Ben Lyon & Bebe Daniels

1901 -- 1979 & 1901 -- 1971

Both Americans with successful movie careers behind them, the Lyons moved to Britain and remained there even during the war (earning them a great deal of affection from the British public).

Ben Lyon had been a leading man in the silent era but later became an executive with 20th Century Fox. While there he discovered and renamed the young Norma Jeane Dougherty.

In 1930 he married Bebe Daniels (born Phyllis Daniels). Daniels appeared in a number of movies, including her work with Harold Lloyd and in 42nd Street. In 1935 she retired from the movies and the couple moved to London a year later.

In the UK, they created and starred in Hi Gang! with Vic Oliver and, after the war, they worked with their own children in the hugely popular Life with the Lyons.

Bebe Daniels' health declined throughout the 1960s and she was cared for by her husband until she died of a stroke in 1971. Ben Lyon remarried and died while on a holiday cruise in 1979.