Lionel Barrymore

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Lionel Barrymore
Image:Lionel Barrymore.gif
Birth name	Lionel Herbert Blythe
Born	April 28 1878(1878-04-28) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died	November 15 1954 (aged 76) Beverly Hills, California
Occupation	actor, director, screenwriter
Years active	1908 - 1956
Spouse(s)	Doris Rankin (1904-1923) Irene Fenwick (1923-1936)
Awards Academy Awards Best Actor 1931 A Free Soul

Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe on April 28, 1878 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – November 15, 1954 in Van Nuys, California) was an American Academy Award winning actor of stage, radio and film.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Career 3 Death 4 Selected filmography 5 See also 6 External links 7 References 8 Further reading

[edit] Biography

Barrymore was the elder brother of Ethel and John Barrymore, the uncle of John Drew Barrymore, and the grand-uncle of Drew Barrymore. His parents were Maurice Barrymore (né Blythe) and Georgiana Drew. He was married to actresses Doris Rankin and Irene Fenwick, a one-time lover of his brother John.

Doris Rankin bore Lionel two daughters, Ethel Barrymore II (born 1909) and Mary Barrymore (born 1910). Unfortunately, neither baby girl survived infancy, though Mary lived a few months. Lionel never truly recovered from the deaths of his girls, and their loss undoubtedly strained his marriage to Doris Rankin which ended in 1923. Years later, Barrymore developed a fatherly affection for Jean Harlow, who was born around the same time as his two daughters and would have been around their age. When Jean died in 1937, Lionel and Clark Gable mourned her as though she had been family.

[edit] Career

Barrymore began his stage career in the early 1900s. In 1907, after spending many years in Paris, he came back to Broadway, where he established his reputation as dramatic actor. He and Doris often acted together when in the theater. He proved his talent in many other plays such as Peter Ibbetson (with brother John) (1917), The Copperhead (1918) (with wife Doris) and The Jest (1919) (again with John).

In 1924, he left Broadway for Hollywood. In 1931, he won an Academy Award for his role of an alcoholic lawyer in A Free Soul (1931), after having been nominated in 1930 for Best Director for Madame X. Although he could play many types of characters, such as the evil Rasputin in the 1932 Rasputin and the Empress (in which he co-starred with siblings John and Ethel Barrymore), he was, during the 1930s and 1940s, stereotyped as grouchy, but usually sweet, elderly men in such films as The Mysterious Island (1929), Grand Hotel (1932, with John), Dinner at Eight (1933, the film also featured brother John, but they had no scenes together), Captains Courageous (1937), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Duel in the Sun (1946), and Key Largo (1948).

He played the irascible Doctor Gillespie in a series of Doctor Kildare movies in the 1930s and 1940s, repeating the role in the radio series throughout the 1940s. He also played the title role in another 1940s radio series, Mayor of the Town. Barrymore had broken his hip in an accident, hence he played Gillespie in a wheelchair; later, his worsening arthritis kept him in the chair.^[1] The injury also precluded his playing Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1938 MGM film version of A Christmas Carol, a role which Barrymore had played annually on the radio since 1934, and would continue to 1951.

Perhaps his best known role, due to perennial Christmas time replays on television, was Mr. Potter, the miserly and mean-spirited banker in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). The role suggested that of the "unreformed" stage of Barrymore's "Scrooge" characterization.

[edit] Death

Barrymore died on November 15, 1954 from a heart attack, and was entombed in the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.^[2]

He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street.

