Lionel Barrymore
history, | birthplace = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,US | deathdate = | deathplace = Beverly Hills, California US | birthname = Lionel Herbert Blythe | spouse = Doris Rankin (1904-1923) (divorced) 1 child
Irene Fenwick (1923-1936) (her death) | yearsactive = 1893—1954 | occupation = Actor, director, screenwriter }}
Lionel Barrymore (April 12, 1878WE BARRYMORES by Lionel Barrymore & Cameron Shipp c.1952 »We Barrymores page 14 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, radio and film. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul (1931). He is well known for the role of the villainous Henry Potter in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life.
Early life
Barrymore was born Lionel Herbert Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of actors Georgiana Drew and Maurice Barrymore (né Blythe). He was the elder brother of Ethel and John Barrymore, the uncle of John Drew Barrymore, and the granduncle (or great-uncle) of Drew Barrymore. Barrymore was raised Roman Catholic.»NOTABLES ATTEND BARRYMORE RITES; Hollywood Stars Join Throng at Burial... - Free Preview - The New York Times He attended the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In her autobiography Eleanor Farjeon recalled that she and Barrymore were friends as toddlers; she would take off her shoes and he would kiss her feet.Farjeon, Eleanor, A Nursery in the Nineties (Gollancz, 1935).
During World War I Lionel staved off the deadly Spanish Influenza by taking cold alcohol baths as an antiseptic.
He was married twice, to actresses Doris Rankin and Irene Fenwick, a one-time lover of his brother John. Doris's sister Gladys was married to Lionel's uncle Sidney Drew, which made Gladys both his aunt and sister-in-law.
Doris Rankin bore Lionel two daughters, Ethel Barrymore II (b. 1908) and Mary Barrymore. Unfortunately, neither baby girl survived infancy, though Mary lived a few months. Lionel never truly recovered from the deaths of his girls, and their loss undoubtedly strained his marriage to Doris Rankin, which ended in 1923. Years later, Barrymore developed a fatherly affection for Jean Harlow, who was born around the same time as his two daughters and would have been around their age. When Jean died in 1937, Lionel and Clark Gable mourned her as though she had been family.
Stage career
Barrymore began his stage career in the mid 1890s acting with his grandmother Louisa Lane Drew. He appeared on Broadway in his early twenties with his uncle John Drew Jr. in such plays as The Second in Command (1901) and The Mummy and the Hummingbird (1902), both produced by Charles Frohman. In 1905 Lionel and his siblings John and Ethel were all being groomed under the tutelage of Frohman. That year Lionel appeared with John in a short play called Pantaloon while John appeared with Ethel in Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire. In 1910, after he and Doris had spent many years in Paris, Lionel came back to Broadway, where he established his reputation as a dramatic and character actor. He and his wife Doris often acted together when in the theater. He proved his talent in many other plays such as Peter Ibbetson (1917) (with brother John), The Copperhead (1918) (with wife Doris) and The Jest (1919) (again with John). Lionel gave a short lived performance on stage as MacBeth in 1921. The play was not successful and more than likely convinced Lionel to return to films permanently. One of Lionel's last plays was Laugh, Clown, Laugh in 1923 with his second wife Irene Fenwick. This play would later be made into a 1928 silent film starring Lionel's friend Lon Chaney.
Film career
Barrymore entered films around 1911 with D.W. Griffith. There are claims Lionel entered films in 1908 for Griffith in The Paris Hat but Griffith did not make a movie in 1908 with this title. Lionel and Doris were in Paris in 1908 where Lionel was attending art school and where their first baby Ethel was born. Lionel claims in his autobiography We Barrymores that he and Doris were in France when Bleriot flew the channel on July 25, 1909.
Lionel entered films the same year his uncle Sidney Drew began his film career at Vitagraph, which might have had an influence on Lionel. With Griffith, Lionel made such titles as The Battle (1911), The New York Hat (1912) and Three Friends (1913). In 1915 he co-starred with Lillian Russell in a movie called Wildfire, one of the legendary Russell's few film appearances. He also made a foray into directing at Biograph. The last silent film he directed, Life's Whirlpool (Metro Pictures 1917), starred his sister Ethel. Lionel seemingly forged a good relationship with Louis B. Mayer early on at Metro Pictures and before the formation of MGM in 1924.
Lionel made numerous silent features for Metro, most of them now lost. He was also in a position to freelance occasionally such as returning to Griffith in 1924 to film America. He would make his last film for Griffith in 1928's Drums of Love. After Lionel and Doris divorced in 1923, he married Irene Fenwick. The two of them went to Italy for Metro Pictures to film The Eternal City in Rome, blending work and honeymoon.
