Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  Diana Barrymore

  (DIANA BLANCHE BLYTH)

  Born March 3, 1921

  Died January 25, 1960

  Regularly soused actress. Born in New York, New York, Diana Barrymore was the daughter of John Barrymore by his second wife, the actress-turned-authoress Blanche Oelrichs (who called herself Michael Strange and dressed as a man). She was somewhat of a middling actress but a spectacular drunk. Playwright Tennessee Williams said, “She had great talent but no control, like an engine running away.” Thrice married, she called her autobiography Too Much, Too Soon. She once attempted to kill herself by downing 27 sleeping tablets and a bottle of whisky and was arrested on more than one occasion for shoplifting and being drunk and disorderly. Such was her lack of professionalism, she made only very few films: Eagle Squadron (1942), Between Us Girls (1942), Nightmare (1942), Frontier Badmen (1943), Fired Wife (1943) and Ladies Courageous (1944).

  CAUSE: She died in New York of an overdose of whisky and sleeping pills aged 38. She was buried in Division 20 of Woodlawn Cemetery, 233rd Street & Webster Avenue, The Bronx, New York 10470.

  Ethel Barrymore

  (ETHEL MAE BLYTH)

  Born August 15, 1879

  Died June 18, 1959

  The First Lady of American Theatre. Born at Ninth Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she made her stage début aged 15. Unlike her siblings, she was not overly keen on Hollywood and after making films would hurry back to her beloved Broadway. “I have always belonged to the theatre,” she stated and claimed never to have seen any of her films. A Broadway theatre was named after her. She appeared alongside both her brothers in the movie Rasputin And The Empress (1932). Lionel was the mad monk, John played Prince Paul Chegodieff and Ethel was the Tsarina Alexandra. In 1944, after a ten-year absence from the big screen, she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for None But The Lonely Heart, playing Cary Grant’s mother, Ma Mott. Among her other films (including 15 silents) were The Awakening Of Helena Ritchie (1916) as Helena Ritchie, The Greatest Power (1917) as Miriam Monroe, The Lifted Veil (1917) as Clorinda Gildersleeve, The Divorcee (1919) as Lady Frederick Berolles, The Spiral Staircase (1946) as Mrs Warren, The Paradine Case (1947) as Lady Sophie Horfield, That Midnight Kiss (1949) as Abigail Trent Budell, Just For You (1952) as Alida De Bronkhart and Young At Heart (1954) as Aunt Jessie Tuttle. Ethel married Russell Greenwood Colt (b. 1882, d. 1960) on March 14, 1909, in the rectory of the Roman Catholic Church of the Most Precious Blood in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. They had three children: actor Samuel Peabody Colt (b. November 29, 1909) actress Ethel Barrymore Colt (b. April 30, 1912, d. May 22, 1977); and actor John Drew Colt (b. September 9, 1913, d. 1975). Ethel and Colt were divorced in Providence, Rhode Island, on July 5, 1923. Bizarrely, her hobby was boxing. She never missed a Joe Louis fight and had an enormous collection of boxing prints.

  CAUSE: She died of a heart condition aged 79 in Beverly Hills, California, having spent the last 18 months of her life bedridden. She was buried in Crypt 3F, Block 60 of the Main Mausoleum of Calvary Cemetery, 4201 Whittier Boulevard, Los Angeles 90023.

