Ethel Barrymore(1879-1959)
- Actress
Ethel Barrymore was the second of three children seemingly destined for
the actor's life of their parents Maurice and Georgiana. Maurice
Barrymore had emigrated from England in 1875, and after graduating from
Cambridge in law had shocked his family by becoming an actor. Georgiana
Drew of Philadelphia acted in her parents' stage company. The two met
and married as members of Augustin Daly's
company in New York. They both acted with some of the great stage
personalities of the mid Victorian theater of America and England. The
Barrymore children were born and grew up in Philadelphia. Though older
brother Lionel Barrymore began acting
early with his mother's relatives in the Drew theater company, Ethel,
after a traditional girl's schooling, planned on becoming a concert
pianist.
The lure of the stage was perhaps congenital, however. She made her
debut as a stage actress during the New York City season of 1894. Her
youthful stage presence was at once a pleasure, a strikingly pretty and
winsome face and large dark eyes that seemed to look out from her very
soul. Her natural talent and distinctive voice only reinforced the
physical presence of someone destined to command any role set before
her. After the opportunity to appear on the London stage with English
great Henry Irving in "The Bells" (1897) and later in "Peter the Great"
(1898), she returned to New York to star in the
Clyde Fitch play "Captain Jinks of the Horse
Marines" (1901) (produced by her friend and benefactor
Charles Frohman), which brought her
initial American acclaim. Lead roles, such as Nora in
Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" (1905) and
starring in "Alice By the Fire" (also 1905), "Mid-Channel" (1910) and
"Trelawney of the Wells" (1911) proved her popularity as a warm and
charismatic star of American stage. In the meantime she married
stockbroker Russell Griswold Colt in 1909 and gave birth to three
children while continuing her acting career.
Although the stage was her first love, she did heed the call of the
silver screen, and though not achieving the matinée idol image that
younger brother John Barrymore
garnered in silent movies after similar chemistry on stage, she won
over audiences from her first film appearance in
The Nightingale (1914). However,
her early film roles, steady through 1919, took a back seat to
continued stage triumphs: "Declassee" (1919), her impassioned Juliet in
"Romeo and Juliet" (1922), "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" (1924) and,
especially, "The Constant Wife" (1926).
She harnessed her considerable talents in the role of an activist as
well, being a bedrock supporter of the Actors Equity Association and,
in fact, had been a prominent figure in the actors strike of 1919. By
1930 she was entering middle age and her movie roles reflected this.
Except for
Rasputin and the Empress (1932)
with her brothers, the roles were elderly mothers and grandmothers,
dowager ladies and spinster aunts. Perhaps wisely she put off Hollywood
for over a decade, with stage work that included her most endearing
role in "The Corn is Green" (a tour that lasted from 1940 to 1942). She
finally moved to Southern California in 1940.
Yet the consummate actress glowed still in the films that came steadily
in the
mid-'40s and through much of the 1950s. As the mother of
Cary Grant
in the pensive
None But the Lonely Heart (1944)
she started off her late film career brilliantly by receiving the Oscar
for Best Actress in a supporting role, though she was not satisfied
with that effort. Her engaging wit and humanity stood out in even
supporting roles, such as, the politically savvy mother of
Joseph Cotten in
The Farmer's Daughter (1947)
and, once again with Cotton, as sympathetic art dealer Miss Spinney,
with those eyes, in the haunting screen adaptation of
Robert Nathan's novel
Portrait of Jennie (1948).
There was also a mingling of some TV work to round out her last movies
in the late 1950s. In 1955 she saw her book "Memories, An
Autobiography" see publication. For the enduring legacy she had already
begun years before, a theater named for her was dedicated in New York
in 1928. When she passed away in 1959, she was interred near her
brothers at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles.
the actor's life of their parents Maurice and Georgiana. Maurice
Barrymore had emigrated from England in 1875, and after graduating from
Cambridge in law had shocked his family by becoming an actor. Georgiana
Drew of Philadelphia acted in her parents' stage company. The two met
and married as members of Augustin Daly's
company in New York. They both acted with some of the great stage
personalities of the mid Victorian theater of America and England. The
Barrymore children were born and grew up in Philadelphia. Though older
brother Lionel Barrymore began acting
early with his mother's relatives in the Drew theater company, Ethel,
after a traditional girl's schooling, planned on becoming a concert
pianist.
The lure of the stage was perhaps congenital, however. She made her
debut as a stage actress during the New York City season of 1894. Her
youthful stage presence was at once a pleasure, a strikingly pretty and
winsome face and large dark eyes that seemed to look out from her very
soul. Her natural talent and distinctive voice only reinforced the
physical presence of someone destined to command any role set before
her. After the opportunity to appear on the London stage with English
great Henry Irving in "The Bells" (1897) and later in "Peter the Great"
(1898), she returned to New York to star in the
Clyde Fitch play "Captain Jinks of the Horse
Marines" (1901) (produced by her friend and benefactor
Charles Frohman), which brought her
initial American acclaim. Lead roles, such as Nora in
Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" (1905) and
starring in "Alice By the Fire" (also 1905), "Mid-Channel" (1910) and
"Trelawney of the Wells" (1911) proved her popularity as a warm and
charismatic star of American stage. In the meantime she married
stockbroker Russell Griswold Colt in 1909 and gave birth to three
children while continuing her acting career.
Although the stage was her first love, she did heed the call of the
silver screen, and though not achieving the matinée idol image that
younger brother John Barrymore
garnered in silent movies after similar chemistry on stage, she won
over audiences from her first film appearance in
The Nightingale (1914). However,
her early film roles, steady through 1919, took a back seat to
continued stage triumphs: "Declassee" (1919), her impassioned Juliet in
"Romeo and Juliet" (1922), "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" (1924) and,
especially, "The Constant Wife" (1926).
She harnessed her considerable talents in the role of an activist as
well, being a bedrock supporter of the Actors Equity Association and,
in fact, had been a prominent figure in the actors strike of 1919. By
1930 she was entering middle age and her movie roles reflected this.
Except for
Rasputin and the Empress (1932)
with her brothers, the roles were elderly mothers and grandmothers,
dowager ladies and spinster aunts. Perhaps wisely she put off Hollywood
for over a decade, with stage work that included her most endearing
role in "The Corn is Green" (a tour that lasted from 1940 to 1942). She
finally moved to Southern California in 1940.
Yet the consummate actress glowed still in the films that came steadily
in the
mid-'40s and through much of the 1950s. As the mother of
Cary Grant
in the pensive
None But the Lonely Heart (1944)
she started off her late film career brilliantly by receiving the Oscar
for Best Actress in a supporting role, though she was not satisfied
with that effort. Her engaging wit and humanity stood out in even
supporting roles, such as, the politically savvy mother of
Joseph Cotten in
The Farmer's Daughter (1947)
and, once again with Cotton, as sympathetic art dealer Miss Spinney,
with those eyes, in the haunting screen adaptation of
Robert Nathan's novel
Portrait of Jennie (1948).
There was also a mingling of some TV work to round out her last movies
in the late 1950s. In 1955 she saw her book "Memories, An
Autobiography" see publication. For the enduring legacy she had already
begun years before, a theater named for her was dedicated in New York
in 1928. When she passed away in 1959, she was interred near her
brothers at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles.