Ethel Barrymore
Date of birth: 1879-08-12
Place of birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Known for: Acting
Also known as: Ethel Mae Blythe, Этель Барримор
Biography
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. When she passed away in 1959, she was interred near her brothers at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles.
Movie Credits
The Paradine Case
1947-12-31
In London, barrister Anthony Keane takes the case of Maddalena Paradine, a beautiful woman accused o
Portrait of Jennie
1948-12-25
A mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist.
The Spiral Staircase
1946-01-26
On a stormy night, the mute servant to an ailing matriarch is stalked by a serial killer.
The Nightingale
1914-10-05
Franti, an organ grinder of the poor districts of New York, has a daughter, Isola, who sings to his
The Final Judgment
1915-10-18
Actress Jane Carleson has three admirers: Henry Strong (a millionaire), Hamilton Ross (a chemist), a
The Kiss of Hate
1916-04-03
When Count Peter Turgeneff, his daughter, Nadia, and Paul, his generous-hearted son, came to live in
The White Raven
1917-01-14
William Baldwin, ruined in business by his partner, John Blaisdell, implores Blaisdell's aid, and re
The Awakening of Helena Ritchie
1916-12-18
Helena Richie leaves her drunken husband, who had killed their child, and goes to Old Chester in Pen
The Greatest Power
1917-06-18
Miriam Monroe and John Conrad are two young scientific workers who, independently of each other, hav
The Call of Her People
1917-05-27
Faro Black, the chief of the Gypsies, finds out that his son Faro and his girlfriend Egypt have gott
The Eternal Mother
1917-11-26
Maris, having married Lynch, a worthless man who deserts her, taking their daughter Felice with him,
The Lifted Veil
1917-09-10
Overcome with guilt after having an affair with her best friends husband, Clorinda hopes to escape h
The Divorcee
1919-01-20
Based on the 1907 play 'Lady Frederick' by W. Somerset Maugham, this tells the story of Betsy O'Hara
National Red Cross Pageant
1917-12-01
The National Red Cross Pageant (1917) was an American war pageant that was performed in order to sel
An American Widow
1917-12-17
Wealthy American widow Elizabeth Carter plans to marry the Earl of Dettminster when lawyer Augustus
Our Mrs. McChesney
1918-09-09
Mrs. Emma McChesney is a determined and successful traveling saleswoman for T. A. Buck's Featherbloo
Moonrise
1948-10-01
Stigmatized from infancy by the fate of his criminal father, a man is bruised and bullied until one
The Secret of Convict Lake
1951-07-29
After a group of convicts escapes from prison, they take refuge in the wilderness. While most of the
The Red Danube
1949-10-14
A Russian ballerina in Vienna tries to flee KGB agents and defect.
Deadline - U.S.A.
1952-03-14
With three days before his paper folds, a crusading editor tries to expose a vicious gangster.
Young at Heart
1954-12-01
The lives and romances of three sisters in a musical family; the youngest daughter's life is complic
Rasputin and the Empress
1932-12-23
The story of corrupt, power-hungry, manipulative Grigori Rasputin's influence on members of the Russ
The Farmer's Daughter
1947-03-26
After leaving her family's farm to study nursing in the city, a young woman finds herself on an unex
Pinky
1949-09-28
Pinky, a light skinned black woman, returns to her grandmother's house in the South after graduating
Moss Rose
1947-05-30
When a music-hall dancer is murdered, a moss rose marks the page of a Bible next to her body. Luckil
Just for You
1952-09-27
Jordan Blake (a widower) is a successful Broadway Producer who has always been to busy for his child
None But the Lonely Heart
1944-10-17
When an itinerant reluctantly returns home to help his sickly mother run her shop, they're both temp
Camille: The Fate of a Coquette
1926-01-01
A home movie version of the Dumas play. A young woman becomes a courtesan and tragedy befalls her. A
It's a Big Country
1951-11-20
Comprised of eight unrelated episodes of inconsistent quality, this anthology piece of American prop
That Midnight Kiss
1949-09-22
Opera singer Prudence Budell, overhears truck driver Johnny Donnetti singing opera, and persuades he
The Story of Three Loves
1953-03-26
Passengers on an ocean liner recall their greatest loves.
The Great Sinner
1949-06-29
A young man succumbs to gambling fever.
Kind Lady
1951-06-20
Mary Herries has a passion for art and fine furniture. Even though she is getting on in years, she e
Night Song
1948-01-20
A socialite pretends to be poor and blind in her plan to help a blinded pianist.
Johnny Trouble
1957-09-24
An elderly woman becomes convinced that a trouble-making college student is her grandson she's never
Main Street to Broadway
1953-10-12
In New York, a surly, down-on-his-heels playwright meets a country girl who's giving up trying to ac
That's Entertainment!
1974-06-21
Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year hi
Life's Whirlpool
1917-11-08
Ethel Barrymore plays the wife of an abusive country squire. So nasty is her husband that he all but
Eloise
1956-11-22
It's not so much that Eloise is a mischievous child, but the darnedest things do happen when she's a
Daphni: Virgin of the Golden Laurels
1951-01-01
Show-Business at War
1943-05-21
A multi-studio effort to show the newsreel audience the progress of the Hollywood war effort.