  John Barrymore

  (JOHN SIDNEY BLYTH)

  Born February 15, 1882

  Died May 29, 1942

  ‘The Great Profile’. Part of the legendary acting family, 5́ 8˝ Barrymore, born at 2008 Columbia Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, would not allow his right side to be photographed. The family Bible lists his birth date as February 15 although his birth certificate records the event as occurring on St Valentine’s Day. Barrymore was the youngest son of the respected thespian Maurice Barrymore (b. Fort Agra, Amritsar, India, September, 1839, d. Bellevue Hospital, Amityville, New York, March 26, 1905). His father died hopelessly insane (due to syphilis) and alcoholic. Barrymore was tortured with the fear he would end his days the same way. There was a hitch at Maurice’s funeral and the coffin had to be raised again. Just before it was lowered for a second time, Lionel nudged his brother John and whispered, “How like father – a curtain call.” The following year John, who preferred drinking to working, was appearing in San Francisco when the famous earthquake struck on April 18. He was supposedly in bed at the time. “It takes an earthquake to get Jack out of bed, a flood to make him wash and the United States army to put him to work,” quipped brother Lionel. Barrymore made his film début in 1913 and among his films were An American Citizen (1914) as Beresford Kruger, Are You A Mason? (1915) as Frank Perry, The Incorrigible Dukane (1915) as James Dukane, Nearly A King (1916) as Jack Merriwell, Prince of Bulwana, Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman (1917) as A.J. Raffles, Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde (1920) as Dr Henry Jekyll/Mr Edward Hyde (performed the change without make-up), Sherlock Holmes (1922) as Sherlock Holmes, Beau Brummel (1924) as Gordon Bryon ‘Beau’ Brummel, Don Juan (1926) as Don Jose de Marana/Don Juan de Marana (during the film he kissed 191 times – an average of once every 53 seconds!), Rasputin And The Empress (1932) as Prince Paul Chegodieff, Grand Hotel (1932) as Baron Felix von Geigern, Dinner At Eight (1933) as Larry Renault, Counsellor-At-Law (1933) as George Simon (during the filming he was so drunk he fluffed his lines 56 times and shooting was abandoned for the day. Next morning Barrymore was word perfect), Romeo And Juliet (1936) as Mercutio, Bulldog Drummond’s Revenge (1937), Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937), Bulldog Drummond’s Peril (1938) all as Colonel J.A. Nielson, Marie Antoinette (1938) as King Louis XV, The Great Profile (1940) as Evans Garrick and The Invisible Woman (1940) as Professor Gibbs. In 1931 he was paid $460,000 for his film work. Barrymore was equally at home on stage. He claimed his one regret was not being able to sit in a theatre and watch himself act. One obviously poor woman arrived at the stage door one day and let it be known that sexual favours would be on offer if Barrymore helped her. After they coupled, Barrymore presented her with two tickets for the next day’s matinée. The woman looked at the pieces of paper. “No, no,” she wailed. “Bread! Bread for my children!” Replied the somewhat insensitive actor, “Madam, you want bread – go fuck a baker.” On another occasion he was responsible for hiring the actresses to carry the body of Ophelia in a production of Hamlet. Barrymore felt that they didn’t look quite right and asked if they could attempt to look more like the virgins they were supposed to be rather than the chorus girls they actually were. Said one, “My dear Mr Barrymore, we are extras, not character actresses.” In 1932 he was caught using a ladies’ toilet. “Excuse me,” said the woman who caught him, “this is for ladies.” Barrymore thrust his penis in her direction, saying, “So, madam, is this.” That same year he was involved in a car crash and broke his hip. With one exception (in 1936) he never drove again. In an attempt to dry out he went on a cruise but managed to drink everything he could lay his hands on including mouthwash, perfume, kerosene and spirit of camphor. He even sent an SOS for booze to a passing ship. He kept a pet vulture named Maloney which he fed on rotten meat scavenged from neighbours’ dustbins in the early hours of the morning. Barrymore was married four times. Wife number one was the actor Katherine Corri Harris (b. 1892, d. New York, May 2, 1927) who he married on September 1, 1910 at St Xavier’s Catholic Church in New York. They divorced on December 6, 1916. The second Mrs John Barrymore was another actor (later author) Blanche Marie Louise Oelrichs (b. New York, October 1, 1890, d. Boston, Massachusetts, November 5, 1950). They married at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, New York, on August 5, 1920 and had one daughter, Diana, who is noticed above. They divorced in Kingston, New York, on November 19, 1928. She became an author using the nom de plume Michael Strange. Number three, on November 24, 1928 in Beverly Hills, was attractive blonde actor Dolores Costello (b. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 17, 1903, d. Fallbrook, California, March 1, 1979 of emphysema). Before their divorce on October 9, 1935 they had two children: Dolores Ethel Blyth Barrymore (b. April 8, 1930) and John Blyth Barrymore, who is noticed below. His final wife was Elaine Barrie (b. New York, July 16, 1915 as Elaine Jacobs, d. New York, March 1, 2003), nearly thirty-five years his junior, whom he first met when she interviewed him for her school
magazine! They married on November 8, 1936 in Yuma, Arizona and divorced on November 26, 1940.

