Diana Barrymore

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Diana Barrymore
Born Diana Blanche Barrymore Blythe
March 3, 1921(1921-03-03)
New York, New York, U.S.
Died January 25, 1960 (aged 38)
New York, New York, U.S.
Occupation Film, stage actress
Years active 1944-1951
Spouse(s) Bramwell Fletcher (1942 -1946)
John Howard (January 1947-July 1947)
Robert Wilcox (1950-1955)
This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations.
You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.

Diana Barrymore (March 3, 1921 – January 25, 1960) was an American film and stage actress.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Born Diana Blanche Barrymore Blythe in New York City, New York, she was the daughter of renowned actor John Barrymore and his second wife, poet Blanche Oelrichs. She was the half-sister of actor John Drew Barrymore.

Her parents' tumultuous marriage lasted only a few years and they divorced when she was four. Educated in Paris, France and at schools in New York City, she had little contact with her estranged father, a situation exacerbated by her mother's bitterness towards him. Her parenting was left to boarding schools and nannies.

[edit] Career

While in her teens, Diana Barrymore decided to study acting and enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Because of the prominence of the Barrymore name in the world of theatre, her move onto the stage began with much publicity including a 1939 cover of Life. At age 19, Diana Barrymore made her Broadway debut and the following year made her first appearance in motion pictures with a small role in a Warner Bros. production. In 1942, she signed a contract with Universal Studios who capitalized on her Barrymore name with a major promotion campaign billing her as "1942's Most Sensational New Screen Personality." However, alcohol and drug problems soon emerged and negative publicity from major media sources dampened her prospects with widely read magazines such as Collier's Weekly, writing about her conduct in an October 1942 article titled "The Barrymore Brat". After less than three years in Hollywood, and five significant film roles, Barrymore's personal problems ended her film career.

Her father died in 1942 from cirrhosis of the liver after years of alcoholism. Barrymore's life became a series of alcohol and drug related disasters marked by bouts of severe depression that resulted in several suicide attempts and extended sanitarium stays. She squandered her movie earnings and her inheritance from her father's estate, and when her mother died in 1950 she was left with virtually nothing from a once vast family fortune.

After three bad marriages to addicted and sometimes abusive men, in 1955 Barrymore had herself hospitalized for nearly a full year of treatment. In 1957, she published her autobiography, Too Much, Too Soon, and the following year Warner Bros. made a film with the same title starring Dorothy Malone as Diana and Errol Flynn as her father.

[edit] Death

On January 25, 1960, Barrymore died from a mixture of alcohol and sleeping pills. She is interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York next to her mother.

[edit] Trivia

The New York Dolls' 1974 album, The New York Dolls in Too Much, Too Soon, is dedicated to Diana Barrymore.

[edit] Filmography

Year Title Role Other notes
1941 Manpower Bit Part
1942 Eagle Squadron Anne Partridge
1942 Between Us Girls Caroline Bishop
1942 Nightmare Leslie Stafford
1943 Frontier Badmen Claire
1943 Fired Wife Eve
1944 Ladies Courageous Nadine Shannon
1944 The Adventures of Mark Twain (uncredited)
1950 D.O.A. (uncredited)
1951 The Mob (uncredited)

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Barrymore, Diana
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blythe, Diana Blanche Barrymore
SHORT DESCRIPTION Actress
DATE OF BIRTH March 3, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH New York, New York, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 1960
PLACE OF DEATH New York, New York, U.S.
Languages