Ethel
Mea Barrymore was born on August 15, 1879, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She
grew up in Philadelphia and went to Catholic Schools there. She was the
second of three children in her family with her parents Maurice and
Georgiana and her famous acting brothers John and Lionel. Many members of
her family are actors; she is the aunt of actor John Drew, the great aunt of
Drew Barrymore.
Ethel was a huge star on Broadway in the "Big Apple" (New York City). A lot of people today still think she was the greatest actress of her generation. In 1895 she made her first appearance on Broadway, in a play called The Imprudent Young Couple, starred her Uncle John Drew and Maude Adams. Ethel played Juliet in the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare in 1922. Ethel believed in the power of unions for actors and she supported a group called Actors Equity Association.
In 1926 when she played a part in the movie "The Constant Wife," and in December 1928 she performed in a play in the newly opened Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York City. The theater wasn’t named for her, it was built just for her!
Ethel Barrymore made her first motion picture movie in 1914 and in the 1940’s she packed her bags and moved to Hollywood, California and started doing a lot more motion pictures. She starred in two films with her famous brothers Lionel and John, "National Red Cross" and "Rasputin and the Empress". In 1944 she won an Oscar for her role in the movie "None but the Lonely" with Cary Grant. Ethel continued to make movies and did a lot of television shows in the 1950’s. Her autobiography, Memories, was published in 1955.
Ethel married a guy named Russell Griswold Colt on March 14, 1909. Then Ethel had 3 children, Ethel Barrymore Colt, Samuel Colt and John Drew Colt.
Ethel Barrymore died of a heart disease on June 18, 1959, in Beverly Hills, California.
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