John Barrymore

Son of Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Barrymore; grandson of Louisa Drew and John Drew (1827-1862); nephew of Sidney Drew; cousin of S. Rankin Drew; uncle of Samuel Colt, Ethel Colt and John Drew Colt.

John Barrymore was born John Sidney Blyth on February 15, 1882 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An American stage and screen actor whose rise to superstardom and subsequent decline is one of the legendary tragedies of Hollywood. A member of the most famous generation of the most famous theatrical family in America, he was also its most acclaimed star. His father was Maurice Blyth (or Blythe; family spellings vary), a stage success under the name Maurice Barrymore. His mother, Georgie Drew, was the daughter of actor John Drew. Although well known in the theatre, Maurice and Georgie were eclipsed by their three children, John, Lionel Barrymore, and Ethel Barrymore, each of whom became legendary stars. John was handsome and roguish. He made his stage debut at age 18 in one of his father's productions, but was much more interested in becoming an artist. Briefly educated at King's College, Wimbledon, and at New York's Art Students League, Barrymore worked as a freelance artist and for a while sketched for the New York Evening Journal.

Gradually, though, the draw of his family's profession ensnared him, and by 1905, he had given up professional drawing and was touring the country in plays.

He survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and in 1909, became a major Broadway star in "The Fortune Hunter".

His screen debut supposedly came in An American Citizen (1914), though records of several lost films indicate he may have made appearances as far back as 1912. He became every bit the star of films that he was on stage, eclipsing his siblings in both arenas. Though his striking matinee-idol looks had garnered him the nickname "The Great Profile", he often buried them under makeup or distortion in order to create memorable characters of degradation or horror. He was a romantic leading man into the early days of sound films, but his heavy drinking (since boyhood) began to take a toll, and he degenerated quickly into a man old before his time. He made a number of memorable appearances in character roles, but these became over time more memorable for the humiliation of a once-great star than for his gifts.

In May 1915 he served as a pallbearer at the funeral of Broadway stage producer 'Charles Frohman' after Frohman's body was recovered from the sinking of the RMS Lusitania on May 7, 1915. Frohman had at various times employed much of Barrymore's family, including his mother Georgie, sister 'Ethel Barrymore', brother 'Lionel Barrymore', uncle John Drew, cousin Georgie Mendum in addition to John himself.

Regardin' the costume romance films he starred in during the 1920s, he jokingly referred to them as "male impersonations of 'Lilyan Tashman'.".

In 1922, Barrymore became his generation's most acclaimed "Hamlet", in New York and London. But by this time, he had become a frequent player in motion pictures.

For his performance in Beau Brummel (1924), he was given a special self-created award from Rudolph Valentino.

Had a daughter with Dolores Costello: Dolores Ethel Blyth Barrymore (born April 8, 1930).

The three Barrymore siblings appeared in only one film together: Rasputin and the Empress (1932). Lionel Barrymore and John appeared without Ethel Barrymore in Arsène Lupin (1932), Night Flight (1933), Dinner at Eight (1933) and Grand Hotel (1932).

Supported his brother Lionel Barrymore when Lionel's wife Irene Fenwick (a long-ago girlfriend of John's) died, and filled in for Lionel as Ebenezer Scrooge in an annual radio production of "A Christmas Carol" on the day after Irene's death (December 25, 1936).

He was, after John Gielgud, the most acclaimed Hamlet of the 20th century (his realization of the role in London influenced Laurence Olivier's own later interpretation of Hamlet, in 1937 on stage and in 1948 on film. Ironically, Ethel Barrymore denounced Olivier's film Hamlet (1948), which brought him an Academy Award as Best Actor). From 1922, when he staged his first Hamlet, until 1975, when Sam Waterston essayed the role, Barrymore and Walter Hampden were the only American actors to play Hamlet on Broadway. Barrymore put on a second production in 1923, while Hampden played the role three times on the Great White Way--in 1918, in 1925 (with 'Ethel Barrymore' as his Ophelia) and in 1929. Stephen Lang, who played the great Dane on the Great White Way in 1992, is the only other American in more than three-quarters of a century to star in "Hamlet" on Broadway. In that time, Hamlet was played mostly by British performers, particularly Maurice Evans, an English immigrant who became an American citizen and was the only actor other than Hampden since World War I to play Hamlet three times on the Broadway stage. The other British subjects to play the role on Broadway in that period other than Gielgud were Leslie Howard, Sir Donald Wolfit, future Canadian Stratford Festival founder John Neville, Neville's Old Vic co-star and rival Richard Burton, Nicol Williamson (the definitive portrayal of the late 1960s) and Ralph Fiennes, who won a Tony Award in the role. French actor Jean-Louis Barrault followed in his countrywoman Sarah Bernhardt's footsteps and played Hamlet on Broadway (he in 1952, she in 1900). Aside from Barrymore's acclaimed performance, the greatest Hamlet assayed by an American actor was that of Edwin Booth, who played the role three times on Broadway in the 19th century.

His last few films were broad and distasteful caricatures of himself, though in even the worst, such as Playmates (1941), he could rouse himself to a moving soliloquy from "Hamlet".

Was originally supposed to play Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942), but because of the effects of his alcoholism, he could not remember his lines and was fired. The role went to Monty Woolley.

Was good friends with Errol Flynn, who subsequently played Barrymore in Too Much, Too Soon (1958), a film about Barrymore's daughter Diana Barrymore.

He was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6667 Hollywood Blvd. on February 8, 1960.

He left specific instructions that he be cremated and his ashes be buried next to his parents in the family cemetery in Philadelphia. However, as his brother Lionel Barrymore and sister Ethel Barrymore were Catholic and cremation was not sanctioned by the Church, the executors (Lionel and Mervyn LeRoy) had his remains entombed at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles. In 1980 John Drew Barrymore decided to have his father cremated, and recruited his son John Blyth Barrymore to help. They removed the casket from its crypt, drove it to the Odd Fellows Cemetery and made the preparations. John Jr. insisted on having a look inside before they left. After viewing the body, he came out white as a sheet, got in the car and said to his son, "Thank God I'm drunk, I'll never remember it.".

One night, while drunk, he accidentally went into a women's restroom, instead of a men's room, and proceeded to relieve his bladder in a potted plant. A woman standing nearby reminded him that the room was "for ladies exclusively". Turning around, his penis still exposed, Barrymore responded, "So, madam, is this. But every now and again, I'm compelled to run a little water through it." This incident later made its way, verbatim, into My Favorite Year (1982), where the Barrymore-inspired character Alan Swann, played by Peter O'Toole, is involved in a similar situation.

On August 13, 2020, he was honored with a day of his filmography during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.