Debonair Facts About John Barrymore, The Great Profile
There have been plenty of self-destructive stars in Hollywood, but few could measure up to John Barrymore.
He was a consummate talent, beloved by those who knew him and scores of fans—but sadly, all the admiration and success in the world couldn’t steer Barrymore from his dark path.
As we’ll see, when it comes to Hollywood tragedies, few on-screen tales of woe could live up to the sad story of John Barrymore.
1. He Was Born Into A Dynasty
Barrymore’s fate was set up for him from the moment that he came into the world.
Consider these two factors: His parents came from two prominent acting families, the Drews and the Barrymores, with stage careers going all the way back to his great-grandparents.
On top of that, he was born on February 14—that Valentine’s Day birth foreshadowing his future heartthrob status.
However, no early portent could’ve predicted his eventual downfall.
2. He Kept Getting Into Trouble
Unfortunately, the same family dynamic that set Barrymore up for success also made for a tumultuous childhood. His parents were constantly on tour, and after one such tour, simply left John and his siblings behind with another actress they knew.
Did I mention that she was also his father’s mistress? All this upheaval had a disastrous effect on John, and he began acting out in school.
Multiple schools expelled him—but that was nothing compared to the catastrophe on the horizon.
3. His Parents Were Absent
When John Barrymore was just 11 years old, he suffered a heartbreaking tragedy. That year, his mother died of tuberculosis. But how can you properly mourn the loss of something you never really had? Because of her career and his issues at school, John had already spent more time apart from his mother than he had with her.
Things weren’t much better on the paternal side, as his father rarely saw John and his siblings. As you can imagine, all this turmoil and alienation led the young Barrymore down a perilous path as he became a teen…
4. He Picked Up A Problem
So, what kind of trouble was John Barrymore getting up to in his adolescent years? Well, Barrymore’s teenage rebellion took a scandalous form. When he was just 15, his school expelled him after staff caught him visiting a "night house". Or at least, that’s how one version of the story goes. One of Barrymore’s biographers claims that he was expelled for drinking—but this is far from being a funny story of teen mischief.
It was actually the beginning of a dire drinking problem that would plague Barrymore for the rest of his life—and things were about to get worse.
