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'Lionel Barrymore' (born 'Lionel Herbert Blythe' on April 28, 1878 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – November 15, 1954 in Van Nuys, California) was an American Academy Award Winning actor of stage, radio and film.

Contents

Biography

Death

Legacy

Selected filmography

Related article

External links

References

Further reading

Biography

Barrymore was the elder brother of Ethel and John Barrymore, the uncle of John Drew Barrymore, and the grand-uncle of Drew Barrymore. His parents were Maurice Barrymore (''né'' Blythe) and Georgiana Drew. He was married to actresses Doris Rankin and Irene Fenwick, a one-time lover of his brother John.
Doris Rankin bore Lionel two daughters, Ethel Barrymore II (b. 1909) and Mary Barrymore (b. 1910). 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. Lionel years later 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.
He started his stage career in the early 1900s. In 1907, after spending many years in Paris, he came back to Broadway, where he established his reputation as dramatic actor. He and Doris often acted together when in the theater. He proved his talent in many other plays such as ''Peter Ibbetson'' (with brother John) (1917), ''The Copperhead'' (1918) (with wife Doris) and ''The Jest'' (1919) (again with John).
In 1924 he left Broadway for Hollywood. In 1931 he won an Oscar for his role of an alcoholic lawyer in ''A Free Soul'' (1931), after having been nominated in 1930 for best director for ''Madame X''. Although 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 John and Ethel Barrymore), he was, during the 1930s and 1940s, stereotyped as grouchy, but usually sweet, elderly men in such films as ''The Mysterious Island'' (1929), ''Grand Hotel'' (1932, with John), ''Dinner at Eight'' (1933, the film also featured John, but they had no scenes together), ''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, and the title role in the 1940s radio series ''Mayor of the Town''. After breaking his hip twice, he was confined to a wheelchair, but still acted. This is why he played Dr. Gillespie in a wheelchair, and why he was unable to play Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1938 MGM film version of ''A Christmas Carol'', whom Barrymore had been playing on radio annually since 1934, and would continue to 1951.
Perhaps his best known role, due 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.

Death

Barrymore died on November 15, 1954 from a heart attack, and was entombed in the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California. ^[1]

Legacy

He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street.

Selected filmography

★ ''Fighting Blood'' (1911; directed by D. W. Griffith) with Blanche Sweet

★ ''Heredity'' (1912)

★ ''The New York Hat'' (1912; directed by D. W. Griffith) with Mary Pickford

★ ''Friends'' (1912; directed by D. W. Griffith) with Mary Pickford, Henry B. Walthall, and Harry Carey

★ ''The Tender Hearted Boy'' (1913)

★ ''The Work Habit'' (1913)

★ ''Oil and Water'' (1913; directed by D. W. Griffith) with Blanche Sweet, Henry B. Walthall, and Harry Carey

★ ''The Strong Man's Burden'' (1913)

★ ''Almost a Wild Man'' (1913)

★ ''Strongheart'' (1914)

★ ''The Great Adventure'' (1921)

★ ''I Am the Man'' (1924)

★ ''The Temptress'' (1926) with Greta Garbo

★ ''The Show'' (1927) with John Gilbert and Renee Adoree

★ ''Body and Soul'' (1927)

★ ''Sadie Thompson'' (1928) with Gloria Swanson

★ ''West of Zanzibar'' (1928) with Lon Chaney and Warner Baxter

★ ''A Free Soul'' (1931) with Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, and Clark Gable

★ ''Grand Hotel'' (1932) with Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, and Wallace Beery

★ ''Dinner at Eight'' (1933) with Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, and Jean Harlow

★ ''Should Ladies Behave'' (1933)

★ ''Treasure Island'' (1934) with Wallace Beery

★ ''Carolina'' (1934) with Janet Gaynor

★ ''The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield, the Younger'' (1935) with W. C. Fields

★ ''Ah, Wilderness!'' (1935) with Wallace Beery

★ ''The Little Colonel'' (1935) with Shirley Temple and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson

★ ''Mark of the Vampire'' (1935) with Bela Lugosi

★ ''The Devil-Doll'' (1936; directed by Tod Browning) with Maureen O'Sullivan

★ ''Captains Courageous'' (1937) with Spencer Tracy

★ ''You Can't Take It With You'' (1938) with Jean Arthur and James Stewart

★ ''Test Pilot'' (1938) with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy

★ ''On Borrowed Time'' (1939)

★ ''The Bad Man'' (1941) with Wallace Beery and Ronald Reagan

★ ''The Penalty'' (1941) with Edward Arnold

★ ''A Guy Named Joe'' (1943) with Spencer Tracy

★ ''Since You Went Away'' (1944) with Claudette Colbert and Shirley Temple

★ ''It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946) with James Stewart and Donna Reed

★ ''Duel in the Sun'' (1946) with Joseph Cotten and Gregory Peck

★ ''Key Largo'' (1948) with Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson

★ ''Down to the Sea in Ships'' (1949) with Richard Widmark

★ ''Malaya'' (1949) with Spencer Tracy and James Stewart

★ ''Lone Star'' (1952) with Clark Gable and Ava Gardner

Related article

★ Barrymore family

External links

★

★ Lionel Barrymore's Gravesite

★ Photographs of Lionel Barrymore

References

1. Lionel Barrymore Is Dead at 76; Actor's Career Spanned 61 Years; Veteran Screen and Stage Star Also Gained Fame as Scrooge on Radio.

Further reading

★ '' by David W. Menefee.