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 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." 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. His screen debut supposedly came in An American Citizen, 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. His last few films were broad and distasteful caricatures of himself, though in even the worst, such as Playmates, he could rouse himself to a moving soliloquy from Hamlet. He died in 1942, mourned as much for the loss of his life as for the loss of grace, wit, and brilliance which had characterized his career at its height.
Rasputin and the Empress (1932): $150,000
Grand Hotel (1932): $150,000
Arsène Lupin (1932): $150,000
Svengali (1931): $30,000/week
Moby Dick (1930): $30,000/week
General Crack (1930): $30,000/week
Eternal Love (1929): $150,000
Tempest (1928): $100,000
When a Man Loves (1927): $75,000
Don Juan (1926): $75,000
The Sea Beast (1926): $75,000

Father of John Drew Barrymore and actress Diana Barrymore. Grandfather of Drew Barrymore Son of Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Barrymore; grandson of Louisa Drew and actor John Drew (1827-62); nephew of Sidney Drew; cousin of S. Rankin Drew; uncle of Samuel Colt, Ethel Colt, and John Drew Colt. The three Barrymore siblings appeared in only one film together: Rasputin and the Empress. Lionel and John appeared without Ethel in Arsène Lupin, Night Flight, Dinner at Eight, and Grand Hotel. His birth certificate lists 14 February as birth date, which conflicts with the family Bible which says 15 February. His World War I draft record and Social Security records state February 15. Rebaptized as a Roman Catholic after his mother's secret conversion, of the Barrymore siblings only Ethel remained a devout Catholic. George Bernard Shaw considered his very highly regarded "Hamlet" one of the worst performances of the role he had ever seen, and in a blistering letter accused him of indulging his own ego at the expense of Shakespeare. Courted 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 Miss Nesbit to undergo an operation for "appendicitis." White was later murdered by Nesbit's vengeful husband, Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Thaw. Was a good friend of Errol Flynn, who subsequently played Barrymore in Too Much, Too Soon, a film about Barrymore's daughter Diana. His sharp wit never left him, even when he was dying. A priest came to administer the last rites, accompanied by an exceedingly homely nurse. When the priest asked him if he had anything to confess, Barrymore replied, "Yes, Father. I am guilty, at this moment, of having carnal thoughts." "About whom?," replied the shocked priest. "About HER!," he replied, indicating the nurse. The only one of the three Barrymore siblings (John, Ethel and Lionel) to never win or even be nominated for an Academy Award; he is now considered the finest actor of the three. One night, while drunk, he accidentally went into a women's restroom, instead of a men's room, and proceded 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 the My Favorite Year, where the Barrymore-inspired character of Alan Swann, played by Peter O'Toole, is involved in a similar situation. His 1922 "Hamlet" was the longest-running Broadway production of the play with 101 performances until John Gielgud played the part for 132 performances in 1936. Had a daughter, Dolores Ethel Blyth Barrymore (b. 8 April 1930) with Costello. He was the greatest Hamlet and Richard III of his time, and he is still considered the greatest American actor to play those roles. Barrymore was, after John Gielgud, the most acclaimed Hamlet of the 20th century. (Barrymore's 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, which brought him an Academy Award as Best Actor.) From 1922, when he staged his first Hamlet, until 1975, when Sam Waterston assayed the role, Jack 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 dominated by British performers, particularly Maurice Evans, an English immigrant who became an American citizen who was the only other actor other than Hampden since World War One 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 `60s), and Ralph Fiennes, who won a Tony in the role. The Frenchman 'Jean-Louis Barrault' followed in his countywoman Sarah Bernhardt's steps 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. Barrymore had left specific instructions in his will that his body be cremated and his ashes be laid to rest next to his father and mother in the family cemetery in Philadelphia. However, due to the fact that his brother Lionel and sister Ethel were Catholic and cremation had not at that time been sanctioned by the Catholic Church, the executors (Lionel and Mervyn Leroy) pulled some fancy judicial manipulations and Barrymore's remains were entombed at Calvary Cemetery, in Los Angeles after his death in 1942. In 1980 John Barrymore, Jr., decided - after hearing a rendition of "The Cremation Of Sam McGee" - that it was high time to have his Dad cremated. He recruited his son John Blyth Barrymore to help. The gravediggers removed the "Good Night, Sweet Prince" marble monument from the front of the crypt and the smell assaulted them. Barrymore had been dead for thirty-eight years, and the body was still decomposing. The casket was solid bronze, and although it had a glass liner, it must have cracked or something, because the fluids from the body had leaked out and had formed a kind of glue between the casket and the floor of the crypt. They muscled the coffin up on the hand truck and wheeled it down a long ramp to a van they had waiting outside. The body fluids were leaking out all the way. They cruised over to the Odd Fellows Cemetery, which had the nearest crematorium, and made the cremation preparations. John Jr. insisted on having a look inside the casket before they left. After viewing the body, he came out white as a sheet and crying. He got in the car and said to his son, "Thank God I'm drunk, I'll never remember it." John Blyth Barrymore got a graphic description later from one of the eye-witnesses. Apparently all the bouncing around during the move had sort of busted the jaw apart from what was left of the head. They were convinced it was John Barrymore by the very high quality dental work, and because although most of the flesh on the nose had decomposed, an incredibly long nose cartilage remained. After Barrymore's death, his friends - including Errol Flynn and Raoul Walsh - gathered at a bar to commiserate on John's passing. Walsh, claiming he was too upset, pretended to go home. Instead, he and two friends went to the funeral home and bribed the caretaker to lend them Barrymore's body. Transporting it to Flynn's house, it was propped up in Errol's favorite living room chair. Flynn arrived and described his reaction in his autobiography: "As I opened the door I pressed the button. The lights went on and - I stared into the face of Barrymore... They hadn't embalmed him yet. I let out a delirious scream... I went back in, still shaking. I retired to my room upstairs shaken and sober. My heart pounded. I couldn't sleep the rest of the night." In 1920 lived at 134 W. 4th Street in Manhattan. Blue-eyed, brown-haired. Was originally supposed to play Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner, but because of the effects of his alcoholism he couldn't remember his lines and was fired. Played by Jack Cassidy in W.C. Fields and Me.