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Eldest of the famed Barrymore siblings. Unlike his brother John and sister Ethel, Lionel did little acting for the theater. He made his stage debut as an infant as part of his parents' [Herbert Blythe (Maurice Barrymore) and Georgia Drew] act and was a leading player by age 22. His first film roles were in D.W. Griffith shorts, beginning with THE BATTLE (1911), and he worked primarily with MGM from 1926; he continued to act despite being confined to a wheelchair for the last 15 years of his life due to crippling arthritis and a serious leg injury. Barrymore gave one of his finest performances as a dying aristocrat in DINNER AT EIGHT (1933) and is also fondly remembered for CAMILLE (1937), YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938) and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), among others.
Barrymore was a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, an accomplished painter and a capable film director, earning an Oscar® as an alcoholic lawyer in A FREE SOUL (1931), based on the memoirs of reporter Adela Rogers St. Johns.
2 nominations, 1 Award |
Nominated for Directing 
Actor