Prior to his marriage to Irene he and his brother John came to disharmony on the issue of Irene's past as one of John's lovers, after which the brothers didn't speak again for two years. They were next seen together at the premiere of John's film Don Juan in 1926 having patched up their differences. In 1924, he left Broadway for Hollywood permanently. He starred in the role as Frederick Harmon in director Henri Diamant-Berger's drama Fifty-Fifty (1925) opposite Hope Hampton and Louise Glaum. Barrymore made several more freelance motion pictures such as The Bells (Tiffany Pictures 1926) with unknown Boris Karloff. After 1926, however, he worked almost exclusively for MGM appearing opposite such luminaries as John Gilbert, Lon Chaney, Sr., Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, Greta Garbo and his brother John.
On the occasional loan-out, Barrymore had a big success with Gloria Swanson in 1928's Sadie Thompson and the aforementioned Griffith film Drums of Love. Talkies were now a reality and Barrymore's stage-trained voice recorded well in sound tests. In 1929, he returned to directing films. During this early and imperfect sound film period, he made the controversial His Glorious Night with John Gilbert, Madame X starring Ruth Chatterton and Rogue Song Laurel & Hardy's first color film appearance. Barrymore returned to acting in front of the camera in 1931. In 1931, he won an Academy Award for his role of an alcoholic lawyer in A Free Soul (1931), after having been nominated in 1930 for Best Director for Madame X. He could play many types of characters, such as the evil Rasputin in the 1932 Rasputin and the Empress (in which he co-starred with siblings John and Ethel Barrymore) and the ailing Oliver Jordan in Dinner at Eight (1933 - also with John Barrymore, but they had no scenes together). However, during the 1930s and 1940s, he was stereotyped as grouchy, but usually sweet, elderly men in such films as The Mysterious Island (1929), Grand Hotel (1932, with John), Captains Courageous (1937), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Duel in the Sun (1946), and Key Largo (1948).
He played the irascible Doctor Gillespie in a series of Doctor Kildare movies in the 1930s and 1940s, repeating the role in the radio series throughout the 1940s. He also played the title role in another 1940s radio series, Mayor of the Town. Barrymore had broken his hip in an accident, hence he played Gillespie in a wheelchair; later, his worsening arthritis kept him in the chair.Landazuri, Margaret. »Archives Spotlight: Young Dr. Kildare. Turner Classic Movies.com. Accessed: 7 December 2007. The injury also precluded his playing Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1938 MGM film version of A Christmas Carol, a role which Barrymore had played annually on the radio since 1934, and would continue to 1951.
His final film appearance was a cameo in Main Street to Broadway, an MGM musical comedy released in 1953. His sister Ethel also appeared in the film.
Perhaps his best known role, due to perennial Christmas time replays on television, was Mr. Potter, the miserly and mean-spirited banker in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). The role suggested that of the "unreformed" stage of Barrymore's "Scrooge" characterization.
Death
Barrymore died on November 15, 1954 from a heart attack in Van Nuys, California, and was entombed in the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.
Lionel Barrymore has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street.
Filmography
{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 90%;"
|-style="background:#B0C4DE;"
! Year
! Film
! Role
! Notes
|-
|rowspan= 3|1911
| Fighting Blood
|
| Directed by D. W. Griffith
|-
| The Battle
| wagon driver
| Directed by D. W. Griffith
|-
| The Miser's Heart
|
| Directed by D. W. Griffith
|-
|rowspan=4|1912
| Friends''
| Grizzley Fallon (Dandy Jack's friend)
|
|-
| The Chief's Blanket
|
|Directed by D. W. Griffith
|-
| Heredity
| woodsman
|
|-
| The New York Hat
| minister
|
|-
|rowspan=6|1913
| The Tender Hearted Boy
|
|
|-
| Oil and Water
| In First Audience/In Second Audience/Visitor
|
|-
| Almost a Wild Man
| In audience
|
|-
| The Work Habit
| The father
|
|-
| The Strong Man's Burden
| John
|
|-
| The Battle at Elderbush Gulch
|
|
|-
|rowspan=2|1914
| Judith of Bethulia
| extra
|
|-
| Strongheart
| Billy Saunders
|
|-
|1921
