Ethel Barrymore
| Ethel Barrymore | |
|---|---|
Ethel Barrymore, 1896
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| Born |
Ethel Mae Blythe August 15, 1879 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | June 18, 1959 (aged 79) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1895–1957 |
| Spouse(s) | Russel Griswold Colt (m. 1909; div. 1923) |
| Parent(s) |
Maurice Barrymore Georgiana Drew |
| Relatives |
Lionel Barrymore (brother) John Barrymore (brother) See Barrymore family |
Ethel Barrymore (born Ethel Mae Blythe; August 15, 1879 – June 18, 1959) was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Regarded as the "First Lady of the American Theater", Barrymore was a preeminent stage actress in her era. Barrymore's career spanned six decades.
Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore (whose real name was Herbert Blythe) and Georgiana Drew. Her father was nearly killed four months before her birth in a famous Old West encounter in Texas while heading a traveling road company. She was named for her father’s favorite character—Ethel in William Makepeace Thackeray’s The Newcomes.
She was the sister of actors John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore, the aunt of actor John Drew Barrymore, and the grand-aunt of actress Drew Barrymore. She was also a granddaughter of actress and theater-manager Louisa Lane Drew, and niece of Broadway matinée idol John Drew Jr and early Vitagraph Studios movie star Sidney Drew.
She spent her childhood in Philadelphia, and attended Roman Catholic schools there.
In 1884 she, her parents and brothers sailed to England and stayed two years. Maurice had inherited a substantial amount of money from an aunt and decided to exhibit a play and star in some plays at London's Haymarket Theatre. Ethel recalled being frightened on first meeting Oscar Wilde when handing him some cakes and later being reprimanded by her parents for showing fear of Wilde. Returning to the U.S. in 1886, her father took her to her first baseball game. She established a lifelong love of baseball and wanted to be a concert pianist. The years in England were the happiest of her childhood years due to the fact the Barrymores were more of a nuclear family in London than at any other time when in the United States.
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