The Fabulous Barrymores

Part II

John, Ethel and Lionel Barrymore "The Fab Three"!

The Georgiana Drew – Maurice Barrymore marriage produced three great actors…..Lionel, Ethel and John. They continued the dynasty that began with Louisa Drew and Maurice Barrymore and acting was in their blood!

Lionel…

Lionel Barrymore 1878 - 1954

The eldest of these talented progeny, Lionel Herbert Blyth Barrymore wanted to be an artist, not an actor. He actually made his stage debut at 6 when another child actor on his parents’ tour became too ill to go on but Lionel was promptly “retired’ when he cried instead of delivering his lines. They didn’t give him another acting job until he was 15! After appearing with his grandmother Louisa in several successful outings, Lionel gave up the stage in lieu of painting and didn’t return for 3 years.

Lionel in the earlier years

In 1904 Lionel married actress Doris Rankin (his uncle Sidney’s sister-in-law) and a year later, with money loaned to him by sister Ethel, he took Doris off to Paris to study painting at the Academie Julian. They had two daughters, Mary and Emily, while in Paris but both died in infancy. However, according to many sources, there was also a third daughter who was never mentioned after the age of 8. Lionel always denied having any children and Doris would never discuss either Lionel or their years of marriage after they divorced in 1923. As soon as the divorce was final, Lionel married actress Irene Fenwick. That marriage lasted 13 years until Irene’s tragic death from the complications of anorexia on Christmas Eve, 1936. They had no children and Lionel never remarried.

Rasputin and the Empress

The “Fab 3” appeared in only one film together…”Rasputin and the Empress” in 1932. Lionel played the role of Rasputin, Ethel was the Czarina Alexandra and John had the role of Prince Paul Chegodieff. Lionel and John, on the other hand, made 4 films together while Lionel only made one alone his sister…his last piece of work “Main Street to Broadway” made for television in 1953.

...with Laraine Day in "Calling Dr. Kildare"

In 1938, crippled by arthritis and a hip injury, Barrymore continued to work in films but role were tailored to accommodate his condition. The role of Dr. Gillespie in the popular “Dr. Kildare” series was one of them. But Lionel still preferred art and music to acting. His etchings and musical compositions (one a symphony) gained recognition and he also wrote two novels. On radio, he became a Christmas tradition playing Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol”.

as Scrooge on "Campbell Playhouse" on CBS

December, 1938

Lionel Barrymore made over 227 movies but won only one Oscar (“A Free Soul” 1931). He is remembered as one of America’s finest actors. On November 15 th, 1954 Lionel died of a heart attack after taking ill at the home of Mrs. J. E. Wheeler where he had lived for the last 18 years of his life. He is buried in the main Mausoleum of Calvary Cemetery next to his second wife and near his brother, John (who died in 1942).

Ethel ....

Ethel Barrymore 1879 - 1959

Convent-educated, Ethel Mae Blyth Barrymore also had another career in mind…she wanted to be a concert pianist! But the barrymore bloodline was too strong. Ethel made her stage debut in 1894 at the age of 15 in New York, then captured hearts for 7 years on the London stage. In 1901 she came back to Broadway to star in the Clyde Fitch play “Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines” and wowed New York all over again. Ethel would hold court on the New York stage for most of her theatrical career.

Ethel in "Captain Jinks..."

She had many suitors for her hand. Winston Churchill proposed marriage but she refused all offers until 1903, when at the age of 30, she married Russell Griswold Colt, a New York stock broker. Her career barely paused while she bore him 3 children. The marriage lasted 14 years before ending in divorce in 1923, making two Barrymore divorces in the same year. Ethel never remarried and her Colt offspring had only brief acting careers.

The theater named for Ethel Barrymore as it looks today.

Ethel never deserted the stage and New York reciprocated by naming a theater after her. She made only 36 films and was 65 years old when she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “None But the Lonely Heart” in 1944 with Cary Grant. But all of her remarkable supporting roles on the screen won the hearts of her audiences….Miss Spinny in “Portrait of Jenny” (1948), Miss Ern in “Pinky” (1949) and Mrs. Hazel Pennicott in “The Story of Three Loves” (1953) to name a few.

...as Ma Mott in "None But The Lonely Heart"

Ethel outlived her brothers. She was 79 years old when she died at her home in Hollywood from a heart condition and buried near her brothers in the Main Mausoleum at Calvary Cemetery.

John...

John Barrymore 1882 - 1942

John Sidney Blyth Barrymore was probably the most renowned of his Barrymore generation and also the most tragic of the three siblings, inheriting all of his father’s weaknesses. But it was also John that provided the next generation of the Barrymore dynasty.

Even as a school boy, John was the notorious Barrymore, expelled from prep school for visiting a bordello. He was 16. So his family shuttled him off to London to finish his education. Like Lionel, he came back looking for a career in art and even worked for a time as a commercial illustrator. But blood will tell and, while he dabbled rather than debuted on the stage, John at least had his foot in. And, like his father before him, he became known for both light comedy and heavy carousing.

a portrait of John as Hamlet

In 1910 John began his marriage-go-round with a starry-eyed 18 year-old debutante, Katharine Corri Harris, a marriage that ended in divorce 6 years later. In 1920 he married socialite/playwright Blanche Oelrichs Thomas, a divorcee with 2 children, who wrote under the name of Michael Strange. It was also in 1920 that he finally began the more serious stage work of his career. In March, 1920 he electrified audiences with his performance in Shakespeare’s “Richard III” and, two years later did it again with another Shakespearean role as “Hamlet”. In 1921 he became a father for the first time with the birth of a daughter….Diane Blanche Barrymore. But the marriage to Blanche ended in 1925 and John left the stage to do motion pictures exclusively.

Dapper Jack!

He met actress Dolores Costello on the set of “The Sea Beast” in 1926. In their first romantic scene, the actress fainted in his arms when he kissed her. So he married her in 1928. Dolores also came from a theatrical background. Her father was matinee idol Maurice Costello and her sister Helene began in films as a child star (ironically, in 1939 an out-of-work and elderly Maurice sued his daughters for support!). The delicate, blonde beauty gave John 2 children before the marriage ended in 1935…Dolores Ethel Mae and John, Jr. The Great Profile married a fourth time in 1936 to a 19-year-old college student Elaine Barrie and the scandal lasted almost longer than the marriage. It was over in 1940.

With John Howard and Reginald Denny in "Bulldog Drummond's Revenge"

But, by the mid-1930s John was obviously beginning to show the effects of his excessive drinking and hard-living. While making “Maytime” in 1937 with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, his lines had to be put on blackboards just out of camera range. Alimony payments and IRS debts forced him to take roles that were caricatures of himself. He even became a fixture on the Rudy Vallee Show where jokes were made about his drinking and his marital woes.

... as Nicolai in "Maytime" 1937

It was during a rehearsal for the Vallee show that Barrymore collapsed. The hospital diagnosed his condition as bronchial pneumonia complicated by hardening of the arteries, hemorrhaging ulcers and cirrhosis of the liver. He died there 10 days later on May 29, 1942 at the age of 60.

John Barrymore gave some of the most acclaimed performances in theater and film history. It was a tragic and premature end to a brilliant career.

Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles Resting place of Ethel, Lionel and John Barrymore.