John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth Barrymore (born:
February 15,
1882 in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – died :
May 29,
1942 in
Los Angeles, California), was an American actor.
He gained fame as a
Shakespearean, lauded for his
Hamlet, and was frequently regarded as the greatest actor of his generation. He was the grandfather of
Drew Barrymore and brother of
Lionel Barrymore and
Ethel Barrymore.
Barrymore was born into an illustrious theatrical family. His parents were
Maurice Barrymore and
Georgiana Drew. His classic nose and distinguished features won him the nickname "The Great Profile." He was expelled from
Georgetown Preparatory School in
1898 after being caught attending a
bordello. He was a hard-drinking adventurer with a jaunty personality.
Barrymore delivered some of the most critically-acclaimed performances in
theatre and
cinema history. He was regarded by many as the screen's greatest performer during a movie career spanning 25 years as a leading man in more than 60 films. His movie roles included
Sherlock Holmes (1922),
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Captain Ahab in both
The Sea Beast (1926) and
Moby Dick (1930),
Don Juan (1926),
Svengali (1931),
Raffles the Amateur Cracksman (1917), and the leading man in
Grand Hotel (1932),
Dinner at Eight (1933) and
Twentieth Century (1934). He worked opposite many of the foremost leading ladies, including
Greta Garbo,
Katharine Hepburn,
Joan Crawford, and
Carole Lombard. In the late 1930s
alcoholism and possibly
Alzheimer's Disease encroached on his ability to remember his lines. His last movie characters were broad and distasteful caricatures of himself, in movies such as
Playmates (1941).
A notorious ladies' man, he courted
Mary Astor and
showgirl Evelyn Nesbit. When Nesbit became pregnant, Barrymore proposed marriage. But her "sponsor"
Stanford White intervened, and arranged for the still-teenaged Evelyn to undergo an operation for "
appendicitis." White was later murdered by Nesbit's vengeful husband, Pittsburgh millionaire
Harry K. Thaw.
# Katherine Corri Harris (
1891-
1927), an actress who starred in the
1918 film
The House of Mirth, on
September 1,
1910 and divorced in
1916. #
Blanche Marie Louise Oelrichs (
1890-
1950), aka "Michael Strange," on
August 5,
1920 and divorced her in
1925. They had one child: #*
Diana Blanche Barrymore (
1921-
1960), whose tragic life ended at age 38. A semi-autobiographical story of her life was depicted in
Too Much, Too Soon, starring
Errol Flynn as her father#
Dolores Costello (
1903-
1979), actress and model best known for
Little Lord Fauntleroy (
1936); they married on
November 24,
1928 and divorced in
1935. They had two children: #* Dolores Ethel Mae Barrymore (living)#*
John Drew Barrymore (father of
Drew Barrymore) #
Elaine Barrie (née Elaine Jacobs), (
1916-
2003), an actress; married
November 9,
1936 and divorced
1940His dying words were "Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him." According to
Errol Flynn's memoirs, film director
Raoul Walsh "borrowed" Barrymore's body after the funeral, and left his corpse propped in a chair for a drunken Flynn to discover when he returned home from The Cock and Bull Bar. This was re-created in the movie
W.C. Fields and Me with
Jack Cassidy as Barrymore. Other accounts of this classic Hollywood tale substitute actor
Peter Lorre in the place of Walsh.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, John Barrymore has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6667
Hollywood Boulevard.
*
Barrymore family*
Good Night Sweet Prince by
Gene Fowler*
The New Book of Lists by David Wallechinsky & Amy Wallace
