Nickname:	John Drew Barrymore / John Barrymore Jr. /
Known for:	The Big Night, Never Love a Stranger, Arms of the Avenger
Birth name:	John Blythe Barrymore
Birthday:	4 June 1932, Los Angeles, California, USA

Born at 3:42pm-PDT Son of actor John Barrymore and actress Dolores Costello. Father of actress Drew Barrymore. His career was ruined by drug busts. When they were both 13 years old, John and his cousin, Dirk Drew Davenport, successfully enlisted in the US Navy (it was during WW2), presenting themselves as 17 year olds. Being tall and well-built (especially for thirteen), it was several weeks before the Navy (and their family) uncovered their patriotic charade. Was cast in the starring role of Lazarus in a Star Trek episode called the 'Alternative Factor'. He walked off the set and didn't return. Another actor had to be found at the last minute to replace him. Father of John Blyth Barrymore. Nephew of Helene Costello - his mother's sibling. Nephew of Lionel Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore - his father's siblings. In 2003, wheelchair bound, he appeared in a Los Angeles court hearing to determine who will act as his guardian. He suffers from both physical and mental illness. He inherited a chest full of family memorabilia and collectibles when his mother, actress Dolores Costello, died in 1979. They included family photos, journals, movie stills and letters. He had a friend, Carol Stein Hoffman, turn the archives into a coffee table book entitled "The Barrymores: Hollywood's First Family" which was published in 2001. In daughter Drew's memoir "Little Girl Lost," she offered a blistering account of her absent father, including his considerable brushes with the law, his alcoholism, drug abuse and penchant for domestic violence. She summed up their relationship as "abusive" and "chaotic." Drew herself battled alcohol and substance abuse at age 12. Ironically, in his final years, daughter Drew helped pay his bills for an assisted living facility. Had another daughter, Blythe, from his marriage to Gabriella Palazzoli. His father, the legendary actor John 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, Barrymore 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.

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