John Barrymore
| John Barrymore | |
.jpg) John Barrymore in 1918 | |
| Background information | |
| Born as: | John Sidney Blyth |
| Born | Feb 14, 1882 or Feb 15, 1882 Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | May 29, 1942 - at age 59 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Buried: | Mount Vernon Cemetery, Philadelphia |
| Relatives: | [Barrymore family]] |
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 an artist. However, he appeared on stage with his father Maurice in 1900, and then with 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".
After a success as Hamlet in London in 1925, Barrymore left the stage for 14 years and instead focused entirely on films. In the silent film era, he was well received in such pictures as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Sherlock Holmes (1922) and The Sea Beast (1926). During this period, he gained his nickname, the Great Profile. His stage-trained voice proved an asset when sound films were introduced, and four of his works, Grand Hotel (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), Twentieth Century (1934), and Midnight (1939), have been inducted into the National Film Registry.
Although film historians have opined that Barrymore's "contribution to the art of cinematic acting began to fade" after the mid-1930s, Barrymore's biographer, Martin Norden, considers him to be "perhaps the most influential and idolized actor of his day".
Early life: 1882–1903
Barrymore was born John Sidney Blyth in the Philadelphia home of his maternal grandmother, Louisa Lane Drew, and was known by family, friends, and colleagues as "Jack". Although the Barrymore family Bible lists his date of birth as February 15, 1882, his birth certificate shows February 14. He was the youngest of three children, with siblings Lionel (1878–1954) and Ethel (1879–1959). His father, Maurice Barrymore, an Indian-born British actor, was originally named Herbert Blyth and adopted the stage name Barrymore after seeing it on a poster in the Haymarket Theatre in London. Barrymore's mother, Georgie Drew Barrymore, was born into a prominent theatrical family. His maternal grandparents were Louisa Lane Drew, a well-known 19th-century American actress and manager of the Arch Street Theatre, and John Drew, also an actor who specialized in comedy. Barrymore's maternal uncles included two more thespians, John Drew Jr. and Sidney.
Much of Barrymore's early life was unsettled. In October 1882, the family toured 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, insisting 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 misbehaved and was sent to school in an attempt to instill discipline. This strategy was not always successful; he attended elementary schools in four states. He was first sent to the boys' annex of the Convent of Notre Dame in Philadelphia. One punishment 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 school in 1891 and sent to Seton Hall Preparatory School in New Jersey, where Lionel was already studying. Barrymore was unhappy at Seton and was soon withdrawn; after that, 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 constant touring and his absences at school meant that he barely knew her, and his grandmother mostly raised him. The loss of their mother's income prompted both Ethel and Lionel to seek work as professional actors.[20] Barrymore's father was largely 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 the 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". In 1897, at the age of fifteen, it was an emotionally challenging year for Barrymore: he was molested by his stepmother, 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 enrolled at 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 for The New York Evening Journal, at a salary of $50 a week.
Barrymore had always professed a dislike for 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 regarded the experience as merely a way to supplement his income rather than a possible future career. In October 1901, Ethel was performing 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 take the part of the minor character, and Barrymore traveled from New York, learning his lines on the train. In the first act, he paused 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?" This led the cast to improvise the remainder of the scene.
