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Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Blythe) (April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, radio and film.
Biography
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was the elder brother of Ethel and John Barrymore (John Barrymore was the grandfather of Drew Barrymore).
He started his stage career in the early 1900s. After many years spent in Paris, in 1907 he came back to Broadway, where he established his reputation as dramatic actor. He proved his talent in many plays as Peter Ibbetson (1917), The Copperhead (1918) and The Jest (1919).
In 1924 he left Broadway for Hollywood. In 1931 he won an Oscar for his pathetic role of an alcoholic lawyer in A Free Soul (1931), after having been nominated in 1930 for best director for Madame X. In 1930s and 1940s he made a lot of movies as grouchy, but usually sweet, elderly men in such films as The Mysterious Island (1929), Grand Hotel (1932), Rasputin and the Empress (1932), with his brother John and his sister Ethel, Dinner at Eight (1933), Captains Courageous (1937), You Can't Take It with You (1938), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Duel in the Sun (1946) and Key Largo (1948).
He played the irascible Doctor Gillespie in a series of Doctor Kildare and Doctor Gillespie movies in the 1930s and 1940s, and the title role in the 1940s radio series Mayor of the Town. Years later, after breaking his hip twice, he was confined to a wheelchair, but still acted. Perhaps his best known role was as Mr. Potter, the miserly banker in It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Barrymore died from a heart attack on November 15, 1954, in Van Nuys, California, aged 76.
Lionel Barrymore is entombed in the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.
He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street.
He is the grand-uncle of actress Drew Barrymore.
Selected filmography
- Sadie Thompson (1928)
- A Free Soul (1931)
- Grand Hotel (1932)
- Dinner at Eight (1933)
- The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield, the Younger (1935)
- Mark of the Vampire (1935)
- The Devil-Doll (1936)
- Captains Courageous (1937)
- You Can't Take It With You (1938)
- Since You Went Away (1944)
- It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
- Duel in the Sun (1946)
- Key Largo (1948)
Related article
External links
- * - Lionel Barrymore - A Timeline
- Lionel Barrymore at FilmReference.com
- Lionel Barrymore's Gravesite
1878 births | 1954 deaths | Academy Awards hosts | American film actors | American silent film actors | American stage actors | Barrymore family | Best Actor Oscar | Deaths from cardiovascular disease | Entertainers who died in their 70s | Hollywood Walk of Fame | People from Philadelphia | Vaudeville performers | Film actors
Lionel Barrymore | Lionel Barrymore | Lionel Barrymore | Lionel Barrymore | Lionel Barrymore | Lionel Barrymore
"Lionel Barrymore"