Ethel Barrymore

Ethel Barrymore was the second of three children seemingly destined for the actors 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 Dalys 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 mothers relatives in the Drew theater company Ethel after a traditional girls 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 Ibsens A Dolls House 1905 and starring in Alice By the Fire also 1905 MidChannel 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 matinΓ©e 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

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D.O.B: 1879-08-12
D.O.D: 1959-06-18
Place of Birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Profession: Acting

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