An incident in 1901 had a significant impact on Barrymore. In March, his father experienced a mental breakdown due to tertiary syphilis, and Barrymore, after a discussion with Ethel and obtaining a court petition, took him to Bellevue Hospital. Maurice was later transferred to a private institution in Amityville, Long Island, where he suffered a "rapid descent into madness. " The Encyclopedia of World Biography states that Barrymore was constantly "haunted by the bright and dark spell of his father, " and his close friend Gene Fowler reported that "the bleak overtone of this breaking of his parents' reason never quite died away in Barrymore's mind, and he was haunted by fears he would suffer the same fate. " The same year, Barrymore began an affair with a beautiful artists' model, a "Florodora girl" and aspiring actress named Evelyn Nesbit, who was a mistress of architect Stanford White. Barrymore later described Nesbit as "the most maddening woman. ... She was the first woman I ever loved, " and he proposed marriage to her. Nesbit's mother believed that, as a struggling artist, Barrymore was not a good match for her daughter. To end their relationship, her mother sent Nesbit away to school in New Jersey. In 1906, White was shot in public by Nesbit's then-husband, Pittsburgh millionaire Harry K. Thaw. Barrymore anticipated that he would testify at Thaw's murder trial regarding Nesbit's morality; he was concerned he might be asked whether he had arranged for Nesbit to have an abortion, disguised as an appendectomy, despite Nesbit having undergone two previous "appendectomies. " Barrymore was never called as a witness because Thaw pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
| Nexus: Evelyn Nesbit |
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The following articles are related to "Evelyn Nesbit" as their nexus External links
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In May 1902, Barrymore was fired from his newspaper position after producing a poor illustration for the paper while hung over. He spent time as a poster designer but realized it was not lucrative enough for his lifestyle, which was partly financed by Ethel, who was also paying for their father's care. While discussing his future with his brother, Barrymore said, "it looks as though I'll have to succumb to the family curse, acting, " and he later admitted that "there isn't any romance about how I went on stage. ... I needed the money."
Legacy
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." The Washington Post agreed, noting that during his stage triumphs and early years in film, "he was the great profile, the darling of the 'royal family' of the stage." Many obituaries pointed out that Barrymore fell short of his potential. The Manchester Guardian thought that he "might with some self-discipline have added his name to the list of truly great actors ... yet he dissipated his energies. " The New York Times noted that he could twist his abilities "to parody, burlesque himself and play the clown, " and they considered it "unfortunate that the public in recent years saw him in ... [that] mood. It was a mood of careless abdication. " The Washington Post observed that "with the passing of the years – and as his private life became more public – he became, despite his genius in the theater, a tabloid character."
According to Morrison, Barrymore's stage portrayals of Richard III and Hamlet served as a model for modern performances of these roles. His interpretation along psychological lines was innovative, and his "dynamic portrayals ... changed the direction of subsequent revivals." Barrymore's natural acting style reversed the stage conventions of the time; his " 'colloquial' verse speaking introduced to the stage the vocal manner of a postwar gentleman."
Barrymore, while alive, was honored on few occasions by the entertainment industry and its members. Although both his brother and sister won Academy Awards, the only award Barrymore ever received for his screen work was from Rudolph Valentino in 1925 for Beau Brummel. Valentino created an award in his own name and felt that his fellow actors should receive accolades for their screen work. When Barrymore attended his ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1940, he left more than the customary hand and footprints in the theater's forecourt: aided by the owner, Sid Grauman, Barrymore left a cement imprint of his facial profile. In February 1960, for his contribution to the motion picture industry, Barrymore was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a star at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard; Barrymore, along with his two siblings, is included in the American Theater Hall of Fame. The Barrymore "Royal Family" of actors continued through two of his children – his son with Costello, John Drew Barrymore, and his daughter with Oelrichs, Diana – both of whom became actors, as did John Jr.'s daughter Drew. Barrymore's brother Lionel died on November 15, 1954, and their sister Ethel died on June 18, 1959.
Barrymore's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Barrymore's achievements and his colorful life have ensured that several biographical studies followed his 1926 autobiography, Confessions of an Actor. Alma Power-Waters produced a 1941 study, authorized by the subject, "John Barrymore: The Legend and the Man"; Fowler, wrote "Good Night, Sweet Prince: The Life and Times of John Barrymore" (1943); Alpert published "The Barrymores" (1964); and John Kobler wrote "Damned in Paradise: The Life of John Barrymore" (1977), although Norden noted in 2000 that many of these earlier works are less than reliable. Those he identified as being more thoroughly researched are Peters' 1990 history, "The House of Barrymore", and his own study of the actor's work in "John Barrymore: A Bio-Bibliography" (1995). Subsequent to Norden's comments on the available literature, Morrison published the positively reviewed "John Barrymore, Shakespearean Actor" in 1997, which focuses on Barrymore's stage work.
