Lyles was born in
Jackson, Tennessee, and attended
Fisk University in
Nashville as a medical student. He began performing as one half of a comedy duo, Miller and Lyles, with his friend
Flournoy Miller. From 1905, Miller and Lyles were hired by impresario
Robert T. Motts to be resident playwrights with the Pekin Theater Stock Company in
Chicago. They performed with the company in
blackface, and in the show
The Colored Aristocrats introduced the characters Steve Jenkins (Miller) and Sam Peck (Lyles), with which they would be associated for many years. In 1909, Miller and Lyles traveled to
New York City, where they started to perform on the
vaudeville circuit, uniquely relying on comic performances rather than incorporating song and dance. They developed comedy devices later copied by others, such as a
prizefighting routine which contrasted Miller's height and Lyles' short stature; completing each other's sentences; and "mutilatin'" the language in their phraseology. In 1915, they appeared in
André Charlot's production ''Charlot's Revue
in England, They split up the act in 1928 but later reunited to perform on radio, and threatened to sue Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, writers and performers of the Amos 'n' Andy radio show, for plagiarising their act. They also started to put together a new show, Shuffle Along of 1933''. Lyles died in
New York City in July 1932 of pulmonary
tuberculosis, at the age of 48. ==Filmography==