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(February 15, 1882 in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania – May 29, 1942 in Los Angeles, California)
 He
gained fame as a stage actor, lauded for his portrayals of Hamlet
and Richard III, and is frequently called the greatest actor of his
generation. He was the brother of Lionel Barrymore and Ethel
Barrymore, and the grandfather of Drew Barrymore.
Barrymore was born into an illustrious theatrical family. His
parents were Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew. His maternal
grandmother was Louisa Lane Drew (aka Mrs Drew), a prominent and
well respected 19th century actress and theater manager, who
instilled into John, his sister Ethel & brother Lionel the ways of
acting & theatre life. John's classic nose and distinguished
features won him the nickname "The Great Profile."
Barrymore delivered some of the most critically acclaimed
performances in theatre and cinema history and was regarded by many
as the screen's greatest performer during a movie career spanning 25
years as a leading man in more than 60 films.
He specialized in trivial comedies until creating a sensation in
John Galsworthy's Justice (1916). He followed this triumph up with
Broadway successes in Peter Ibbetson (1917)(a role his father
Maurice had wanted to play) and The Jest (1919) (co-starring his
brother Lionel), reaching what seemed to be the zenith of his career
as Richard III in 1920. Barrymore had a conspicuous failure in his
wife Michael Strange's strange play Clair de Lune (1921), but
followed it with the greatest success of his career with Hamlet in
1920 which he played on Broadway for 101 performances and then took
to London in 1925.
His silent-film roles included A.J. Raffles in Raffles the Amateur
Cracksman (1917), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Sherlock Holmes
(1922), Beau Brummel (1924), The Sea Beast (1926, as Captain Ahab),
and Don Juan (1926). When talking pictures arrived, Barrymore's
theatrically trained voice added a new dimension to his work. He
made his talkie debut with a dramatic reading from Henry VI in
Warner Brothers' musical revue The Show of Shows, and reprised his
Captain Ahab role in Moby Dick (1930). His other leads included The
Man from Blankley's (1930), Svengali (1931), Grand Hotel (1932),
Dinner at Eight (1933), Topaze (1933) and Twentieth Century (1934).
He worked opposite many of the screen's foremost leading ladies,
including Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, and Carole
Lombard. In 1933, Barrymore appeared as a Jewish attorney in the
title role of Counsellor-at-Law. As critic Pauline Kael later wrote,
he "seems an unlikely choice for the ghetto-born lawyer...but this
is one of the few screen roles that reveal his measure as an actor.
His 'presence' is apparent in every scene; so are his restraint, his
humor, and his zest." |
