John Barrymore Net Worth
John Barrymore Net Worth is
$1.4 Million
John Barrymore Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical dynasties, 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 (1916), Richard III (1920) and Hamlet (1922); 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 (1920), Sherlock Holmes (1922) and The Sea Beast (1926). During this period, he gained his nickname, the Great Profile. His stage-trained voice proved an asset when sound films were introduced, and three of his works, Grand Hotel (1932), Twentieth Century (1934) and Midnight (1939) 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". | Full Name | John Barrymore |
| Date Of Birth | February 15, 1882, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | May 29, 1942, Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Place Of Birth | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Height | 5' 10" (1.78 m) |
| Profession | Actor, Soundtrack, Writer |
| Education | Georgetown Preparatory School |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse | Elaine Barrie, Dolores Costello, Michael Strange, Katherine Corri Harris |
| Children | John Drew Barrymore, Diana Barrymore, Dolores Ethel Mae Barrymore |
| Parents | Maurice Barrymore, Georgiana Drew |
| Siblings | Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore |
| Movies | Grand Hotel, Dinner at Eight, Don Juan, Twentieth Century, Rasputin and the Empress, The Sea Beast, A Bill of Divorcement, When a Man Loves, The Beloved Rogue, The Show of Shows, Svengali, The Mad Genius, Topaze, Counsellor at Law, Arsène Lupin, Romeo and Juliet, The Great Man Votes, Beau Brummel, ... |
| Star Sign | Aquarius |
| Title | Salary |
|---|---|
| Playmates (1941) | $5,000 /week |
| Rasputin and the Empress (1932) | $150,000 |
| Grand Hotel (1932) | $150,000 |
| Arsène Lupin (1932) | $150,000 |
| Svengali (1931) | $150,000 plus 10% of the gross |
| Moby Dick (1930) | $30,000 /week |
| General Crack (1929) | $30,000 /week |
| Eternal Love (1929) | $150,000 |
| Tempest (1928) | $100,000 |
| The Beloved Rogue (1927) | $100,000 |
| When a Man Loves (1927) | $75,000 |
| Don Juan (1926) | $75,000 |
| The Sea Beast (1926) | $75,000 |
| # | Quote |
|---|---|
| 1 | [on comparing his role in Sherlock Holmes (1922) to his role in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)] Holmes is a purely static person: by that I mean a character with practically no emotions. It is naturally more difficult to play a man with no emotions than to play a man with emotions, and one must continually vary the character to make it interesting. |
| 2 | [Barrymore on his friend, playwright Edward Sheldon] I'm not sure that he didn't make me a serious actor. |
| 3 | Happiness often sneaks through a door you didn't know you left open. |
| 4 | When archaeologists discover the missing arms of the Venus de Milo they will find she was wearing boxing gloves. |
| 5 | Paper napkins never return from the laundry. Nor love from a trip to the law courts. |
| 6 | The way to fight a woman is with your hat. Grab it and run. |
| 7 | [After watching Marlene Dietrich perform] She handles her body like Stradivarius used to handle his violins. And no matter what kind of finish it happens to be wearing at the time, it's still a masterpiece. |
| 8 | [To director Tay Garnett] If you run, they bite you on the ass, Charlie, and if you stand still, they hose you. |
| 9 | [on viewing rushes] Oh, I LOVE to see the stuff! If I can do it at the end of the day. First thing in the morning it looks like a bad dream. |
| 10 | My head is buried in the sands of tomorrow, while my tail feathers are singed by the hot sun of today. |
| 11 | You can't drown yourself in drink. I've tried; you float. |
| 12 | The good die young, because they see it's no use living if you have got to be good. |
| 13 | A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams. |
| 14 | [on refusing to learn his lines when working in Hollywood]: My memory is full of beauty: Hamlet's soliloquies, the Queen Mab speech, King Magnus' monologue from The AppleCart, most of the Sonnets. Do you expect me to clutter up all that with this horseshit? |
| 15 | [After throwing a fish at loudly coughing audience members]: Chew on that, you walruses, while the rest of us get on with the libretto! |
| 16 | It has been said that every man must properly pay the fiddler. Alas, in my case, it happened that an entire symphony orchestra had to be subsidized. |