[edit] Selected filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1911	Fighting Blood
	The Battle	wagon driver	directed by D. W. Griffith
1912	Heredity	woodsman
	The New York Hat	minister
	Friends	Grizzley Fallon (Dandy Jack's friend)
1913	The Tender Hearted Boy
	The Work Habit	The father
	Oil and Water	In First Audience/In Second Audience/Visitor
	The Strong Man's Burden	John
	Almost a Wild Man	In audience
	The Battle at Elderbush Gulch
1914	Judith of Bethulia	extra
	Strongheart	Billy Saunders
1921	The Great Adventure	Priam Farll
1924	I Am the Man	James McQuade
1926	The Bells	Mathias
	The Temptress	Canterac
1927	The Show	The Greek
	Body and Soul	Dr. Leyden
1928	Sadie Thompson	Alfred Davidson
	West of Zanzibar	Mr. Crane
1929	Madame X		director
1931	A Free Soul	Stephen Ashe, Defense Attorney	Academy Award for Best Actor
1932	Grand Hotel	Otto Kringelein
1933	Dinner at Eight	Oliver Jordan
	Should Ladies Behave	Augustus Merrick
	One Man's Journey	Eli Watt
1934	Treasure Island	Billy Bones
	Carolina	Bob Connelly
1935	The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield, the Younger	Dan’l Peggotty
	Ah, Wilderness!	Nat Miller
	The Little Colonel	Col. Lloyd
	Mark of the Vampire	Professor
1936	The Devil-Doll	Paul Lavond
	The Gorgeous Hussy	Andrew Jackson
	Camille	Monsieur Duval
1937	Captains Courageous	Disko
	A Family Affair	Judge James K. Hardy
	Navy Blue and Gold	Capt. 'Skinny' Dawes
	Saratoga	Grandpa Clayton
1938	Test Pilot	Howard B. Drake
	A Yank at Oxford	Dan Sheridan
	Young Dr. Kildare	Dr. Gillespie
	You Can't Take It with You	Grandpa Martin Vanderhof
1939	The Secret of Dr. Kildare	Dr. Leonard Barry Gillespie
	On Borrowed Time	Julian Northrup (Gramps)
	Calling Dr. Kildare	Dr. Leonard Gillespie
	Let Freedom Ring	Thomas Logan
1940	The Stars Look Down	Narrator	voice, uncredited
	Dr. Kildare's Crisis	Dr. Leonard Gillespie
	Dr. Kildare Goes Home	Dr. Leonard Gillespie
	Dr. Kildare's Strange Case	Dr. Leonard Gillespie
1941	Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day	Dr. Leonard Gillespie
	The People vs. Dr. Kildare	Dr. Leonard Gillespie
	The Bad Man	Uncle Henry Jones
	The Penalty	'Grandpop' Logan
	Lady Be Good	Judge Murdock
1942	Tennessee Johnson	Thaddeus Stevens
	Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant	Dr. Leonard Gillespie
	Calling Dr. Gillespie	Dr. Leonard Gillespie
	Dr. Kildare's Victory	Dr. Leonard Gillespie
1943	A Guy Named Joe	The General
	The Last Will and Testament of Tom Smith	Gramps
	Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case	Dr. Leonard Gillespie
1944	Dragon Seed	Narrator	uncredited voice
	Since You Went Away	Clergyman
	Three Men in White	Dr. Leonard B. Gillespie
1945	The Valley of Decision	Pat Rafferty
	Between Two Women	Dr. Leonard Gillespie
1946	Duel in the Sun	Sen. Jackson McCanles
	The Secret Heart	Dr. Rossiger
	It's a Wonderful Life	Henry F. Potter
	Three Wise Fools	Dr. Richard Gaunght
1947	Dark Delusion	Dr. Leonard Gillespie
1948	Key Largo	James Temple
1949	Down to the Sea in Ships	Capt. Bering Joy
	Malaya	John Manchester
1950	Right Cross	Sean O'Malley
1951	Bannerline	Hugo Trimble
1952	Lone Star	Andrew Jackson

Awards
Preceded by George Arliss for Disraeli	Academy Award for Best Actor 1931 for A Free Soul	Succeeded by Wallace Beery for The Champ and Fredric March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

[edit] See also

• Barrymore family

[edit] External links

• Lionel Barrymore at the Internet Movie Database
• Lionel Barrymore memorial at Find A Grave
• Photographs of Lionel Barrymore

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Menefee, David W. The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era.de:Lionel Barrymore

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