John Barrymore
John Barrymore was an American actor on stage, screen, and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage and briefly attempted a career as an artist, but appeared on stage together with his father, Maurice, in 1900, and then his sister Ethel the following year. He began his career in 1903 and first gained attention as a stage actor in light comedy, then high drama, culminating in productions of Justice, Richard III, and Hamlet ; his portrayal of Hamlet led to him being called the "greatest living American tragedian".
After a success as Hamlet in London in 1925, Barrymore left the stage for 14 years and instead focused entirely on films. In the silent film era, he was well received in such pictures as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Sherlock Holmes and The Sea Beast. During this period, he gained his nickname, the Great Profile. His stage-trained voice proved an asset when sound films were introduced, and four of his works, Grand Hotel, Dinner at Eight, Twentieth Century, and Midnight, have been inducted into the National Film Registry.
Barrymore's personal life has been the subject of much attention before and since his death. He struggled with alcohol abuse from the age of 14, was married and divorced four times, and declared bankruptcy later in life. Much of his later work involved self-parody and the portrayal of drunken has-beens. 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".
Biography
Early life: 1882–1903
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, and Ethel. His father was Maurice Barrymore, an Indian-born British actor who had been born Herbert Blyth, and had adopted Barrymore as a stage name after seeing it on a poster in the Haymarket Theatre in London. Barrymore's mother, Georgie Drew Barrymore, was born into a prominent theatrical family. His maternal grandparents were Louisa Lane Drew, a well-known 19th-century American actress and the manager of the Arch Street Theatre, and John Drew, also an actor whose specialty was comedy. Barrymore's maternal uncles were two more thespians, John Drew Jr. and Sidney.Much of Barrymore's early life was unsettled. In October 1882, the family toured in the US for a season with Polish actress Helena Modjeska. The following year his parents toured again with Modjeska but left the children behind. Modjeska was influential in the family, and she insisted that all three children be baptized into the Catholic Church. In 1884 the family traveled to London as part of Augustin Daly's theatrical company, returning to the US two years later. As a child, Barrymore was sometimes badly behaved, and he was sent away to schools in an attempt to instill discipline. The strategy was not always successful, and he attended elementary schools in four states. He was sent first to the boys' annex of the Convent of Notre Dame in Philadelphia. One punishment that he received there was being made to read a copy of Dante's Inferno; he later recounted that, as he looked at the illustrations by Gustave Doré, "my interest was aroused, and a new urge was born within me. I wanted to be an artist". He was expelled from the school in 1891 and was sent to Seton Hall Preparatory School in New Jersey, where Lionel was already studying. Barrymore was unhappy at Seton and was soon withdrawn, after which he attended several public schools in New York, including the Mount Pleasant Military Academy.
In 1892, his grandmother Louisa Drew's business began to suffer, and she lost control of her theater, causing disruption in the family. The following year, when Barrymore was 11 years old, his mother died from tuberculosis; her consistent touring and his absence at school meant that he barely knew her, and he was mostly raised by his grandmother. The loss of their mother's income prompted both Ethel and Lionel to seek work as professional actors. Barrymore's father was mostly absent from the family home while on tour, and when he returned he would spend time at The Lambs, a New York actors' club.
In 1895, Barrymore entered Georgetown Preparatory School, then located on Georgetown University Campus, but he was expelled in November 1897, probably after being caught waiting in a brothel. One of his biographers, Michael A. Morrison, posits the alternate theory that Barrymore was expelled after the staff saw him inebriated. By the time he left Georgetown he was, according to Martin Norden in his biography of Barrymore, "already in the early stages of a chronic drinking problem". 1897 was an emotionally challenging year for Barrymore: he lost his virginity when he was seduced by his step-mother, Mamie Floyd, and in August his grandmother, the main female role model in his life, died.
Barrymore traveled with his father to England in 1898, where he joined King's College School, Wimbledon. A year later he joined the Slade School of Fine Art, to study literature and art. After a year of formal study, he left and "devoted much of his subsequent stay in London to bohemianism and nocturnal adventures", according to family biographer Margot Peters. 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, at a salary of $50 a week.
Barrymore 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" which his father had produced in Fort Lee, New Jersey near his home in town. He appeared in the same piece again the following year, but he still thought of the experience as merely a way to supplement his income, rather than as a possible future career. 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, and Barrymore traveled from New York, learning his lines on the train. 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.
File: Eickemeyer Evelyn Nesbit.jpg|thumb|Evelyn Nesbit, Barrymore's first love, to whom he proposed in 1902
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 and that she had told Thaw about it, leading Thaw to become obsessed with White and enraged about his acceptance in society. The trial of Thaw for murder was the focus of extreme press interest and was one of the first to be dubbed the "Trial of the Century". It was speculated that Barrymore could be called to testify at the trial due to his prior relationship with Nesbit. Thaw was eventually found not guilty by reason of insanity.
In May 1902, Barrymore was fired from his newspaper position after producing a poor illustration for the paper while hung over. He spent time as a poster designer but realized it was not lucrative enough for his lifestyle, which was being partly financed by Ethel, who was also paying for their father's care. While discussing his future with his brother, Barrymore said "it looks as though I'll have to succumb to the family curse, acting", and he later admitted that "there isn't any romance about how I went on stage. ... I needed the money."
