Biography
Friends and Family
Louisa Drew
[Grandmother]
(stage actress, theatre owner)
::
John Drew
[Grandfather]
(stage actor)
::
John Barrymore
[Brother]
(Actor)
::
Lionel Barrymore
[Brother]
(Actor)
::
Georgiana Drew
[Mother]
(Actress)
::
Maurice Barrymore
[Father]
(Patriarch of the Barrymore family, actor)
Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 The arts are not just instantaneous pleasure - if you don`t like it, the artist is wrong. I belong to the generation which says if you don`t like it, you don`t understand and you ought to find out. The great actors are the luminous ones. They are the great conductors of the stage.
(brainyquote.com)
You grow up the day you have your first real laugh - at yourself.
(brainyquote.com)
Fundamentally I feel that there is as much difference between the stage and the films as between a piano and a violin. Normally you can`t become a virtuoso in both.
(brainyquote.com)
When life knocks you to your knees, and it will, why, get up! If it knocks you to your knees again, as it will, well, isn`t that the best position from which to pray?
(brainyquote.com)
You must learn day by day, year by year to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens.
(brainyquote.com)
The face of Garbo is an Idea, that of Hepburn an Event.
(brainyquote.com)
You grow up the day you have the first real laugh at yourself.
(brainyquote.com)
That`s all there is; there isn`t any more.
(brainyquote.com)
Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping.
(brainyquote.com)
I never let them cough. They wouldn`t dare.
(brainyquote.com)
The best time to make friends is before you need them.
(brainyquote.com)
For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of a Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of a MaCaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros.
(brainyquote.com)
On Hollywood: "It looks, it feels, as though it had been invented by a Sixth Avenue peepshow man."
"Half the people in Hollywood are dying to be discovered and the other half are afraid they will be."
"To be a success an actress must have the face of Venus, the brain of Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of Macaulay, the figure of Juno and the hide of a rhinocerous."
[On Hollywood] "The people are unreal. The flowers are unreal, they don`t smell. The fruit is unreal, it doesn`t taste of anything. The whole place is a glaring, gaudy nightmarish set, built up in the desert."
"We who play, who entertain for a few years, what can we leave that will last?"
"You must learn day by day, year by year, to broaden your horizons. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about - the more you have left when anything happens."
[last words] "Is everybody happy? I want everybody to be happy. I know I`m happy."
Trivia
The reason she turned down Winston Churchill`s marriage proposal was that she didn`t think he had much of a future.
In Italy, she was often dubbed by Giovanna Scotto (The Spiral Staircase (1945) and The Paradine Case (1947)), Tina Lattanzi (Pinky (1949)) and Lola Braccini. She was once dubbed by Wanda Capodaglio in Moonrise (1948).
She and her brother Lionel Barrymore were the first Oscar-winning brother and sister in acting categories.
In her most important films her character was often that of a sick woman, sometimes in bed about to die.
In 1951, she accepted the Oscar for "Best Actress in a Leading Role" on behalf of Judy Holliday, who wasn`t present at the awards ceremony
Aunt of John Drew Barrymore and `Diana Barrymore (I)`.
Daughter of Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Barrymore; grand-daughter of Louisa Drew and stage actor John Drew (1827-62); niece of Sidney Drew; cousin of S. Rankin Drew.
Raised Roman Catholic (along with her brothers) after her mother converted to R.C. under the influence of the legendary Polish thespian, Helena Modjeweska. Ethel was the only sibling to remain devout, and she never remarried after her divorce.
Turned down a marriage proposal from Winston Churchill.
Great-aunt of Drew Barrymore.
Mother of Samuel Colt, Ethel Colt, and John Drew Colt.
Screen, stage, and television actress.
The three Barrymore siblings appeared in only one film together: Rasputin and the Empress (1932). A decade after John`s demise, Lionel and Ethel appeared in Main Street to Broadway (1953), which incidentally was Lionel`s last film.
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