Lionel Barrymore

He is also particularly remembered as Ebenezer Scrooge in annual broadcasts of A Christmas Carol during his last two decades. He is also known for playing Dr. Leonard Gillespie in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's nine Dr. Kildare films, a role he reprised in a further six films focusing solely on Gillespie and in a radio series titled The Story of Dr. He was a member of the theatrical Barrymore family.

Lionel Barrymore studied at Episcopal Academy. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are Western. Work by Lionel Barrymore is recorded in the collections of Vanderbilt Museum of Art. Distinctions recorded are Academy Award for Best Actor and star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.

• Name — Lionel Barrymore • Born — 28 April 1878 • Birthplace — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. • Died — 15 November 1954 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Birth Name — Lionel Herbert Blyth • Political Party — Republican • Years Active — 1893–1954 • Occupation — * Actor • director • Children — 2 • Parents — Maurice Barrymore Georgiana Drew • Family — Barrymore Drew

• Illustration — Young Lionel with John, Ethel, and their mother (1890) Lionel Barrymore was born Lionel Herbert Blyth in Philadelphia, the son of actors Georgiana Drew Barrymore and Maurice Barrymore (born Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blyth). He was the elder brother of Ethel and John Barrymore, the uncle of John Drew Barrymore and Diana Barrymore and the great-uncle of Drew Barrymore, among other members of the Barrymore family. He attended private schools as a child, including the Art Students League of New York. While raised a Roman Catholic, Barrymore attended the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia. Barrymore graduated from Seton Hall Preparatory School, the Roman Catholic college prep school, in the class of 1891.

• Illustration — Barrymore, 1906 Reluctant to follow his parents' career, Barrymore appeared together with his grandmother Louisa Lane Drew on tour and in a stage production of The Rivals in 1893 at the age of 15. He later recounted that "I didn't want to act. I wanted to paint or draw. The theater was not in my blood, I was related to the theater by marriage only; it was merely a kind of in-law of mine I had to live with." Nevertheless, he soon found success on stage in character roles and continued to act, although he still wanted to become a painter and also to compose music. He appeared on Broadway in his early twenties with his uncle John Drew Jr. in such plays as The Second in Command (1901) and The Mummy and the Hummingbird (1902), the latter of which won him critical acclaim. The Other Girl in 1903–04 was a long-running success for Barrymore. In 1905, he appeared with John and Ethel in a pantomime, starring as the title character in Pantaloon and playing another character in the other half of the bill, Alice Sit-by-the-Fire. In 1906, after a series of disappointing appearances in plays, Barrymore and his first wife, the actress Doris Rankin, left their stage careers and travelled to Paris, where he trained as an artist. Lionel and Doris were in Paris in 1908 when their first baby, Ethel, was born. Lionel confirms in his autobiography, We Barrymores, that he and Doris were in France when Bleriot flew the English Channel on July 25, 1909. He did not achieve success as a painter and in 1909 he returned to the US. In December of that year he returned to the stage in The Fires of Fate, in Chicago, but left the production later that month after suffering an attack of nerves about the forthcoming New York opening. The producers gave appendicitis as the reason for his sudden departure. Nevertheless, he was soon back on Broadway in The Jail Bird in 1910 and continued his stage career with several more plays. He also joined his family troupe, from 1910, in their vaudeville act, where he was happy not to worry as much about memorizing lines. From 1912 to 1917 Barrymore was away from the stage again while he established his film career, but after the First World War he had several successes on Broadway, where he established his reputation as a dramatic and character actor, often performing with his wife. He returned to the stage in Peter Ibbetson (1917) with his brother, John, and achieved star billing in The Copperhead (1918) (with Doris). He retained star billing for the next 6 years in plays such as The Jest (1919) (again with John) and The Letter of the Law (1920). Lionel gave a short-lived performance as MacBeth in 1921 opposite veteran actress Julia Arthur as Lady MacBeth, but the production encountered strongly negative criticism. His last stage success was in Laugh, Clown, Laugh, in 1923, with his second wife, Irene Fenwick; they met while acting together in The Claw the previous year, and after they fell in love he divorced his first wife. He also received negative notices in three productions in a row in 1925. After appearing in Man or Devil in 1926, he signed a film contract with MGM and after the advent of sound films in 1927, he never again appeared on stage.

Barrymore was married twice, to actresses Doris Rankin and Irene Fenwick, a one-time lover of his brother, John. Doris's sister Gladys was married to Lionel's uncle Sidney Drew, which made Gladys both his aunt and sister-in-law. Doris Rankin bore Lionel two daughters, Ethel Barrymore II and Mary Barrymore. Neither child survived infancy. Barrymore never truly recovered from the deaths of his girls and their loss undoubtedly strained his marriage to Doris Rankin, which ended in 1922. Years later Barrymore developed a fatherly affection for Jean Harlow, who was born about the same time as his daughters. When Harlow died in 1937, Barrymore and Clark Gable mourned her as though she had been family.

