John Barrymore
Actor
Biography
John Sidney Blyth Barrymore (February 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III. His success continued with motion pictures in various genres in both the silent and sound eras. Barrymore's personal life has been the subject of much writing before and since his passing in 1942. Today John Barrymore is mostly known for his roles in movies like Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920), Grand Hotel (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), Twentieth Century (1934), and Don Juan (1926), the first ever movie to use a Vitaphone soundtrack.
A member of a multi-generation theatrical dynasty, he was the brother of Lionel Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore, and was the paternal grandfather of Drew Barrymore.
Filmography
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
as Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde 1920
Dinner at Eight
as Larry Renault 1933
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
as Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited) 1925
Twentieth Century
as Oscar Jaffe 1934
Midnight
as Georges Flammarion 1939
The Invisible Woman
as Professor Gibbs 1940
Svengali
as Svengali 1931
A Bill of Divorcement
as Hilary Fairfield 1932
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage) 1976
Romeo and Juliet
as Mercutio 1936
Marie Antoinette
as King Louis XV 1938
Counsellor at Law
as George Simon 1933
Sherlock Holmes
as Sherlock Holmes 1922
Topaze
as Auguste A. Topaze 1933
The Mad Genius
as Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov 1931
Night Flight
as Riviere 1933