Sorting Barrymores Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lionel

Lionel Barrymore (Lionel Herbert Blythe, 1878 - 1954) was the oldest of the three well-known Barrymores of his generation. It was a theatrical family - their father, mother, and maternal grandparents were all on the stage. Even though his heart was not really in acting, he followed the family business, starting at the age of 15. He was successful on Broadway as a young man, and had also started a film career, mostly under the directorship of DW Griffith, by 1911. He had appeared in over 200 films by the time of "It's a Wonderful Life" in 1946.

Barrymore played Henry F Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life", the grasping evil banker who is the bad guy of the film. He was, by this time, known for playing Ebeneezer Scrooge from "A Christmas Carol" on radio, who is a similar character, so was well suited for the part.

Answer: Lionel

Lillian Russell (1860 - 1922) was one of the foremost celebrities of her time, known for musical theatre in London and New York, and in vaudeville. She was *the* most famous singer of her type in the 1890s, and her several marriages and dalliances were of intense interest to the public. (Looks like celebrity culture hasn't changed much...).

She was in very few films, only two feature length, the second of which was 1915's "Wildfire" which she starred in with Barrymore. This silent film was based on the Broadway play in which she had also starred, a melodrama set in the horse-racing world. Barrymore played the villain, a gambler named John Keefe, who almost got away with various nefarious deeds only to be thwarted by Russell's character.

Answer: Lionel

Lionel Barrymore started having pain from arthritis by the late 1920s and by 1938 was unable to walk unassisted except for very short distances. His disability was probably caused by a combination of the arthritis and complications from two broken hips in two years.

He didn't let it slow him down. In many of his best known performances, he is in a wheelchair: "You Can't Take it With You", "Key Largo", "It's a Wonderful Life", and the "Dr Kildare" series, among others. In fact, it sometimes added an extra dimension to the film - his inability to walk in "Key Largo" contributes to the claustrophobic, trapped feeling in the hotel.

Answer: Ethel

Ethel Barrymore (Ethel Mae Blythe, 1879 - 1959) had had a long and very distinguished career in the theatre, with not much film work except for a run of silents from 1915 - 1917, before her Oscar-winning turn in this 1944 weeper. It was based on a novel by Richard Llewellyn (who also wrote the novel of "How Green Was my Valley") and directed/screenplay by Clifford Odets, the noted leftist playwright. It's the story of a ne'er-do-well Cockney (Cary Grant) who tries to settle down to help out his ill mother (Barrymore) but can't help going to the bad. The film is a little notable for being about Cockneys with not a reliable, decent Cockney accent in the bunch.

After this movie, Barrymore never went back to the stage, but concentrated on movies - she made another couple dozen, and garnered three more Oscar nominations, all for Best Supporting Actress.

Answer: Ethel

Ethel was already well established as an actress when she went to London in 1897, and took the theatrical and social world there by storm. In an interview in 1966, Churchill's son confirmed that his father's at-the-time-well-known infatuation with her had indeed led to a proposal.

She married Russell Colt in 1909, and they had three children. The marriage was apparently quite stormy, and they divorced in 1923. She did not remarry.

Answer: John

John Barrymore (John Sidney Blyth, 1882 - 1942), like his siblings, started his career on stage; he was a celebrated Hamlet, among many other roles. He was outstanding in light comedy as well as in serious drama and was considered one of the greatest actors of his generation.

His film career had successes such as "The Sea Beast" (1926) and "Svengali" (1931) but also a long string of failures and near failures, often due to his heavy drinking and erratic behaviour. His troubles with alcohol started in his early teens and continued throughout his life. He worked right up until the time of his death of cirrhosis of the liver, but his later career was mostly a mess with occasional bright spots such as 1939's "Midnight".

As for "The Great Profile"? You just have to look at photos of him to see why, though apparently the profile was only so majestic from one side - he insisted on being photographed from the left. As he said "The right side of my face looks like a fried egg. The left side has features that are to be found in almost any normal anthropological specimen, and those are the apples I try to keep on top of the barrel."

Answer: John

John Barrymore's film career had both highs and lows, and one of the highs was 1932's "Grand Hotel", the first all star ensemble feature film. Lewis Stone (Judge Hardy in the "Andy Hardy" movies), Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, a young Joan Crawford, John Barrymore and Greta Garbo have intertwining storylines in the most elegant hotel in Berlin. This is the film where Garbo, playing a depressed ballerina, gives her famous "I want to be alone" line.

It's a beautifully filmed picture, with some great performances, and John Barrymore, as he flirts with Crawford and falls in love with Garbo, is as charming as it's possible to be.

Answer: Drew

Drew Blythe Barrymore (1975 - ) is the granddaughter of John Barrymore; her father was John Drew Barrymore (born John Blyth Barrymore Jr), from John Barrymore's third marriage, to Dolores Costello. Her mother, Ildikó Jaid Makó, was born in West Germany in a displaced persons camp after the Second World War, as a Hungarian refugee. Drew had no significant relationship with her father growing up.

Her role in 1982's "ET" catapulted her into celebrity, often not a healthy thing for children without stable home lives, which she most certainly did not have. Even with her well documented drug and alcohol issues, she continued acting throughout her childhood, giving some very well regarded performances in movies like 1984's "Firestarter" and "Irreconcilable Differences", and 1985's "Cat's Eye".

Answer: Drew

As a very young woman, Drew Barrymore had a string of broken engagements, and was married in 1994 to Jeremy Thomas in an extremely short marriage. She was married to comedian Tom Green for a couple of years in the early 2000s. She married Will Kopelman in 2012 and together they had two daughters, Olive and Frankie. That marriage ended in 2016.

Answer: Drew

Drew Barrymore became a model and spokeswoman for the Cover Girl makeup line in 2007, and branched out into her own cosmetics company in 2013, which was originally sold exclusively at Wal-Mart stores. She has also been involved in wine production and fashion, and has continued her acting career.