Ethel Barrymore, Acting - KorPlix:Korean Person Archives

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Ethel Barrymore
Acting

Ethel Barrymore
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1879-08-12,Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Gender
Female
Biography
Ethel Barrymore was the second of three children seemingly destined for the actor's life of their parents Maurice and Georgiana. Maurice Barrymore had emigrated from England in 1875, and after graduating from Cambridge in law had shocked his family by becoming an actor. Georgiana Drew of Philadelphia acted in her parents' stage company. The two met and married as members of Augustin Daly's company in New York. They both acted with some of the great stage personalities of the mid Victorian theater of America and England. The Barrymore children were born and grew up in Philadelphia. Though older brother Lionel Barrymore began acting early with his mother's relatives in the Drew theater company, Ethel, after a traditional girl's schooling, planned on becoming a concert pianist. The lure of the stage was perhaps congenital, however. She made her debut as a stage actress during the New York City season of 1894. Her youthful stage presence was at once a pleasure, a strikingly pretty and winsome face and large dark eyes that seemed to look out from her very soul. Her natural talent and distinctive voice only reinforced the physical presence of someone destined to command any role set before her. After the opportunity to appear on the London stage with English great Henry Irving in "The Bells" (1897) and later in "Peter the Great" (1898), she returned to New York to star in the Clyde Fitch play "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" (1901) (produced by her friend and benefactor Charles Frohman), which brought her initial American acclaim. Lead roles, such as Nora in Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" (1905) and starring in "Alice By the Fire" (also 1905), "Mid-Channel" (1910) and "Trelawney of the Wells" (1911) proved her popularity as a warm and charismatic star of American stage. In the meantime she married stockbroker Russell Griswold Colt in 1909 and gave birth to three children while continuing her acting career. Although the stage was her first love, she did heed the call of the silver screen, and though not achieving the matinée idol image that younger brother John Barrymore garnered in silent movies after similar chemistry on stage, she won over audiences from her first film appearance in The Nightingale (1914). However, her early film roles, steady through 1919, took a back seat to continued stage triumphs: "Declassee" (1919), her impassioned Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" (1922), "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" (1924) and, especially, "The Constant Wife" (1926). She harnessed her considerable talents in the role of an activist as well, being a bedrock supporter of the Actors Equity Association and, in fact, had been a prominent figure in the actors strike of 1919. By 1930 she was entering middle age and her movie roles reflected this. Except for Rasputin and the Empress (1932) with her brothers, the roles were elderly mothers and grandmothers, dowager ladies and spinster aunts. Perhaps wisely she put off Hollywood for over a decade, with stage work that included her most endearing role in "The Corn is Green" (a tour that lasted from 1940 to 1942). She finally moved to Southern California in 1940. When she passed away in 1959, she was interred near her brothers at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles.

Filmography

The Paradine Case

6.254

The Paradine Case
1947-12-29

Portrait of Jennie

7.2

Portrait of Jennie
1948-12-25

The Spiral Staircase

7.1

The Spiral Staircase
1946-01-26

The Nightingale

0

The Nightingale
1914-10-05

The Final Judgment

0

The Final Judgment
1915-10-18

The Kiss of Hate

0

The Kiss of Hate
1916-04-03

The Awakening of Helena Ritchie

0

The Awakening of Helena Ritchie
1916-12-18

The White Raven

5.5

The White Raven
1917-01-14

The Call of Her People

0

The Call of Her People
1917-05-27

The Greatest Power

0

The Greatest Power
1917-06-18

The Lifted Veil

1

The Lifted Veil
1917-09-10

The Eternal Mother

0

The Eternal Mother
1917-11-26

An American Widow

0

An American Widow
1917-12-17

National Red Cross Pageant

8

National Red Cross Pageant
1917-12-01

Our Mrs. McChesney

0

Our Mrs. McChesney
1918-09-09

9

The Divorcee
1919-01-20

6.283

Moonrise
1948-10-01

The Secret of Convict Lake

6.6

The Secret of Convict Lake
1951-07-29

6.65

The Red Danube
1949-10-14

Deadline - U.S.A.

6.9

Deadline - U.S.A.
1952-05-23

6.033

Young at Heart
1954-12-01

Rasputin and the Empress

5.467

Rasputin and the Empress
1932-12-23

The Farmer's Daughter

7.128

The Farmer's Daughter
1947-03-26

7.12

Pinky
1949-09-28

6.579

Moss Rose
1947-05-30

5.375

Just for You
1952-09-27

None But the Lonely Heart

6.365

None But the Lonely Heart
1944-10-17

Camille: The Fate of a Coquette

4.2

Camille: The Fate of a Coquette
1926-01-01

It's a Big Country

5.875

It's a Big Country
1951-11-20

That Midnight Kiss

6.25

That Midnight Kiss
1949-09-22

The Story of Three Loves

6.023

The Story of Three Loves
1953-03-26

The Great Sinner

6.8

The Great Sinner
1949-06-29

7.042

Kind Lady
1951-06-20

6.4

Night Song
1948-01-20

4.6

Johnny Trouble
1957-09-24

Main Street to Broadway

7.333

Main Street to Broadway
1953-10-12

That's Entertainment!

7.4

That's Entertainment!
1974-06-21

Life's Whirlpool

0

Life's Whirlpool
1917-11-08

0

Eloise
1956-11-22

Daphni: Virgin of the Golden Laurels

0

Daphni: Virgin of the Golden Laurels
1951-01-01

Show-Business at War

7

Show-Business at War
1943-05-21

8

Vaudeville
1997-11-27

6.333

Omnibus
1952-11-09

General Electric Theater

6.833

General Electric Theater
1953-02-01

3.833

Climax!
1954-10-07

7.625

Playhouse 90
1956-10-04

5

Legends
2006-11-17

What's My Line?

7.034

What's My Line?
1950-02-02