John Barrymore

From Free net encyclopedia

John Sidney Blythe (February 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942), better known as John Barrymore, became famous as a Shakespearean actor, lauded for his Hamlet, and was frequently regarded as the greatest actor of his generation, playing a wide variety of roles on stage and in films. Barrymore was the grandfather of actress Drew Barrymore and brother of acting legends Lionel Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore.

1 Background
2 Lionel, Ethel, and Drew Barrymore
3 Philandering
4 Marriages
5 Dying Words
6 Filmography
7 Related article
8 Sources
9 External links

[edit]

Background

Barrymore was born in Philadelphia into an extremely illustrious theatrical family. He was expelled from Georgetown Preparatory School in 1898 after being caught attending a bordello.<ref>David Wallechinsky & Amy Wallace: The New Book of Lists, p.9. Canongate, 2005. ISBN 1841957194.</ref>. His classic nose and distinguished features won him the nickname "The Great Profile." He was a hard drinking adventurer with a jaunty personality but a troubled personal life that probably cut his life short. Barrymore delivered some of the most critically acclaimed performances in cinema history. He was regarded by many as the screen's greatest actor 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), Hamlet (1933), and the leading man in the great ensemble classics Grand Hotel (1932) and Dinner At Eight (1933), among many others. He continuously worked opposite many of the foremost leading ladies, including Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, and Carole Lombard. Alcoholism or possibly Alzheimer's Disease encroached on his ability to remember his lines, and by the late 1930s his career was winding down from its earlier heights, with supporting roles in Bulldog Drummond films--Drummond was the James Bond of his day.

[edit]

Lionel, Ethel, and Drew Barrymore

Barrymore was the younger brother of actor Lionel ("Mr. Potter" in It's A Wonderful Life) and actress Ethel Barrymore, and the grandfather of actress Drew Barrymore (the similarities in facial structure between the profiles of John Barrymore and Drew Barrymore remain eerily striking).

[edit]

Philandering

A notorious ladies' man, he courted the actress Mary Astor and also the showgirl Evelyn Nesbit (as her involvement with married architect Stanford White was waning). When she became pregnant, Barrymore proposed marriage. But 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.

[edit]

Marriages

Barrymore married:

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), a New York mining heiress who wrote under the pseudonym "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 thirty-eight.
Dolores Costello (1903-1979), an actress and model best known for her role as Dearest in the movie Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936); they married on November 24, 1928 and divorced in 1935. They had two children:
- Dolores Ethel Mae Barrymore
- John Drew Barrymore (father of Drew Barrymore).
Elaine Barrie (née Elaine Jacobs), (1916-2003), an actress; they married on November 9, 1936 and divorced in 1940.

[edit]

Dying Words

His 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. 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.

[edit]

Filmography

Playmates (1941) .... John Barrymore
World Premiere (1941) .... Duncan DeGrasse
The Invisible Woman (1940) .... Prof. Gibbs
The Great Profile (1940) .... Evans Garrick
Midnight (1939) .... Georges Flammarion
The Great Man Votes (1939) .... Gregory Vance
Hold That Co-ed (1938) .... Gov. Gabby Harrington
... aka Hold That Girl (UK)
Spawn of the North (1938) .... Windy Turlon
Marie Antoinette (1938) .... King Louis XV
Romance in the Dark (1938) .... Zoltan Jason
Bulldog Drummond's Peril (1938) .... Col. Neilson
True Confession (1937) .... Charley
Bulldog Drummond's Revenge (1937) .... Col. J.A. Nielson
Night Club Scandal (1937) .... Dr. Ernest Tindal
Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937) .... Col. Neilson
Maytime (1937) .... Nicolai Nazaroff
Romeo and Juliet (1936) .... Mercutio (kinsman to the Prince and friend to Romeo)
Twentieth Century (1934) .... Oscar 'O.J.' Jaffe
... aka 20th Century (USA: poster title)
Long Lost Father (1934) .... Carl Bellairs
Counsellor at Law (1933) .... George Simon
Night Flight (1933) .... Riviere
Dinner at Eight (1933) .... Larry Renault
Reunion in Vienna (1933) .... Rudolf
Topaze (1933/I) .... Prof. Auguste A. Topaze
Hamlet - Act I: Scene V (1933) .... Hamlet
Rasputin and the Empress (1932) .... Prince Paul Chegodieff
... aka Rasputin the Mad Monk (UK)
A Bill of Divorcement (1932) .... Hilary Fairfield
State's Attorney (1932) .... Tom Cardigan
... aka Cardigan's Last Case (UK)
Grand Hotel (1932) .... Baron Felix von Geigern
Arsène Lupin (1932) .... Duke of Chamerace/Arsène Lupin
The Mad Genius (1931) .... Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov
Svengali (1931) .... Maestro Svengali
Moby Dick (1930) .... Captain Ahab Ceely
The Man from Blankley's (1930) .... Lord Strathpeffer
General Crack (1930) .... Duke of Kurland/Prince Christian
The Show of Shows (1929) .... Richard III in 'Henry VI Part III'
Eternal Love (1929) .... Marcus Paltran
Tempest (1928) .... Sgt. Ivan Markov
The Beloved Rogue (1927) .... François Villon
When a Man Loves (1927) .... Chevalier Fabien des Grieux
... aka His Lady (UK)
Don Juan (1926) .... Don Jose de Marana/Don Juan de Marana
The Sea Beast (1926) .... Captain Ahab Ceeley
Beau Brummel (1924) .... Gordon Bryon 'Beau' Brummel
Sherlock Holmes (1922) .... Sherlock Holmes
... aka Moriarty (UK)
The Lotus Eater (1921) .... Jacques Leroi
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920/I) .... Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Edward Hyde
The Test of Honor (1919) .... Martin Wingrave
Here Comes the Bride (1919) .... Frederick Tile
On the Quiet (1918) .... Robert Ridgeway
National Red Cross Pageant (1917) .... The tyrant
Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1917) .... A.J. Raffles
... aka Raffles
The Red Widow (1916) .... Cicero Hannibal Butts
The Lost Bridegroom (1916) .... Bertie Joyce
... aka His Lost Self
Nearly a King (1916) .... Jack Merriwell, Prince of Bulwana
The Incorrigible Dukane (1915) .... James Dukane
The Dictator (1915) .... Brooke Travers
Are You a Mason? (1915) .... Frank Perry
... aka The Joiner
The Man from Mexico (1914) .... Fitzhugh
An American Citizen (1914) .... Beresford Kruger
One on Romance (1913) (unconfirmed)
A Prize Package (1912) (unconfirmed)
The Widow Casey's Return (1912) (unconfirmed)
The Dream of a Moving Picture Director (1912) (unconfirmed)