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Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe on April 28, 1878 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – November 15, 1954 in Van Nuys, California) was an American actor of stage, radio and film.

Biography

He was the elder brother of Ethel and John Barrymore. His parents were Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew.

He started his stage career in the early 1900s. After many years spent in Paris, in 1907 he came back to Broadway, where he established his reputation as dramatic actor. He proved his talent in many plays as Peter Ibbetson (1917), The Copperhead (1918) and The Jest (1919).

In 1924 he left Broadway for Hollywood. In 1931 he won an Oscar for his role of an alcoholic lawyer in A Free Soul (1931), after having been nominated in 1930 for best director for Madame X. Although he could play many types of characters, such as the evil Rasputin in the 1932 Rasputin and the Empress (in which he co-starred with John and Ethel Barrymore), he was, during the 1930s and 1940s, stereotyped as grouchy, but usually sweet, elderly men in such films as The Mysterious Island (1929), Grand Hotel (1932, with John), Dinner at Eight (1933, the film also featured John, but they had no scenes together), Captains Courageous (1937), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Duel in the Sun (1946), and Key Largo (1948). Perhaps his best known role was as Mr. Potter, the miserly banker in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). The role was obviously based on Ebenezer Scrooge, whom Barrymore had been playing on radio annually since 1934.

He played the irascible Doctor Gillespie in a series of Doctor Kildare movies in the 1930s and 1940s, and the title role in the 1940s radio series Mayor of the Town. After breaking his hip twice, he was confined to a wheelchair, but still acted. This is why he played Dr. Gillespie in a wheelchair, and why he was unable to play Scrooge in the 1938 MGM film version of A Christmas Carol.

Barrymore died from a heart attack, and is entombed in the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.

He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street.

He is the grand-uncle of actress Drew Barrymore.

Selected filmography

• Sadie Thompson (1928)
• West of Zanzibar (1928)
• A Free Soul (1931)
• Grand Hotel (1932)
• Dinner at Eight (1933)
• The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield, the Younger (1935)
• Mark of the Vampire (1935)
• The Devil-Doll (1936)
• Captains Courageous (1937)
• You Can't Take It With You (1938)
• Since You Went Away (1944)
• It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
• Duel in the Sun (1946)
• Key Largo (1948)

Related article

• Barrymore family

External links

• Lionel Barrymore's Gravesite

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