  CAUSE: At the time of his death (in Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, California, ten days after collapsing during rehearsals for a radio show) from pneumonia and cirrhosis of the liver, he was severely in debt and had just 60¢ in his pockets. His funeral on June 2, 1942 was attended by more than 2,000 people and his pallbearers included W.C. Fields (another drunk), and Louis B. Mayer. His third wife and children were not among the mourners. He was buried in Cavalry Cemetery in Los Angeles alongside his sister-in-law Irene Fenwick Barrymore. In 1980 his corpse was disinterred, cremated and reburied in the Barrymore family grave in Mount Vernon, Philadelphia. His grave in Cavalry Cemetery still bears the legend “Good Night, Sweet Prince”.

  FURTHER READING: Good Night, Sweet Prince – Gene Fowler (New York: The Viking Press, 1944); Damned In Paradise: The Life Of John Barrymore – John Kobler (New York: Atheneum, 1977).

  John Drew Barrymore

  (JOHN BLYTH BARRYMORE, JR)

  Born June 4, 1932

  Died November 29, 2004

  Son of the Great Profile. With legendary hard drinker John Barrymore as your father, life was never going to be easy. John Drew Barrymore was born at 3.42pm in Beverly Hills, California, the son of John Barrymore and Dolores Costello. His sister Dolores Ethel Blyth Barrymore had been born two years earlier on April 8, 1930. To be outshone by a parent must rankle but to be outshone by a parent and a child must be doubly galling and yet that is the situation that John Drew found himself in. He never lived up to his father’s name or his uncle Lionel’s or his aunt Ethel’s but he did share his father’s predilection for hard living and reckless drinking. Barrymore père left his wife when Barrymore fils was just three and he claimed to remember seeing his father only once. In a failed attempt to stop him following the family acting tradition Dolores Costello sent her son to St John’s Military Academy in Wisconsin, from where, at the age of 13, he and his cousin, Dirk Drew Davenport, successfully joined the US Navy, both claiming to be 17 years old. When he reached 17 John Drew decided to become an actor. His famous name ensured that he was thrown in at the deep end and given leading man roles but twice backed out before the first night. Aunt Ethel was furious at what she saw as the besmirching of the family name. He made his film début in a B-movie western The Sundowners (1950) as Jeff Cloud. John Drew was haunted by his family history. “I don’t mind if my acting is compared to him,” Barrymore once said of his father. “The trouble is that people expect me to live like him.” Sadly, he did. He made several films in the Fifties under the name John Barrymore, Jr, including High Lonesome (1950) as Cooncat, Quebec (1951) as Mark Douglas, The Big Night (1951) as George La Main, Thunderbirds (1952) as Private Tom McCreery and While The City Sleeps (1956) as Robert Manners but drink and drugs began to dominate Barrymore’s life. In 1958 he changed his name to John Drew Barrymore and his career was briefly revived with his performances in High School Confidential! (1958) as J.I. Coleridge, Never Love A Stranger (1958) as Francis ‘Frankie’ Kane and Night Of The Quarter Moon (1959) as Roderic ‘Chuck’ Nelson. In 1960 he moved to Italy and appeared in a series of awful films. In 1962, he was arrested in Rome for fighting in the street. Over the next two decades Barrymore alternated between prison and occasional acting jobs on television and in films. Towards the end of his life he became increasingly reclusive and estranged from his family. In 2003, wheelchair bound, he appeared at a Los Angeles court hearing to determine who should act as his guardian. He was married three times. His first marriage on December 23, 1952 was to the actor Cara Williams (b. Brooklyn, New York, June 29, 1925) by whom he had one son, the actor John Blyth Barrymore (b. May 15, 1954). The couple was divorced in 1959. On October 28, 1960 he married Gaby Palazzolo. Their daughter Blythe was born in 1962. The couple divorced in 1964. His third marriage was to Ildiko Jaid Mako (b. Brannenburg, West Germany, May 8, 1946) although no one seems to know when they were married. When they met he had just been arrested for the fourth time for possession of marijuana. With her he had the actor Drew (b. Culver City, California, February 22, 1975 weighing 6lb 5oz). In her autobiography he was depicted as a menacing figure, showing up only to abuse his daughter and former wife and ask for money.