Early stage career: 1903–1913
Barrymore began to contact his family's theatrical connections to find work and approached Charles Frohman, who had been the producer of Captain Jinks and had also been an employer of Barrymore's mother Georgie a decade earlier. Frohman thought that Barrymore had comedic potential but needed more experience before making a Broadway debut. Barrymore joined the company of McKee Rankin, Sidney Drew's father-in-law, on the Chicago leg of their tour, at the W. S. Cleveland Theatre in October 1903. He first played the minor role of Lt. Max von Wendlowski in Magda, and in November when the troupe produced Leah the Forsaken, he took the small part of Max, a village idiot with one spoken line.A year later Barrymore appeared in his first Broadway production, in a small role in the comedy Glad of It, which only had a short run. Afterwards he played the role of Charles Hyne in the farce The Dictator at the Criterion Theatre, which starred William Collier. During the play's run and subsequent tour across the US, Collier became a mentor to the young actor, although his patience was continually tested by Barrymore's drinking, which led to occasional missed performances, drunken stage appearances, and general misbehavior. Collier taught Barrymore much about acting, including coaching him in comic timing, but "at times regretted his sponsorship" of his apprentice. In March 1905, while The Dictator was playing in Buffalo, Barrymore's father died in Amityville and was buried at Glenwood Cemetery in Philadelphia. At the close of the US tour, The Dictator visited Britain from April 1905, where it played at the Comedy Theatre. The critic for The Observer wrote that Barrymore "admirably seconded" Collier.
When he returned to America, Barrymore appeared at the Criterion Theatre in a double bill of works by J. M. Barrie; he played a clown in Pantaloon opposite his brother, and Stephen Rollo in Alice Sit-by-the-Fire opposite his sister. Both plays ran for 81 performances from December 1905, and then went on tour. Barrymore continued drinking and lacked discipline, which affected his performances. Ethel was angry with her brother and had the producers fire him from the show, but re-hire him the following day, to teach him a lesson. After a tour of the US and Australia with Collier in On the Quiet and The Dictator, Barrymore joined his sister in the 1907 comedy His Excellency the Governor at the Empire Theatre. He received mixed reviews for his performances, and The Wichita Daily Eagle commented that "Barrymore seems to imitate John Drew too much ever to be a good actor. Why doesn't young Barrymore imitate a real actor if he must copy someone."
Barrymore gained his first leading role in early 1907, in the comedy The Boys of Company B at the Lyceum Theatre. Although he was well received by the critics – The Washington Post noted that "his work has been pronounced astonishingly clever by the critics wherever he played" – at times he continued his unprofessional stage behavior, which led to a rebuke from John Drew, who attended a performance. After a short run in Toddles at the Garrick Theatre, Barrymore was given the lead role of Mac in A Stubborn Cinderella, both on tour and at the Broadway Theatre in Boston. He had previously been earning $50 a week during his sporadic employment but now enjoyed a wage increase to $175. He briefly appeared in The Candy Shop in mid-1909, before he played the lead role in Winchell Smith's play The Fortune Hunter at the Gaiety Theatre in September the same year. It was his longest-held role, running for 345 performances until May 1911, initially at the Gaiety Theatre in New York, and then on tour. The critic for The New York Times thought the play was, "acted with fine comedy spirit by John Barrymore ... gave indisputable signs last night of grown and growing powers."
In mid-1910 Barrymore met socialite Katherine Corri Harris, and the couple married in September that year. Harris' father objected to the relationship and refused to attend the wedding. Shortly after the ceremony, The Dictator went on tour, and Harris was given a small role in the play. According to Peters, Barrymore "began to think of his marriage as a 'bus accident. Film critic Hollis Alpert wrote that, within a week of the wedding, Katherine was complaining that she saw her new husband too infrequently. Barrymore's increasing dependence on alcohol was also a cause of marital problems, and he explained that "unhappiness increased the drink, and drink increased the unhappiness".
Barrymore's next two plays – Uncle Sam and Princess Zim-Zim, both from 1911 – were critically and commercially weak, but the second work introduced him to playwright Edward Sheldon, who would "reshape ... entire career". In January 1912, Barrymore appeared together with his sister in A Slice of Life at the Empire Theatre on Broadway, which ran for 48 performances. Charles Darnton, a critic for The Evening World, observed that "Barrymore takes delight in 'kidding' his part not only to the limit, but perhaps beyond". A review in The Washington Times stated that "Barrymore inimitably imitates his uncle John Drew".
Barrymore may have appeared in his first films in 1912. In four short films, a cast member is listed as "Jack Barrymore"; this is probably John Barrymore, although Norden notes that "we may never know for certain if are in fact Barrymore movies." The four films were Dream of a Motion Picture Director, The Widow Casey's Return, A Prize Package and One on Romance. The films were produced by the Philadelphia-based Lubin Manufacturing Company and were lost in an explosion and fire at the Lubin vaults in 1914.
In July 1912, Barrymore went to Los Angeles, where he appeared in three short-running plays at the Belasco Theatre. He returned to New York in October, where he took the lead role in 72 performances of the comedy The Affairs of Anatol at the Little Theatre. Although the critical response was lukewarm, Barrymore's salary for the play was $600 a week. He began the following year by appearing in a short run of A Thief for a Night in McVicker's Theatre, Chicago, before returning to New York, and the Thirty-Ninth St. Theatre, for a two-month run in Believe Me, Xantippe.