John Barrymore

This is the second Barrymore we’ve covered who wanted to be an artist, not an actor; I’m frankly surprised we didn’t learn that about Ethel as well and thereby give us the fascinating alternate history of a family that dominated American art for a large chunk of the twentieth century. John openly said that he went into acting for the money, which is not usually a good idea but was definitely a better idea if you were a Barrymore. Like his siblings, his first stage appearance was opposite a member of the family, in his case their father. He said he didn’t want to be an actor. He disliked the profession. But he was awfully good at it.

John was the youngest of the three Barrymore siblings. Between touring and illness, his parents were barely in his life; he was raised by his grandmother. He was kicked out of multiple schools. By the age of thirteen, he already had a drinking problem, which would hamper his acting and eventually kill him. He was one of several men associated with Evelyn Nesbit, and apparently he arranged for her to have an “appendectomy,” one of several she underwent. He had tried to make a living as a professional artist, but Ethel was funding him and he knew he’d have to give up and go to work the Barrymore way.

It takes a lot of doing to be the Drunk Barrymore. So far as I know, he remains unsurpassed in that department. His granddaughter also had substance problems young, goodness knows, and she’ll willingly tell you all about it. (She did, as we have discussed, appear in a CBS Schoolbreak Special on the subject, even.) But I don’t think she can beat him for sheer severity. He lost a newspaper job in 1902 because he was hungover and doing poor work. In 1904, he was already noted for being drunk on the stage. It’s possible that his drinking kept him from a studio contract.

By all accounts, though, he was also extraordinarily talented. His Hamlet is considered one of the best of all time. He made silent versions of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Sherlock Holmes, the latter including some of his own designs. Many of his film roles are lost, and of course the stage ones were never recorded, but even what remains is fascinating, especially when he appears opposite one or both of his siblings. (The three made a single picture together, which is if nothing else a noteworthy time capsule of how ‘30s Americans viewed the Romanovs.) He was never so much as nominated for an Oscar, possibly because no studio had him under contract to campaign.

His personal life was tumultuous at best. Wikipedia says he was “seduced” by his stepmother, but that would have been in 1897. He would have mostly likely been fifteen. So yeah. He was married and divorced four times. He had any number of affairs. He was an alcoholic and eventually went bankrupt. He was a fantastic talent who almost certainly would have been much happier as an artist, if only he hadn’t become an alcoholic while still a literal child. It’s hard not to pity him.