  CAUSE: John Drew Barrymore died aged 72 in Los Angeles, California, after suffering from bone cancer. Daughter Drew paid for his medical bills for the last two years of his life.

  Lionel Barrymore

  (LIONEL HERBERT BLYTH)

  Born April 28, 1878

  Died November 15, 1954

  Crusty old man. The eldest of Maurice’s children, 6́ Barrymore was born at 119 North Nine Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was educated at Gilmore School, London, St Vincent’s Academy, New York, and Seton Hall, New Jersey. Like his siblings he took to the stage and made his début in Kansas City at the age of sixteen, playing Thomas the coachman in a touring production of Sheridan’s The Rivals which also featured his grandmother as Mrs Malaprop. In 1900 he made his Broadway début in the play Sag Harbor but his career was not as successful as his siblings and in 1909 he made the transition to Hollywood when he joined the Biograph Studio. He gave up the stage completely in 1925. Among his early films were The Battle (1911), The Miser’s Heart (1911), Friends (1912), So Near, Yet So Far (1912), The One She Loved (1912), The Painted Lady (1912), Gold And Glitter (1912), The Vengeance Of Galora (1913) and many more. It was in 1923 that he finally forsook the theatre and spent the following 27 years working for MGM (the longest ever contract). He claimed in later years that while directing the melodrama Madame X (1929) he invented the boom mike, but some have disputed this. Barrymore directed fellow actor John Gilbert’s first talkie His Glorious Night (1929), generally regarded as one of the worst talkie débuts of all time. Barrymore was also responsible for Clark Gable’s stardom. It was he who persuaded wunderkind Irving Thalberg of Gable’s potential despite Thalberg’s misgivings about the size of Gable’s ears. Barrymore played character roles rather than leading parts but was rarely without work. “In any actors’ hall of fame,” said Frank Capra, “Lionel Barrymore’s name deserves top billing among the immortals, yet he was the humblest, most co-operative actor I have ever known.” Barrymore won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in A Free Soul (1931), as Stephen Ashe, a drunken lawyer who defended his daughter against a murder charge so passionately that he collapsed and died during his summation to the jury. He also impressed in Sadie Thompson (1928) as Davidson, Mata Hari (1931) as General Serge Shubin, Rasputin And The Empress (1932) as Rasputin (the only occasion on which Ethel, John, and Lionel Barrymore worked together), Grand Hotel (1932) as Otto Kringelein (in which he appeared with brother John), Treasure Island (1934) as Billy Bones, David Copperfield (1935) as Dan Peggotty, Camille (1937) as Monsieur Duval, Captains Courageous (1937) as Captain Disko Troop, Young Dr Kildare (1938), Calling Dr Kildare (1939), The Secret Of Dr Kildare (1939), Dr Kildare’s Strange Case (1940), Dr Kildare’s Crisis (1940), Dr Kildare Goes Home (1940), The People Vs. Dr Kildare (1941), Dr Kildare’s Wedding Day (1941), Dr Kildare’s Victory (1941), Dr Gillespie’s New Assistant (1942), Calling Dr Gillespie (1942), Dr Gillespie’s Criminal Case (1943), Three Men In White (1944), Between Two Women (1944), Dark Delusion (1947) all as the kind-but-cranky Dr Leonard Barry Gillespie (played in a wheelchair or behind a desk because of his crippling arthritis caused when a drawing board fell on him in 1936, breaking his hip). The pain stopped him playing Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (1937) (Reginald Owen was cast instead). Barrymore told one reporter: L.B. [Mayer] gets me $400-worth of cocaine a day to ease my pain. I don’t know where he gets it. And I don’t care. But I bless him every time it puts me to sleep.” Duel In The Sun (1946) as Senator McCanles, It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) as Mr Potter, Key Largo (1948) as James Temple and Right Cross (1950) as Sean O’Malley. Barrymore also found time to write a novel, Mr Cantonwine, compose a symphony and paint pictures. He married twice. His first wife (on June 19, 1904 at St Xavier’s Ca
tholic Church in New York) was the actor Doris Rankin (b. 1880, d. Washington, DC 1946) who was the sister of his uncle. They had two daughters: Ethel (b. 1909, d. 1910) and Mary (b. 1916, d. 1917). They divorced in New York City on December 21, 1922. His second wife (July 16, 1923 in Rome) was divorced actress Irene Fenwick (b. Chicago, Illinois, September 5, 1887 as Irene Frizzel) who died in Beverly Hills of anorexia nervosa on Christmas Eve 1936 aged 49. It was her second marriage and she had previously been the lover of his brother John. Director George Cukor said: “Irene treated Lionel with cruelty, almost sadistically. Lionel worshipped her, then her memory, until the day he died.”

