John Barrymore

Lore & Background

Barrymore was born John Sidney Blyth in the Philadelphia home of his maternal grandmother Louisa Lane Drew and was known by family, friends and colleagues as 'Jack.' Although the Barrymore family Bible puts his date of birth as February 15, 1882, his birth certificate shows February 14. He was the youngest of three children; his siblings were Lionel (1878–1954) and Ethel (1879–1959). His father was Maurice Barrymore, an Indian-born British actor who had been born Herbert Blyth, and had adopted Barrymore as a stage name. His mother, Georgie Drew, was born into a prominent theatrical family. Much of Barrymore's early life was unsettled; he attended elementary schools in four states and was expelled from several schools, including Georgetown Preparatory School in 1897, probably after being caught waiting in a brothel or after staff saw him inebriated. By the time he left Georgetown he was, according to biographer Martin Norden, 'already in the early stages of a chronic drinking problem.' In 1897, he lost his virginity when he was seduced by his step-mother, Mamie Floyd, and in August his grandmother died. He traveled with his father to England in 1898, where he joined King's College School, Wimbledon, and later the Slade School of Fine Art. After a year of formal study, he left and devoted much of his subsequent stay in London to bohemianism and nocturnal adventures. Barrymore returned to New York in the summer of 1900, and by November he found work as an illustrator on The New York Evening Journal. He had always professed a dislike of the acting profession, but in 1900 he was persuaded by his father to join him on stage for a few performances of a short play, 'A Man of the World.' He appeared in the same piece again the following year, but still thought of the experience as merely a way to supplement his income. In October 1901, Ethel was appearing in Philadelphia in Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines when one of the younger actors became temporarily unavailable; she persuaded the director to allow Barrymore to accept the part of the minor character. In the first act, he stopped in the middle of his dialogue, unable to remember the text, and asked the audience and his fellow actors, 'I've blown up. Where do we go from here?', which led the cast to improvise the remainder of the scene. An incident in 1901 had a major impact on Barrymore: in March, his father had a mental breakdown as a result of tertiary syphilis, and Barrymore, after a discussion with Ethel and gaining a court petition, took him to Bellevue Hospital. Maurice was later transferred to a private institution in Amityville, Long Island, where he suffered a 'rapid descent into madness.' The Encyclopedia of World Biography states that Barrymore was constantly 'haunted by the bright and dark spell of his father,' and his close friend Gene Fowler reported that 'the bleak overtone of this breaking of his parents' reason never quite died away in Barrymore's mind, and he was haunted by fears he would suffer the same fate.' Barrymore became fascinated with the beautiful artists' model, 'Florodora girl' and aspiring actress named Evelyn Nesbit, who was a mistress of the prominent New York architect Stanford White and was 16 or 17 years old at the time. The two had a romantic affair in 1902, and Barrymore proposed marriage to her. Nesbit's mother did not think that, as a struggling artist who seemed irresponsible with money, Barrymore was a good match for her daughter. To break off their relationship her mother and White sent Nesbit away to school in New Jersey in November 1902. Barrymore later described Nesbit as 'the most maddening woman,' saying 'She was the first woman I ever loved.' A few years later in 1906, White was shot and killed by Nesbit's then-husband, the mentally unstable Pittsburgh millionaire heir Harry K. Thaw, who she had married in 1905. Nesbit later testified that White had drugged and raped her when she was 15 or 16 (shortly before she met Barrymore) and that she had told Thaw about it, leading Thaw to become obsessed with White and enraged about his acceptance in society.

Reader's Guide

John Barrymore's significance lies in his transition from a celebrated stage actor—particularly for his Hamlet, which earned him the title 'greatest living American tragedian'—to a major film star in both silent and sound eras. His stage-trained voice proved an asset when sound films were introduced, and four of his works have been inducted into the National Film Registry. However, his personal life, including alcohol abuse from age 14, four marriages and divorces, and later bankruptcy, often overshadowed his professional achievements. His obituary in The Washington Post observed that 'with the passing of the years – and as his private life became more public – he became, despite his genius in the theater, a tabloid character.' Although film historians have opined that Barrymore's 'contribution to the art of cinematic acting began to fade' after the mid-1930s, Barrymore's biographer, Martin Norden, considers him to be 'perhaps the most influential and idolized actor of his day.' Much of his later work involved self-parody and the portrayal of drunken has-beens. His legacy is complex: a performer of high achievement whose later career and personal struggles became intertwined in public perception.

Did You Know?

• Barrymore's birth certificate shows February 14, 1882, but the family Bible lists February 15.
• He was expelled from Georgetown Preparatory School in 1897, possibly after being caught in a brothel or seen inebriated.
• In 1901, his father Maurice had a mental breakdown from tertiary syphilis and was institutionalized.
• Four of his films—Grand Hotel (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), Twentieth Century (1934), and Midnight (1939)—have been inducted into the National Film Registry.