This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 28, 1878 into a family of
actors, Lionel Barrymore wanted to become a painter but followed family
tradition and proceeded to become one of the best known actors of
stage, screen, and radio.
While working as an actor, he etched and painted in his leisure.
He was a pupil of Ferdinand Kamps, whom he often joined on painting
trips, and also he spent time with William Eskey learning etching for the first time at Eskey;s Twentynine Palms ranch in California.
Barrymore was also the author of Mr. Cantonwine: A Moral Tale.
During his last years, he was confined to a wheelchair due to a series
of hip fractures. Most of Barrymore’s life was spent as a resident of
Los Angeles; he died there on Nov. 15, 1954.
Exhibitions:
California Printmakers, 1934;
International Printmakers, Los Angeles County Musuem, 1934. | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Who's Who in California 1928; Encyclopedia Americana, 1972; Southern California Artists (Nancy Moure); NY Times, 11-19-1954 (obituary). | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
Biography from Rogallery.com:
| Lionel Barrymore was born Lionel Herbert Blythe in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, the son of actors Georgiana Drew and Maurice Barrymore
(née Blythe). He was the elder brother of Ethel and John
Barrymore, the uncle of John Drew Barrymore, and the grand-uncle of
Drew Barrymore. Barrymore was raised Roman Catholic.
He was
married to actresses Doris Rankin and Irene Fenwick, a one-time lover
of his brother John. Doris Rankin bore Lionel two daughters,
Ethel Barrymore II (born 1909) and Mary Barrymore (born 1910).
Unfortunately, neither baby girl survived infancy, though Mary lived a
few months.
Lionel never truly recovered from the deaths of his girls, and their
loss undoubtedly strained his marriage to Doris Rankin, which ended in
1923. Years later, Barrymore developed a fatherly affection for
Jean Harlow, who was born around the same time as his two daughters and
would have been around their age. When Jean died in 1937, Lionel
and Clark Gable mourned her as though she had been family.
Perhaps
his best known role, due to perennial Christmas time replays on
television, was Mr. Potter, the miserly and mean-spirited banker in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). The role suggested that of the "unreformed" stage of Barrymore's "Scrooge" characterization.
Barrymore
died on November 15, 1954 from a heart attack in Van Nuys, California,
and was entombed in the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles,
California. | Source:
rogallery.com |
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