  CAUSE: He died in Valley Hospital, Van Nuys, California, from a heart attack several hours before he was due to appear on The Hallmark Theatre radio show. He was 76. He was buried on November 23, 1954 in Block 352 of the Main Mausoleum of Calvary Cemetery, 4201 Whittier Boulevard, Los Angeles 90023. The sole beneficiary in his will (worth $25,000) was the woman who had helped to look after him in old age.

  Judith Barsi

  Born June 6, 1978

  Died July 27, 1988

  Promising young actress. Judith Eva Barsi was the daughter of Hungarians Jozsef Barsi and Maria Benko. As with many mothers Maria wanted to be an actress and she enjoyed the new found fame she achieved through her daughter. Discovered at an ice rink, Judith looked as if she could be one of the few adorable moppets that populate so many Hollywood films to become a successful adult actress. Father Jozsef was not a pleasant man. When Judith went to the Bahamas to film Jaws The Revenge (1987) he held a knife to his daughter’s throat and told her, “If you decide not to come back, I will cut your throat.” By 1988, Judith was earning $100,000 a year. The Barsis bought a three bedroomed house at 22100, Michale Street, Canoga Park, California. Not long after they moved in Jozsef erected a fence around the property. Judith appeared in Eye Of The Tiger (1986) and Slamdance (1987) but the chance for adulthood, never mind adult stardom, was never to be hers. Maria would constantly complain to anyone who would listen that Jozsef abused them – verbally and physically – and threatened to murder them and burn the house down. People tried to intervene, but to no avail. When Judith started showing outward signs of odd behaviour (she plucked her own eyebrows out and de-whiskered a cat), it was recommended that she see a psychiatrist. When Judith told of the abuse at home, Maria was advised to call the authorities. She did but still not much was done. Jozsef agreed to a divorce and Maria told them that everything was under control. Sadly, it wasn’t. One of the television films Judith was in was called Fatal Vision (1984) about a little girl murdered by her father.