| 17 | I like to be introduced as America's foremost actor. It saves the necessity of further effort. |
| 18 | America is the country where you buy a lifetime supply of aspirin for one dollar, and use it up in two weeks. |
| 19 | [last words] Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him. |
| 20 | [his feelings about never having been nominated for an Oscar] I think they were afraid I'd show up at the banquet drunk, embarrassing both myself and them. But I wouldn't have, you know. |
| 21 | If you stay in front of the movie camera long enough, it will show you not only what you had for breakfast but who your ancestors were. |
| 22 | There are lots of methods. Mine involves a lot of talent, a glass and some cracked ice. |
| # | Fact |
|---|---|
| 1 | Regarding the costume romance films he starred in during the 20s, Barrymore jokingly referred to them as 'male impersonations of Lilyan Tashman.'. |
| 2 | For his performance in Beau Brummel (1924) he was given a special self-created award from Rudolph Valentino. |
| 3 | Supported his brother Lionel Barrymore when Lionel's wife Irene Fenwick (a long-ago girlfriend of John's) died, and filled in for Lionel as Ebenezer Scrooge in an annual radio production of "A Christmas Carol" on the day after Irene's death (December 25, 1936). |
| 4 | Played by Jack Cassidy in W.C. Fields and Me (1976). Barrymore was Cassidy's idol. |
| 5 | Was originally supposed to play Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942), but because of the effects of his alcoholism he couldn't remember his lines and was fired. |
| 6 | Blue-eyed, brown-haired. |
| 7 | In 1920 lived at 134 W. 4th Street in Manhattan. |
| 8 | After Barrymore's death, his friends - including Errol Flynn and Raoul Walsh - gathered at a bar to commiserate on John's passing. Walsh, claiming he was too upset, pretended to go home. Instead, he and two friends went to the funeral home and bribed the caretaker to lend them Barrymore's body. Transporting it to Flynn's house, it was propped up in Errol's favorite living room chair. Flynn arrived and described his reaction in his autobiography: "As I opened the door I pressed the button. The lights went on and - I stared into the face of Barrymore... They hadn't embalmed him yet. I let out a delirious scream... I went back in, still shaking. I retired to my room upstairs shaken and sober. My heart pounded. I couldn't sleep the rest of the night." |
| 9 | Barrymore left specific instructions that he be cremated and his ashes be buried next to his parents in the family cemetery in Philadelphia. However, as his brother Lionel Barrymore and sister Ethel Barrymore were Catholic and cremation had not was not sanctioned by the Church, the executors (Lionel and Mervyn LeRoy) had Barrymore's remains entombed at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles. In 1980, John Drew Barrymore decided to have his dad cremated, and recruited his son John Blyth Barrymore to help. They removed the casket from its crypt, drove it to the Odd Fellows Cemetery, and made the preparations. John Jr. insisted on having a look inside before they left. After viewing the body, he came out white as a sheet, got in the car and said to his son, "Thank God I'm drunk, I'll never remember it.". |
| 10 | He was, after John Gielgud, the most acclaimed Hamlet of the 20th century (his realization of the role in London influenced Laurence Olivier's own later interpretation of Hamlet, in 1937 on stage and in 1948 on film. Ironically, Ethel Barrymore denounced Olivier's film Hamlet, which brought him an Academy Award as Best Actor). From 1922, when he staged his first Hamlet, until 1975, when Sam Waterston essayed the role, Barrymore and Walter Hampden were the only American actors to play Hamlet on Broadway. Barrymore put on a second production in 1923, while Hampden played the role three times on the Great White Way, in 1918, in 1925 (with Ethel Barrymore as his Ophelia), and in 1929. Stephen Lang, who played the great Dane on the Great White Way in 1992, is the only other American in more than three-quarters of a century to star in "Hamlet" on Broadway. In that time Hamlet was played mostly by British performers, particularly Maurice Evans, an English immigrant who became an American citizen and who was the only other actor other than Hampden since World War I to play Hamlet three times on the Broadway stage. The other British subjects to play the role on Broadway in that period other than Gielgud were Leslie Howard, Sir Donald Wolfit, future Canadian Stratford Festival founder John Neville, Neville's Old Vic co-star and rival Richard Burton, Nicol Williamson (the definitive portrayal of the late 1960s) and Ralph Fiennes, who won a Tony in the role. French actor Jean-Louis Barrault followed in his countrywoman Sarah Bernhardt's footsteps and played Hamlet on Broadway (he in 1952, she in 1900). Aside from Barrymore's acclaimed performance, the greatest Hamlet assayed by an American actor was that of Edwin Booth, who played the role three times on Broadway in the 19th century. |
| 11 | He was the greatest Hamlet and Richard III of his time, and he is still considered the greatest American actor to play those roles. |
| 12 | Had a daughter, Dolores Ethel Blyth Barrymore (b. 8 April 1930) with wife Dolores Costello. |
| 13 | His 1922 "Hamlet" was the longest-running Broadway production of the play with 101 performances until John Gielgud played the part for 132 performances in 1936. |
| 14 | One night, while drunk, he accidentally went into a women's restroom, instead of a men's room, and proceeded to relieve his bladder in a potted plant. A woman standing nearby reminded him that the room was "for ladies exclusively." Turning around, his penis still exposed, Barrymore responded, "So, madam, is this. But every now and again, I'm compelled to run a little water through it." This incident later made its way, verbatim, into My Favorite Year (1982), where the Barrymore- inspired character of Alan Swann, played by Peter O'Toole, is involved in a similar situation. |
| 15 | The only one of the three Barrymore siblings (John, Ethel Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore) to never win or even be nominated for an Academy Award; he is now considered the finest actor of the three. |
| 16 | His sharp wit never left him, even when he was dying. A priest came to administer the last rites, accompanied by an exceedingly homely nurse. When the priest asked him if he had anything to confess, Barrymore replied, "Yes, Father. I am guilty, at this moment, of having carnal thoughts." "About whom?," replied the shocked priest. "About HER!," he replied, indicating the nurse. |
| 17 | Was a good friend of Errol Flynn, who subsequently played Barrymore in Too Much, Too Soon (1958), a film about Barrymore's daughter Diana Barrymore. |
| 18 | Courted showgirl Evelyn Nesbit as her involvement with married architect Stanford White was waning. When she became pregnant Barrymore proposed marriage, but White intervened and arranged for the still-teenaged Miss Nesbit to undergo an operation for "appendicitis." White was later murdered by Nesbit's vengeful husband, Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Thaw. |
| 19 | George Bernard Shaw considered his very highly regarded "Hamlet" one of the worst performances of the role he had ever seen, and in a blistering letter accused him of indulging his own ego at the expense of William Shakespeare. |
| 20 | Rebaptized as a Roman Catholic after his mother's secret conversion, of the Barrymore siblings only Ethel Barrymore remained a devout Catholic. |
| 21 | His birth certificate lists 14 February as birth date, which conflicts with the family Bible which says 15 February. His World War I draft record and Social Security records state February 15. |
| 22 | The three Barrymore siblings appeared in only one film together: Rasputin and the Empress (1932). Lionel and John appeared without Ethel in Arsène Lupin (1932), Night Flight (1933), Dinner at Eight (1933), and Grand Hotel (1932). |
| 23 | Son of Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Barrymore; grandson of Louisa Drew and actor John Drew (1827-1862); nephew of Sidney Drew; cousin of S. Rankin Drew; uncle of Samuel Colt, Ethel Colt, and John Drew Colt. |
| 24 | Grandfather of Drew Barrymore |
| 25 | Father of John Drew Barrymore and actress Diana Barrymore. |
Actor
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Playmates | 1941 | John Barrymore | |
| World Premiere | 1941 | Duncan DeGrasse | |
| The Invisible Woman | 1940 | Professor Gibbs | |
| The Great Profile | 1940 | Evans Garrick | |
| Midnight | 1939 | Georges Flammarion | |
| The Great Man Votes | 1939 | Vance | |
| Hold That Co-ed | 1938 | Governor | |
| Spawn of the North | 1938 | Windy Turlon | |
| Marie Antoinette | 1938 | King Louis XV | |
| Romance in the Dark | 1938 | Zoltan Jason | |
| Bulldog Drummond's Peril | 1938 | Colonel Nielson | |
| True Confession | 1937 | Charley Jasper | |
| Bulldog Drummond's Revenge | 1937 | Colonel Nielson | |
| Night Club Scandal | 1937 | Dr. Ernest Tindal | |
| Bulldog Drummond Comes Back | 1937 | Colonel Neilson | |
| Maytime | 1937 | Nicolai Nazaroff | |
| Romeo and Juliet | 1936 | Mercutio - Kinsman to the Prince and Friend to Romeo | |
| Twentieth Century | 1934 | Oscar Jaffe | |
| Long Lost Father | 1934 | Carl Bellairs | |
| Hamlet, Act I: Scenes IV and V | 1933 | Short | Hamlet |
| Counsellor-at-Law | 1933 | George Simon | |
| Night Flight | 1933 | Riviere | |
| Dinner at Eight | 1933 | Larry Renault | |
| Reunion in Vienna | 1933 | Archduke Rudolf von Habsburg | |
| Topaze | 1933/I | Professor Auguste A. Topaze | |
| Rasputin and the Empress | 1932 | Prince Chegodieff | |
| A Bill of Divorcement | 1932 | Hilary | |
| State's Attorney | 1932 | Tom Cardigan | |
| Grand Hotel | 1932/I | Baron Felix von Geigern | |
| Arsène Lupin | 1932 | Duke of Charmerace | |
| The Mad Genius | 1931 | Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov | |
| Svengali | 1931 | Svengali | |
| Moby Dick | 1930 | Ahab | |
| The Man from Blankley's | 1930 | Lord Strathpeffer | |
| General Crack | 1929 | Duke of Kurland / Prince Christian | |
| The Show of Shows | 1929 | Richard III in 'Henry VI Part III' | |
| Eternal Love | 1929 | Marcus Paltran | |
| Tempest | 1928 | Sgt. Ivan Markov | |
| The Beloved Rogue | 1927 | François Villon | |
| When a Man Loves | 1927 | Chevalier Fabien des Grieux | |
| Don Juan | 1926 | Don Jose de Marana / Don Juan de Marana | |
| The Sea Beast | 1926 | Captain Ahab Ceeley | |
| Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ | 1925 | Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited) | |
| Beau Brummel | 1924 | George Bryon 'Beau' Brummel | |
| Sherlock Holmes | 1922 | Sherlock Holmes | |
| The Lotus Eater | 1921 | Jacques Leroi | |
| Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | 1920/I | Dr. Henry Jekyll Mr. Edward Hyde | |
| The Test of Honor | 1919 | Martin Wingrave | |
| Here Comes the Bride | 1919 | Frederick Tile | |
| On the Quiet | 1918 | Robert Ridgeway | |
| Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman | 1917 | A.J. Raffles | |
| National Red Cross Pageant | 1917 | The Tyrant - Russian episode | |
| The Red Widow | 1916 | Short | Cicero Hannibal Butts |
| The Lost Bridegroom | 1916 | Bertie Joyce | |
| Nearly a King | 1916 | Jack Merriwell, Prince of Bulwana | |
| The Incorrigible Dukane | 1915 | Short | James Dukane |
| The Dictator | 1915 | Brooke Travers | |
| Are You a Mason? | 1915 | Frank Perry | |
| The Man from Mexico | 1914 | Fitzhugh | |
| An American Citizen | 1914 | Beresford Kruger | |
| One on Romance | 1913 | Short | Jack Wilson (as Jack Barrymore) |
| A Prize Package | 1912 | Short | Si Hawkins (as Jack Barrymore) |
| Just Pretending | 1912 | Short | The Policeman (as Jack Barrymore) |
| The Widow Casey's Return | 1912 | Short | The Rejected Suitor (as Jack Barrymore) |
| The Dream of a Moving Picture Director | 1912 | Short | The Movie Villain (as Jack Barrymore) |
Soundtrack
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Playmates | 1941 | performer: "Baa! Baa! Black Sheep" | |
| The Great Profile | 1940 | performer: "The Stars and Stripes Forever" 1896, "Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum" 1881 - uncredited | |
| A Bill of Divorcement | 1932 | performer: "Unfinished Sonata" - uncredited | |
| State's Attorney | 1932 | performer: "The Wedding March" - uncredited |
Writer
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Beloved Rogue | 1927 | uncredited |
Thanks
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| The New Bike | 2009 | Short acknowledgment |
Self
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unusual Occupations | 1941/I | Documentary short | Himself (uncredited) |
| The Green Goddess | 1939 | Short | Himself (rumored) |
| Hollywood Goes to Town | 1938 | Short documentary | Himself |
| For Auld Lang Syne | 1938 | Documentary short | Himself - Arriving Celebrity (uncredited) |
| The Candid Camera Story (Very Candid) of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures 1937 Convention | 1937 | Documentary short | Himself (uncredited) |
| Movie Maniacs | 1936 | Short | Himself, photograph (uncredited) |
| The Circus: Premiere | 1928 | Documentary short | Himself |
| Life in Hollywood No. 4 | 1927 | Documentary short | Himself |
| Vagabonding on the Pacific | 1926 | Short | Himself |
Archive Footage
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The Game - The Movie | 2015 | Short | Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde (uncredited) |
| Coming Attractions: The History of the Movie Trailer | 2009 | Documentary | Himself |
| American Masters | 2008 | TV Series documentary | Don Jose de Marana / Don Juan de Marana |
| The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk | 2007 | Video documentary | Don Juan de Marana |
| Cineastas contra magnates | 2005 | Documentary | Svengali (in "Svengali") (uncredited) |
| Garbo | 2005 | Documentary | Baron Felix von Geigern |
| Checking Out: Grand Hotel | 2004 | Video documentary short | Himself / Various roles |
| Complicated Women | 2003 | TV Movie documentary | Himself |
| Biography | 2001-2002 | TV Series documentary | Himself / Numerous screen roles |
| Shakespeare's Women & Claire Bloom | 1999 | TV Movie documentary | Hamlet |
| Film Breaks | 1999 | TV Series documentary | Dr. Henry Jekyll Mr. Edward Hyde |
| Famous Families | 1998 | TV Series documentary | Himself |
| Universal Horror | 1998 | TV Movie documentary | |
| Judy Garland's Hollywood | 1997 | Video documentary | |
| The Casting Couch | 1995 | Video documentary | |
| Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio | 1991 | Documentary | Hamlet (uncredited) |
| Cinema Paradiso | 1988 | The Baron (uncredited) | |
| Going Hollywood: The '30s | 1984 | Documentary | |
| Historia del cine: Epoca muda | 1983 | Video documentary | Various roles |
| In Search of... | 1978-1980 | TV Series documentary | Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde / Svengali |
| Hollywood | 1980 | TV Mini-Series documentary | Actor 'The Beloved Rogue' |
| The Horror Show | 1979 | TV Movie documentary | |
| That's Entertainment, Part II | 1976 | Documentary | Clip from 'Grand Hotel' |
| It's Showtime | 1976 | Documentary | Himself (uncredited) |
| Hollywood: The Dream Factory | 1972 | TV Movie documentary | |
| Hamlet Revisited: Approaches to Hamlet | 1970 | TV Movie documentary | Hamlet |
| Hollywood: The Selznick Years | 1969 | TV Movie documentary | Actor 'Bill of Divorcement' (uncredited) |
| Film Review | 1968 | TV Mini-Series | Henry Jekyll / Edward Hyde |
| The Invisible Woman | 1966 | Short | Prof. Gibbs |
| Hollywood My Home Town | 1965 | Documentary | Himself |
| Inside Daisy Clover | 1965 | Himself (uncredited) | |
| Hollywood and the Stars | 1964 | TV Series | Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde |
| Fractured Flickers | 1963 | TV Series | Albert K. Seltzer |
| The DuPont Show of the Week | 1962 | TV Series | Himself |
| Hollywood: The Golden Years | 1961 | TV Movie documentary | Actor 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' (uncredited) |
| The Legend of Rudolph Valentino | 1961 | Video documentary | Himself |
| MGM Parade | 1956 | TV Series | The Baron Felix von Gaigern in 'Grand Hotel' |
| Some of the Greatest | 1955 | Short | Don Juan |
| When the Talkies Were Young | 1955 | Short | Maestro Svengali (uncredited) |
| Yesterday and Today | 1953 | ||
| The Golden Twenties | 1950 | Documentary | Himself |
| Let's Go to the Movies | 1949 | Documentary short | Himself - edited from 'Show of Shows' (uncredited) |
| Okay for Sound | 1946 | Documentary short | Don Juan |
| Screen Snapshots Series 25, No. 1: 25th Anniversary | 1945 | Documentary short | Himself |
| Some of the Best | 1943 | Documentary | The Baron in Grand Hotel / Larry Renault in Dinner at Eight (uncredited) |
| The Voice That Thrilled the World | 1943 | Short | Himself (segments "Don Juan" & "Richard III") (uncredited) |
| Land of Liberty | 1939 |
Won Awards
| Year | Award | Ceremony | Nomination | Movie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | OFTA Film Hall of Fame | Online Film & Television Association | Acting | |
| 1960 | Star on the Walk of Fame | Walk of Fame | Motion Picture | On 8 February 1960. At 6667 Hollywood Blvd. |
Known for movies
Grand Hotel (1932)
as Baron Felix von Geigern
Twentieth Century (1934)
as Oscar Jaffe
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
as Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde
Dinner at Eight (1933)
as Larry Renault