Lionel Barrymore

Name	Lionel Barrymore
Caption	from the trailer for Camille (1936)
Birth date	April 28, 1878
Birth place	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Death date	November 15, 1954
Death place	Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Birth name	Lionel Herbert Blythe
Spouse	(divorced) 2 children(her death)
Years active	1893–1954
Occupation	Actor, director, screenwriter

Lionel Barrymore (April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. 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 character in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life.

Early life

Lionel Barrymore was born Lionel Herbert Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of actors Georgiana Drew Barrymore and Maurice Barrymore . He was the elder brother of Ethel and John Barrymore, the uncle of John Drew Barrymore and Diana Barrymore, and the granduncle (or great-uncle) of Drew Barrymore. Barrymore was raised a Roman Catholic. 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.

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 about the same time as his two daughters and would have been about 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 often acted together on stage. He proved his talent in many plays, including Peter Ibbetson (1917) (with brother John), The Copperhead (1918) (with Doris), and The Jest (1919) (again with John). Lionel gave a short-lived performance as MacBeth in 1921. The play was not successful and more than likely convinced Lionel to permanently return to films. One of Lionel's last plays was Laugh, Clown, Laugh (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 began making films about 1911 with D.W. Griffith. There are claims that he made an earlier film with Griffith called The Paris Hat (1908) but no such movie exists. Lionel and Doris were in Paris in 1908, where Lionel attended art school and where their first baby, Ethel, was born. Lionel mentions in his autobiography, We Barrymores, that he and Doris were in France when Bleriot flew the channel on July 25, 1909.

Entering films the same year his uncle Sidney Drew began a film career at Vitagraph, Barrymore made The Battle (1911), The New York Hat (1912), Friends 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.

In early 1920, Barrymore reprised his title role in the stage play, The Copperhead (1920), in a Paramount Artcraft film of the same name.

Before the formation of MGM in 1924, Barrymore forged a good relationship with Louis B. Mayer early on at Metro Pictures. He made numerous silent features for Metro, most of them now lost. He occasionally freelanced, returning to Griffith in 1924 to film America. His last film for Griffith was in 1928's Drums of Love. After Lionel and Doris divorced in 1923, he married Irene Fenwick. The two went to Italy to film The Eternal City for Metro Pictures in Rome, combining work with their honeymoon. In 1924 he went to Germany to star in British producer-director Herbert Wilcox's Anglo-German co-production Decameron Nights, filmed at UFA's Babelsberg studios outside Berlin.

Prior to his marriage to Irene, he and his brother John fell out over the issue of Irene's chastity having been one of John's lovers. The brothers didn't speak again for two years and weren't seen together until the premiere of John's film Don Juan in 1926, having patched up their differences. In 1924, he left Broadway for Hollywood. He starred as Frederick Harmon in director Henri Diamant-Berger's drama Fifty-Fifty (1925) opposite Hope Hampton and Louise Glaum, and made several other freelance motion pictures, including The Bells (Tiffany Pictures 1926) with a then-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. Barrymore returned to acting in front of the camera in 1931. In that year, he won an Academy Award for his role as an alcoholic lawyer in A Free Soul (1931), after being nominated in 1930 for Best Director for Madame X. He could play many characters, like the evil Rasputin in the 1932 Rasputin and the Empress (in which he co-starred with siblings John and Ethel) and the ailing Oliver Jordan in Dinner at Eight (1933 - also with John Barrymore, although they had no scenes together).

During the 1930s and 1940s, he became stereotyped as grouchy but 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).

In a series of Doctor Kildare movies in the 1930s and 1940s, he played the irascible Doctor Gillespie, repeating the role he'd created 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. The injury also precluded his playing Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1938 MGM film version of A Christmas Carol, a role Barrymore played every year but one on the radio from 1934 through 1953.

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, thanks to perennial Christmastime 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. Lionel's wife, Irene, died on Christmas Eve of 1936 and Lionel did not perform his annual Scrooge that year. John filled in as Scrooge for his grieving brother.

Barrymore loathed the income tax system which kept him working to the end of his life. He expressed an interest in appearing on television in the 1950s but felt compelled to remain loyal to his old friend and employer Louis B. Mayer and MGM.

Composer

Barrymore was also a prolific composer. His works ranged from solo piano pieces to large-scale orchestral works, such as "Tableau Russe." His piano compositions, "Scherzo Grotesque" and "Song Without Words", were published by G. Schirmer in 1945.

Graphic artist

Barrymore was also a very skillful graphic artist. For years, he maintained an artist's shop and studio attached to his home in Los Angeles. His etchings and drawings are prized by collectors around the world.

Death

Lionel 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.

He is honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the motion picture and radio categories.

Partial 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) | Directed by D. W. Griffith |- | The Chief's Blanket | | Directed by D. W. Griffith |- | Heredity | woodsman | Directed by D. W. Griffith |- | The New York Hat | minister | Directed by D. W. Griffith |- |rowspan=6|1913 | The Tender Hearted Boy | | Directed by D. W. Griffith |- | Oil and Water | In First Audience/In Second Audience/Visitor | Directed by D. W. Griffith |- | Almost a Wild Man | In audience | |- | The Work Habit | The father | |- | The Strong Man's Burden | John | |- | The Battle at Elderbush Gulch | | Directed by D. W. Griffith |- |rowspan=2|1914 | Judith of Bethulia | extra | Directed by D. W. Griffith |- | Strongheart | Billy Saunders | |- |1920 | The Copperhead | Title role | |- |1921 | The Great Adventure | Priam Farll | |- |1923 |Enemies of Women | Prince Lubimoff | |- |1923 |The Eternal City | Baron Bonelli | |- |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 | | directorNominated — Academy Award for Best Director |- | The Unholy Night | | director |- | The Mysterious Island | Count Dakkar | This film began production in 1927 as a silent. It was completed and released with sound and talking sequences in 1929. |- |1930 | The Sea Bat | | director (uncredited) |- |rowspan=4|1931 | Ten Cents a Dance | | director |- | 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 DavidCopperfield, 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 | Captain Disko Troop | |- | 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) | |- |1953 |Seven Angry Men | | |- |}

See also

Barrymore family

The 1931 movie, Guilty Hands, did not appear in the line up

References

Further reading

Menefee, David W. The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era.

External links

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

Lionel Barrymore and several other actors on Orson Welles Radio Almanac 1944

Category:Actors from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:American film actors Category:20th-century actors Category:American film directors Category:American radio actors Category:American silent film actors Category:American stage actors Category:California Republicans Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:New York Republicans Category:People from Hempstead (village), New York Category:Vaudeville performers Category:1878 births Category:1954 deaths Category:Silent film directors Category:Children of Entertainers