Barrymore, John

▪ American actor

original name  John Blyth  

born Feb. 15, 1882, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.

died May 29, 1942, Hollywood, Calif.

  American actor, called “The Great Profile,” who is remembered both for his roles as a debonair leading man and for his interpretations of Shakespeare (Shakespeare, William)'s Richard III and Hamlet. (See Barrymore reading from “Henry VI, Part 3”—>.)

      The son of the stage actors Maurice and Georgiana Barrymore, he studied painting in Paris but returned to the United States to make his stage debut in 1903. He became a popular light comedian, but it was in serious roles that he scored his greatest stage triumphs. The most important of these were Justice (1916), Peter Ibbetson (1917), The Jest (1919), Richard III (1920), and Hamlet (New York, 1922; London, 1925).

 Barrymore appeared in motion pictures from 1913 and gave notable performances in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Beloved Rogue (1927), Moby Dick (1930), Grand Hotel (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), Counsellor-at-Law (1933), Romeo and Juliet (1936), and The Great Profile (1940). Though his talents were prodigious and he was considered one of the greatest and handsomest actors of the age, he became better known for his flamboyant and often outrageous behaviour.

 Of the second generation of Barrymore actors (he was the brother of Ethel and Lionel), only John had children, and both of them turned to the stage. Diana (1921–60) was an actress whose promising career was frequently interrupted by alcoholism; she committed suicide. Her autobiography, Too Much, Too Soon (1957), was made into a motion picture in 1958. His son, John Blyth Barrymore, Jr. (1932–2004), known as John Drew Barrymore, was also a film actor and the father of actress Drew Barrymore (b. 1975).

Additional Reading

Gene Fowler, Good Night, Sweet Prince (1943, reissued 1989); John Kobler, Damned in Paradise: The Life of John Barrymore (1977); Martin F. Norden, John Barrymore: A Bio-Bibliography (1995).

* * *