Barrymore was a Republican. In 1944, he attended the massive rally organized by David O. Selznick in the Los Angeles Coliseum in support of the Dewey-Bricker ticket as well as Governor Earl Warren of California, who would become Dewey's running mate in 1948 and later the Chief Justice of the United States. The gathering drew 93,000, with Cecil B. DeMille as the master of ceremonies and with short speeches by Hedda Hopper and Walt Disney. Among the others in attendance were Ann Sothern, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Adolphe Menjou, Gary Cooper, Edward Arnold, William Bendix, and Walter Pidgeon. • Illustration — Hosting "Concert Hall" for Armed Forces Radio Service during World War II, c. 1942 Barrymore registered for the draft during World War II, despite his age and disability, to encourage others to enlist in the military. He loathed the income tax, and by the time he was appearing on Mayor of the Town, MGM withheld a sizable portion of his paychecks, paying the IRS the amount he owed.

Several sources argue that arthritis alone led Barrymore to use a wheelchair. Film historian Jeanine Basinger says that his arthritis was serious by at least 1928, when Barrymore made Sadie Thompson. Film historian David Wallace says it was well known that Barrymore was addicted to morphine due to arthritis by 1929. A history of Oscar-winning actors, however, says Barrymore was only suffering from arthritis, not crippled or incapacitated by it. Marie Dressler biographer Matthew Kennedy notes that when Barrymore won his Best Actor Oscar award in 1931, the arthritis was still so minor that it only made him limp a little as he went on stage to accept the honor. Barrymore can be seen being quite physical in late silent films like The Thirteenth Hour and West of Zanzibar, where he can be seen climbing out of a window. Paul Donnelly says Barrymore's inability to walk was caused by a drawing table falling on him in 1936, breaking Barrymore's hip. Barrymore tripped over a cable while filming Saratoga in 1937 and broke his hip again. (Film historian Robert Osborne says Barrymore also suffered a broken kneecap.) The injury was so painful that Donnelly, quoting Barrymore, says that Louis B. Mayer bought $400 worth of cocaine for Barrymore every day to help him cope with the pain and allow him to sleep. Author David Schwartz says the hip fracture never healed, which was why Barrymore could not walk, and MGM historian John Douglas Eames describes the injury as "crippling". Barrymore himself said in 1951, that it was breaking his hip twice that kept him in the wheelchair. He said he had no other problems, and that the hip healed well, but it made walking exceptionally difficult. Film historian Allen Eyles reached the same conclusion. Lew Ayres biographer Lesley Coffin and Louis B. Mayer biographer Scott Eyman argue that it was the combination of the broken hip and Barrymore's worsening arthritis that put him in a wheelchair. Barrymore family biographer Margot Peters says Gene Fowler and James Doane said Barrymore's arthritis was caused by syphilis, which they say he contracted in 1925. Eyman, however, explicitly rejects this hypothesis. Whatever the cause, Barrymore's performance in Captains Courageous in 1937 was one of the last times he would be seen standing and walking unassisted. On his next picture, Saratoga, Barrymore tripped over a cable on set, breaking his hip for the second time in two years and reportedly breaking his knee cap. Afterward, Barrymore was able to get about for a short period of time on crutches even though he was in great pain. During the filming of 1938's You Can't Take It With You, the pain of standing with crutches was so severe that Barrymore required hourly shots of painkillers. By 1938, Barrymore's disability forced him to relinquish the role of Ebenezer Scrooge (a role he made famous on the radio) to British actor Reginald Owen in the MGM film version of A Christmas Carol. From then on, Barrymore used a wheelchair exclusively and never walked again. He could, however, stand for short periods of time such as at his brother's funeral in 1942.

• Illustration — Lionel Barrymore's 61st birthday in 1939, standing: Mickey Rooney, Robert Montgomery, Clark Gable, Louis B. Mayer, William Powell, Robert Taylor, seated: Norma Shearer, Lionel Barrymore, and Rosalind Russell Barrymore also composed music. His works ranged from solo piano pieces to large-scale orchestral works, such as "Tableau Russe", which was performed twice in Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day (1941) as Cornelia's Symphony, first on piano by Nils Asther's character and later by a full symphony orchestra. His piano compositions, "Scherzo Grotesque" and "Song Without Words", were published by G. Schirmer in 1945. Upon the death of his brother John in 1942, he composed a work "In Memoriam", which was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. His orchestral Partita was given multiple performances. He also composed the theme song of the radio program Mayor of the Town. Barrymore had attended art school in New York and Paris and was a skillful illustrator, creating etchings and drawings and was a member of the Society of American Etchers, now known as the Society of American Graphic Artists. For years, he maintained an artist's shop and studio attached to his home in Los Angeles. Some of his etchings were included in the Hundred Prints of the Year. He wrote a historical novel, Mr. Cantonwine: A Moral Tale (1953). He was also a horticulturalist, growing roses on his Chatsworth Ranch.

• Illustration — Barrymore's crypt at Calvary Cemetery Barrymore died on November 15, 1954, aged 76, from a heart attack in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was entombed in the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles.

Lionel Barrymore was recorded at birth as Lionel Herbert Blythe. The authorities additionally record the heading Lionel Herbert Blythe. His recorded language was English. He was the child of Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew. He married Doris Rankin and Irene Fenwick.

Lionel Barrymore is recorded as having received Academy Award for Best Actor and star on Hollywood Walk of Fame. Barrymore received Academy Award for Best Actor and star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.