John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen, and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage and briefly attempted a career as a visual artist, but appeared on stage together with his father, Maurice, in 1900, and then his sister Ethel the following year. He began his career in 1903 and first gained attention as a stage actor in light comedy, then high drama, culminating in productions of Justice (1916), Richard III (1920), and Hamlet (1922); his portrayal of Hamlet led to him being called the "greatest living American tragedian".

Much of Barrymore's early life was unsettled. In October 1882, the family toured in the US for a season with Polish actress Helena Modjeska. The following year his parents toured again with Modjeska but left the children behind. Modjeska was influential in the family, and she insisted that all three children be baptized into the Catholic Church. In 1884 the family traveled to London as part of Augustin Daly's theatrical company, returning to the US two years later. As a child, Barrymore was sometimes badly behaved, and he was sent away to schools in an attempt to instill discipline. The strategy was not always successful, and he attended elementary schools in four states. He was sent first to the boys' annex of the Convent of Notre Dame in Philadelphia. One punishment that he received there was being made to read a copy of Dante's Inferno; he later recounted that, as he looked at the illustrations by Gustave Doré, "my interest was aroused, and a new urge was born within me. I wanted to be an artist". He was expelled from the school in 1891 and was sent to Seton Hall Preparatory School in New Jersey, where Lionel was already studying. Barrymore was unhappy at Seton and was soon withdrawn, after which he attended several public schools in New York, including the Mount Pleasant Military Academy.

In 1892, his grandmother Louisa Drew's business began to suffer, and she lost control of her theater, causing disruption in the family. The following year, when Barrymore was 11 years old, his mother died from tuberculosis; her consistent touring and his absence at school meant that he barely knew her, and he was mostly raised by his grandmother. The loss of their mother's income prompted both Ethel and Lionel to seek work as professional actors. Barrymore's father was mostly absent from the family home while on tour, and when he returned he would spend time at The Lambs, a New York actors' club.

In 1895, Barrymore entered Georgetown Preparatory School, then located on Georgetown University Campus, but he was expelled in November 1897, probably after being caught waiting in a brothel. One of his biographers, Michael A. Morrison, posits the alternate theory that Barrymore was expelled after the staff saw him inebriated. By the time he left Georgetown he was, according to Martin Norden in his biography of Barrymore, "already in the early stages of a chronic drinking problem". 1897 was an emotionally challenging year for Barrymore: he lost his virginity when he was seduced by his step-mother, Mamie Floyd, and in August his grandmother, the main female role model in his life, died.

Barrymore traveled with his father to England in 1898, where he joined King's College School, Wimbledon. A year later he joined the Slade School of Fine Art, to study literature and art. After a year of formal study, he left and "devoted much of his subsequent stay in London to bohemianism and nocturnal adventures", according to family biographer Margot Peters. Barrymore returned to New York in the summer of 1900, and by November he found work as an illustrator on The New York Evening Journal, at a salary of $50 a week.

alt=Ethel Barrymore, as a beautiful young woman, in a three-quarter length portrait, seated, facing front, wearing an elaborate gown and holding a bouquet of roses|thumb|left|[[Ethel Barrymore|Ethel in Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines; Barrymore appeared with his sister in the 1901 play.]]

Barrymore had always professed a dislike of the acting profession, but in 1900 he was persuaded by his father to join him on stage for a few performances of a short play, "A Man of the World" which his father had produced in Fort Lee, New Jersey near his home in town. He appeared in the same piece again the following year, but he still thought of the experience as merely a way to supplement his income, rather than as a possible future career. In October 1901, Ethel was appearing in Philadelphia in Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines when one of the younger actors became temporarily unavailable. She persuaded the director to allow Barrymore to accept the part of the minor character, and Barrymore traveled from New York, learning his lines on the train. In the first act, he stopped in the middle of his dialogue, unable to remember the text, and asked the audience and his fellow actors, "I've blown up. Where do we go from here?", which led the cast to improvise the remainder of the scene.

thumb|[[Evelyn Nesbit, Barrymore's first love, to whom he proposed in 1902 (photograph by Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr., 1905)]]

An incident in 1901 had a major impact on Barrymore. In March, his father had a mental breakdown as a result of tertiary syphilis, and Barrymore, after a discussion with Ethel and gaining a court petition, took him to Bellevue Hospital. The critic for The New York Times thought the play was, "acted with fine comedy spirit by John Barrymore ... [who] gave indisputable signs last night of grown and growing powers." Shortly after the ceremony, The Dictator went on tour, and Harris was given a small role in the play. According to Peters, Barrymore "began to think of his marriage as a 'bus accident. Film critic Hollis Alpert wrote that, within a week of the wedding, Katherine was complaining that she saw her new husband too infrequently. Barrymore's increasing dependence on alcohol was also a cause of marital problems, and he explained that "unhappiness increased the drink, and drink increased the unhappiness".

alt=Pen and ink sketch showing slim, art-deco style figures of John and Ethel Barrymore |thumb|Barrymore's drawing of himself and [[Ethel Barrymore|Ethel in A Slice of Life, 1912]]

Barrymore's next two plays – Uncle Sam and Princess Zim-Zim, both from 1911 – were critically and commercially weak, but the second work introduced him to playwright Edward Sheldon, who would "reshape ... [Barrymore's] entire career". In January 1912, Barrymore appeared together with his sister in A Slice of Life at the Empire Theatre on Broadway, which ran for 48 performances. Charles Darnton, a critic for The Evening World, observed that "Barrymore takes delight in 'kidding' his part not only to the limit, but perhaps beyond". Since appearing in Redemption he had worked ceaselessly, appearing on stage in the evenings, while planning or rehearsing the next production during the day, and by the time he appeared as Richard, he was spending his daytimes filming Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He spent six weeks recuperating under the ministrations of his father's friend, wrestler William Muldoon, who ran a sanitarium. During the summer of 1920, Oelrichs became pregnant with Barrymore's child, and a quick divorce was arranged with her husband, which left her and Barrymore free to marry in August that year; a daughter, Diana Barrymore, followed in March 1921. Soon after the birth, he began rehearsals for Clair de Lune, which his wife had adapted from Victor Hugo's 1869 novel The Man Who Laughs. Barrymore persuaded Ethel to play the role of the Queen – it was the first time the two had appeared on stage together in over a decade. The play was a critical flop, although the presence of the siblings ensured that it ran for over 60 performances.

In 1921, Barrymore portrayed a wealthy Frenchman in New York in the film The Lotus Eater, with Colleen Moore.

The new relationship was widely reported in the tabloid press, who labeled the couple Caliban and Ariel. After a series of arguments with Barrie, Barrymore considered the relationship with Barrie to be at an end, and he left for Los Angeles. A newspaper editor chartered a plane and flew Barrie to Chicago, to meet Barrymore's train; she broadcast a plea for him to return, and her pursuit became national news. Costello's divorce from Barrymore became final in October 1935. Barrymore was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles on June 2. In 1980, Barrymore's son had his father's body reinterred in the family plot in Philadelphia's Mount Vernon Cemetery.

Legacy

alt=Picture of Barrymore outside, from the waist up, pensively smoking a cigarette and facing to the left|thumb|Barrymore at the White House in January 1924, after meeting President [[Calvin Coolidge]]

The New York Times obituary stated that during the period when Barrymore performed in Justice, Richard III and Hamlet, the actor "was accepted by most critics as the foremost English-speaking actor of his time ... equipped both by nature and by art."

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Sources

  • John Barrymore at AllMovie
  • portrait as a young man. studio c.1905(flickr)