Ethel Barrymore

Lore & Background

Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blyth in Philadelphia, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore (whose real name was Herbert Blythe) and Georgiana Drew. She was named for her father's favorite character in William Makepeace Thackeray's The Newcomes. She was the sister of actors John and Lionel Barrymore, the aunt of actor John Drew Barrymore and great-aunt of actress Drew Barrymore. She was a granddaughter of actress and theater manager Louisa Lane Drew and niece of Broadway matinée idol John Drew, Jr. and Vitagraph Studios stage and screen star Sidney Drew. She spent her childhood in Philadelphia and attended Roman Catholic schools there. In 1884, the family moved to England for two years. Returning to the U.S. in 1886, her father took her to her first baseball game, which established her lifelong love of baseball.

Reader's Guide

In the summer of 1893, Barrymore was in the company of her mother Georgie, who had been ailing from tuberculosis and took a curative sabbatical to Santa Barbara, California. Georgie died in July 1893 at age 36. Barrymore's first appearance on Broadway was in 1895, in The Imprudent Young Couple. In 1897 she went to London with William Gillette, and later performed in The Bells and Peter the Great. She was offered marriage by Winston Churchill but refused. Her star-making role was Madame Trentoni in Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines (1901). She uttered her famous line "That's all there is, there isn't any more" in Thomas Raceward's Sunday. She portrayed Nora in A Doll's House (1905) and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (1922). She was a strong supporter of the Actors' Equity Association and had a high-profile role in the 1919 strike. In 1926 she starred in The Constant Wife. In 1928 the Ethel Barrymore Theatre opened. In 1938 she became the first artistic director of the Olney Theatre Center in Olney, Maryland. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for None but the Lonely Heart (1944). Her last film appearance was in Johnny Trouble (1957).

Did You Know?

• Barrymore was named for her father's favorite character in Thackeray's The Newcomes.
• Winston Churchill asked her to marry him, but she refused.
• Her famous catchphrase 'That's all there is—there isn't any more!' became popular in the 1920s and 1930s.
• She was a baseball fan and attended her first game in 1886.