In 1982, several celebratory events took place to mark the centenary of Barrymore's birth. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Museum of Modern Art jointly hosted a commemorative program showcasing his work, including numerous excerpts from his films and interviews with those who knew him, such as Barrie and his one-time co-star Myrna Loy. That same year, to celebrate the centenary of the Actors Fund of America, the US Postal Service issued a postage stamp featuring Barrymore and his siblings. In February 2010, an intersection in Fort Lee, New Jersey, was renamed John Barrymore Way to commemorate what would have been the actor's 128th birthday. This intersection marked the location of the former Buckheister's Hotel, where Barrymore made his stage debut in "A Man of the World" in 1900.
Legacy
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." The Washington Post agreed, noting that during his stage triumphs and early years in film, "he was the great profile, the darling of the 'royal family' of the stage." Many of the obituaries made the point that Barrymore fell short of his potential. The Manchester Guardian thought that he "might with some self-discipline have added his name to the list of truly great actors ... yet he dissipated his energies". The New York Times noted that he could twist his abilities "to parody, burlesque himself and play the clown", and they considered that it was "unfortunate that the public in recent years saw him in ... [that] mood. It was a mood of careless abdication". The Washington Post observed that "with the passing of the years – and as his private life became more public – he became, despite his genius in the theater, a tabloid character."
According to Morrison, Barrymore's stage portrayals of Richard III and Hamlet served as a model for modern performances of these roles. His interpretation along psychological lines was innovative, and his "dynamic portrayals ... changed the direction of subsequent revivals." Barrymore's natural acting style reversed the stage conventions of the time; his " 'colloquial' verse speaking introduced to the stage the vocal manner of a postwar gentleman."
Barrymore, while alive, was honored on few occasions by the entertainment industry and its members. Although both his brother and sister won Academy Awards, the only award Barrymore ever received for his screen work was from Rudolph Valentino in 1925 for Beau Brummel. Valentino created an award in his name and felt that his fellow actors should receive accolades for their screen work. When Barrymore attended the ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1940, he left more than the customary hand and footprints in the theater's forecourt: aided by the owner, Sid Grauman, Barrymore left a cement imprint of his facial profile. In February 1960, for his contribution to the motion picture industry, Barrymore was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a star at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard; Barrymore, along with his two siblings, is included in the American Theater Hall of Fame. The Barrymore "Royal Family" of actors continued through two of his children – his son with Costello, John Drew Barrymore, and his daughter with Oelrichs, Diana – both of whom became actors, as did John Jr.'s daughter Drew. Barrymore's brother Lionel died on November 15, 1954, and their sister Ethel died on June 18, 1959.
Barrymore's achievements and his colorful life have ensured that several biographical studies followed his 1926 autobiography, "Confessions of an Actor". Alma Power-Waters produced a 1941 study, authorized by the subject, John Barrymore: The Legend and the Man; Fowler, wrote Good Night, Sweet Prince: The Life and Times of John Barrymore (1943); Alpert published "The Barrymores" (1964); and John Kobler wrote "Damned in Paradise: The Life of John Barrymore" (1977), although Norden noted in 2000 that many of these earlier works are less than reliable. Those he identified as being more thoroughly researched are Peters' 1990 history, "The House of Barrymore", and his own study of the actor's work in "John Barrymore: A Bio-Bibliography" (1995). Subsequent to Norden's comments on the available literature, Morrison published the positively reviewed "John Barrymore, Shakespearean Actor" in 1997, which focuses on Barrymore's stage work.
There were several celebratory events in 1982, on the centenary of Barrymore's birth. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Museum of Modern Art jointly hosted a commemorative program of his work, which included numerous excerpts from his films and interviews with those who knew him, including Barrie and his one-time co-star Myrna Loy. The same year, in celebration of the centenary of the Actors Fund of America, the US Postal Service issued a postage stamp featuring Barrymore and his siblings. In February 2010, an intersection in Fort Lee, New Jersey, was renamed John Barrymore Way on what would have been the actor's 128th birthday. The intersection marked the spot of the former Buckheister's Hotel, where Barrymore had his 1900 stage debut in "A Man of the World".
External links
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:John_Barrymore ]
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