Lionel Barrymore

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Lionel Barrymore in 1923

Lionel Barrymore (born April 28, 1878 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † November 15, 1954 in Van Nuys , California ) was an American actor , director and composer . He was a member of the famous Barrymores family of actors . The renowned character actor won the Oscar for best actor in 1931 for his appearance in The Courage of Happiness and played what is perhaps his most famous role today as Mr. Potter in Isn't Life Beautiful? .

Life

Lionel Barrymore, born Lionel Blythe , was the older brother of Ethel Barrymore and John Barrymore and the great-uncle of Drew Barrymore . He made his stage debut in New York in 1893 and made a name for himself as a stage actor. From 1906 to 1909 he studied art in Paris. He was the first of the Barrymore siblings to go to film and from 1909 worked regularly in the new medium. From 1911 he worked permanently at the New York film company Biograph . There he often appeared in DW Griffith films , such as The New York Hat , The Informer and Judith of Bethulia . He was often the partner of well-known stars like Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish , mostly as a corrupt and devious seducer. With the decline of film production on the East Coast, he moved to Hollywood . In 1926 he signed a studio contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and became Louis B. Mayer's personal favorite actor . His contract was for life; the collaboration with the studio lasted until Barrymore's death 27 years later. In addition to Lewis Stone , who was also to become an accomplished and indispensable supporting actor for the studio and remained loyal to him for 29 years, Barrymore is one of the actors who have been associated with a single studio for the longest time.

During the silent film era, Barrymore mostly appeared in supporting roles as a shady character, with the advent of the talkie he became known for his sonorous voice and took on leading roles with more positive coloring. During this period of upheaval, he occasionally took over directing films. His greatest commercial success in this role was Madame X in 1929 , who made Ruth Chatterton a star and earned him an Oscar nomination for best director. He had another success with Banditenlied , the screen debut of the tenor Lawrence Tibbett . After the commercial flop of Ten Cents a Dance with Barbara Stanwyck in 1931, Barrymore returned exclusively to acting. His preference for theatrical performances and emotional outbursts earned him the Oscar for best actor in The Courage of Happiness in 1931 . As a star defender whose career successes made him forget his family, Barrymore realizes that his only daughter, played by Norma Shearer , has become sexually addicted to a ruthless gangster. His daughter's fiancé shoots the gangster and is defended in court by Barrymore, who obtains the acquittal and falls over dead.

Occasionally, Barrymore was seen alongside his brother, whose career was at its final peak in the early 1930s. In addition to the pairings in Arsene Lupine, the king of thieves , people in the hotel and night flight , it was in Rasputin in 1932 : The Demon of Russia even an appearance by all three Barrymore siblings, which was particularly emphasized by the advertising. Directed by Richard Boleslawski , the assassination of Rasputin was told quite freely, which earned the studio an expensive claim for damages from members of the royal family. Particularly noteworthy works in which Lionel Barrymore took part in the 1930s include Mata Hari alongside Greta Garbo, David Copperfield after Charles Dickens and The Test Pilot alongside Myrna Loy and Clark Gable . They testify to Barrymore's acting variability. Appearances in horror films such as The Mark of the Vampire or The Devil Doll , which are rare for MGM, must also be mentioned.

In the broadcast Concert Hall of the Armed Forces Radio Service, 1947

In 1936 Lionel Barrymore broke his hip and was given morphine by Louis B. Mayer to relieve the persistent pain. While filming Jean Harlow's last film , Saratoga , Barrymore broke his hip and kneecap again a year later when he tripped over camera cables. Barrymore himself named these accidents as the main reason for his disability and not - as is often assumed - the arthritis from which he also suffered. In any case, from the end of 1938 he was almost always in a wheelchair; this fact was worked into his roles. In some films, however, he acted standing, so in The Penalty from 1941. He also took part in the following year standing or walking at his brother's funeral.

From 1938 Lionel Barrymore was a paraplegic Dr. Gillespie in the 15-part Dr. Kildare film series. As in almost all of his other late films, he gave the grumpy, but ultimately kind-hearted, advisor. The title role was played by Lew Ayres , who had become famous with Nothing New in the West ; in the Second World War he refused to work with the weapon and "only" signed up as a medic, which is why MGM ended the contract with the actor and Dr. Gillespie became the focus of the remaining six films in the series. In addition to the Andy Hardy series, the Dr. Kildare series, while cheaply and quickly produced, brought the studio record revenues.

Rarely Barrymore was awarded to other studios in 1946 as he was, next to his partner from the silent film era, Lillian Gish in the Western Duel in the Sun to be seen. In the same year he played in Frank Capra's Christmas classic Isn't life beautiful? at the side of James Stewart . His appearance as a bitter, cold-hearted businessman, Mr. Potter, was voted the 6th greatest American film villain by the American Film Institute . In 1947 he was seen alongside Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in the classic Gangster in Key Largo . Apart from that, Barrymore was rarely seen in prominent roles in the last years of his life. The reason for this is likely to be the declining creative excellence of MGMs. If the studio was still the most successful of all, at least financially, by the end of the war, it was unable to adapt to the new public tastes with musicals, period films and shallow family comedies. Film noirs or works with a socially critical touch, as sold by the competition, contradicted the MGM self-image.

In addition to acting, Barrymore also devoted himself to music and art. He composed and exhibited his own graphic works. But he was particularly active on the side at the microphone. From 1934 to 1953, for example, he spoke Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens ' A Christmas Carol live at Christmas . He should have taken on this role in the film adaptation from 1938, but because of his illnesses he was replaced by Reginald Owen . Also in the radio version of the year Barrymore could not be there for once and was represented in New York by the narrator Orson Welles . Only in 1936 he stayed away from the performance as his second wife, the actress Irene Fenwick, died on Christmas Day. His brother John stood in for him.

Barrymore has been married twice. In addition to the aforementioned marriage to Fenwick, he was married to his colleague Doris Rankin until 1923. Two daughters from this connection died in childhood. Lionel Barrymore died of a heart attack in 1954 at the age of 76. A star for his film work and another for his radio work on the Hollywood Walk of Fame remember him.

Filmography (selection)

As an actor

As a director

  • 1929: Madame X
  • 1929: His Glorious Night
  • 1930: Bandit Song ( The Rouge Song )
  • 1931: Ten Cents a Dance

Awards

Web links

Commons : Lionel Barrymore  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lewis Stone. Retrieved May 18, 2019 .
  2. ^ Paul Donnelly: Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries . Omnibus, London 2003, p. 68 .
  3. ^ Judi Culbertson, Tom Randall: Permanent Californians: An Illustrated Guide to the Cemeteries of California . Chelsea Green Pub. Co., Chelsea Vt. 1989, p. 141 .
  4. ^ Lionel Barrymore: We Barrymores . Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, pp. 53-56 .
  5. ↑ Andy Hardy Movies | Ultimate Movie Rankings. Retrieved May 18, 2019 (American English).
  6. ↑ A Christmas Carol (1938) - IMDb. Retrieved May 18, 2019 .
  7. ↑ A Christmas Tradition: Lionel Barrymore as Ebenezer Scrooge . Retrieved December 6, 2018.
  8. ↑ A Christmas Carol Campbell Playhouse December 23, 1938 . Retrieved December 6, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Barrymore, Lionel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blythe, Lionel (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and director
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , USA
DATE OF DEATH November 15, 1954
Place of death Van Nuys , California , USA