry