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Ethel Barrymore: Plays
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In the 1920s Barrymore appeared in dozens of films, among them America... directed by Griffith, Sadie Thompson, in which he played a self-righteous reformer, and Alias Jimmy Valentine, as the detective Doyle. The 1920s were a turning point in his career, for he began more and more to play character parts and older men, something he was to do for the rest of his life. Although in his younger days Lionel had resembled his younger brother John in his good looks, his jowlishness in middle age necessitated a switch to character parts when he was still relatively young. By the early 1930s Lionel usually appeared as a father-type or as a heavily made-up character, as in Rasputin and the Empress. That film marked the only time that Lionel, John, and Ethel Barrymore all played together in the same film. Lionel Barrymore won an Oscar in 1931 as Best Actor (tying with Wallace Beery for The Champ) for A Free Soul, in which he played Norma Shearer's drunken father.
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Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp and constructed by the Shuberts, it opened on December 20, 1928 with The Kingdom of God, a play selected by leading lady Ethel Barrymore. Over the next dozen years she returned to star in The Love Duel (1929), Scarlett Sister Mary (1930), The School for Scandal (1931), and An International Incident (1940).
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Like his younger brother "John", American actor "Lionel Barrymore" wanted more than anything to be an artist. But a member of the celebrated Barrymore family was expected to enter the family trade, so Lionel reluctantly launched an acting career. Not as attractive as "John" or sister Ethel, he was most effectively cast in character roles - villains, military officers, fathers - even in his youth. Unable to save what he earned, Barrymore was "reduced" to appearing in films for the Biograph Company in 1911, where he was directed by the great "D.W. Griffith" and where he was permitted to write a few film stories himself, which to Lionel was far more satisfying than playacting.
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The second eldest of the three acting Barrymores (Lionel, Ethel and John), she was initially a leading actress of the stage but in later years became a renowned character actress. A 5' 7" solidly built, but soft featured, woman with a kindly face, graying hair and inquisitive eyes, she was versatile enough to play women of all classes and types. She was born Ethel Mae Blythe on August 15, 1879 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Maurice Barrymore (Herbert Blythe) and Georgina Drew. She was educated in a convent and made her stage debut at age 15 with her uncle, famed actor John Drew. All her life her love was the stage but she took time off to make films occasionally. Her film debut was in a silent "The Nightingale" (1914) as Isola Franti/The Nightingale.
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Under her banner Flower Films productions, Barrymore joined forces with Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu in a big screen version of the 70s campy TV series "Charlie's Angels" (2000). A box-office hit, the film was, in the words of one critic, "an appealing mix of sexy, tongue-in-cheek fun; high-energy action; slick production values; and more chick-flick worthy outfits/hairdos than you can bat an eyelash at." The following year, Barrymore undertook her most demanding role to date, portraying a teenager who gets pregnant, eventually marries and then raises her child as a single mother in "Riding in Cars with Boys.†Playing a character that aged from 16 to her mid-30s, she offered a strong turn that showed a previously untapped range and depth.
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