| The Great Adventure
| Priam Farll
|
|-
|1924
| I Am the Man
| James McQuade
|
|-
|rowspan=1|1925
| Fifty-Fifty
| Frederick Harmon
|
|-
|rowspan=2|1926
| The Bells
| Mathias
|
|-
| The Temptress
| Canterac
|
|-
|rowspan=2|1927
| The Show
| The Greek
|
|-
| Body and Soul
| Dr. Leyden
|
|-
|rowspan=2|1928
| Sadie Thompson
| Alfred Davidson
|
|-
| West of Zanzibar
| Mr. Crane
|
|-
|rowspan=3|1929
| Madame X
|
| director
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Director
|-
| The Unholy Night
|
| director
|-
| The Mysterious Island
| Count Dakkar
|
|-
|1930
| The Sea Bat
|
| director (uncredited)
|-
|rowspan=3|1931
| A Free Soul
| Stephen Ashe, Defense Attorney
| Academy Award for Best Actor
|-
| The Yellow Ticket
| Baron Igor Andrey
|
|-
| Mata Hari
| Gen. Serge Shubin
|
|-
|rowspan=4|1932
| Broken Lullaby
| Dr. Holderlin
|
|-
| Arsène Lupin
| Det. Guerchard
|
|-
| Grand Hotel
| Otto Kringelein
|
|-
| Rasputin and the Empress
| Rasputin
| includes John, Ethel, and Lionel
|-
|rowspan=3|1933
| Dinner at Eight
| Oliver Jordan
|
|-
| One Man's Journey
| Eli Watt
|
|-
| Should Ladies Behave
| Augustus Merrick
|
|-
|rowspan=3|1934
| Carolina
| Bob Connelly
|
|-
| The Girl from Missouri
| Thomas Randall 'T.R.' Paige
|
|-
| Treasure Island
| Billy Bones
|
|-
|rowspan=5|1935
| The Personal History, Adventures,
Experience, and Observation of David
Copperfield, the Younger
| Dan’l Peggotty
|
|-
| The Little Colonel | Col. Lloyd | |- | Mark of the Vampire | Professor | |- | Public Hero No. 1 | Dr. Josiah Glass | |- | Ah, Wilderness! | Nat Miller | |- |rowspan=4|1936 | The Road to Glory | Pvt. Moran | |- | The Devil-Doll | Paul Lavond | |- | The Gorgeous Hussy | Andrew Jackson | |- | Camille | Monsieur Duval | |- |rowspan=4|1937 | Captains Courageous | Disko | |- | A Family Affair | Judge James K. Hardy | |- | Navy Blue and Gold | Capt. 'Skinny' Dawes | |- | Saratoga | Grandpa Clayton | |- |rowspan=4|1938 | A Yank at Oxford | Dan Sheridan | |- | Test Pilot | Howard B. Drake | |- | You Can't Take It with You | Grandpa Martin Vanderhof | |- | Young Dr. Kildare | Dr. Gillespie | |- |rowspan=4|1939 | Let Freedom Ring | Thomas Logan | |- | Calling Dr. Kildare | Dr. Leonard Gillespie | |- | On Borrowed Time | Julian Northrup (Gramps) | |- | The Secret of Dr. Kildare | Dr. Leonard Barry Gillespie | |- |rowspan=4|1940 | The Stars Look Down | Narrator | voice, uncredited |- | Dr. Kildare's Strange Case | Dr. Leonard Gillespie | |- | Dr. Kildare Goes Home | Dr. Leonard Gillespie | |- | Dr. Kildare's Crisis | Dr. Leonard Gillespie | |- |rowspan=5|1941 | The Penalty | 'Grandpop' Logan | |- | The Bad Man | Uncle Henry Jones | |- | The People vs. Dr. Kildare | Dr. Leonard Gillespie | |- | Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day | Dr. Leonard Gillespie | |- | Lady Be Good | Judge Murdock | |- |rowspan=4|1942 | Dr. Kildare's Victory | Dr. Leonard Gillespie | |- | Calling Dr. Gillespie | Dr. Leonard Gillespie | |- | Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant | Dr. Leonard Gillespie | |- | Tennessee Johnson | Thaddeus Stevens | |- |rowspan=3|1943 | Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case | Dr. Leonard Gillespie | |- | The Last Will and Testament of Tom Smith | Gramps | |- | A Guy Named Joe | The General | |- |rowspan=3|1944 | Three Men in White | Dr. Leonard B. Gillespie | |- | Since You Went Away | Clergyman | |- | Dragon Seed | Narrator | voice, uncredited |- |rowspan=2|1945 | Between Two Women | Dr. Leonard Gillespie | |- | The Valley of Decision | Pat Rafferty | |- |rowspan=4|1946 | Three Wise Fools | Dr. Richard Gaunght | |- | It's a Wonderful Life | Henry F. Potter | |- | The Secret Heart | Dr. Rossiger | |- | Duel in the Sun | Sen. Jackson McCanles | |- |1947 | Dark Delusion | Dr. Leonard Gillespie | |- |1948 | Key Largo | James Temple | |- |rowspan=2|1949 | Down to the Sea in Ships | Capt. Bering Joy | |- | Malaya | John Manchester | |- |1950 | Right Cross | Sean O'Malley | |- |1951 | Bannerline | Hugo Trimble | |- |1952 | Lone Star | Andrew Jackson | |- |1953 | Main Street to Broadway | Himself (with his sister Ethel) |}
- Menefee, David W. The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era.
- »Photographs of Lionel Barrymore
- »Lionel Barrymore at Internet Broadway Database
- »Lionel Barrymore photo gallery NYP Library
- »NY Times August 29 1908 A NEW ETHEL BARRYMORE; Daughter Born To Lionel in Paris