John Barrymore (Interview / Drunk)

Filmed in 1939, an inebriated John Barrymore was on the eve of his return to Broadway for a comedy entitled, My Dear Children with his fourth wife, Elaine Jacobs. The play ran for thirty-three weeks around the country and gained him a lot of publicity, but it was mainly for his profane ad-libbing and straying off into tangents on-stage. It was a train-wreck as described by his friend Eloise Sheldon, "He broke my heart. He could be so wonderful, but by the time I knew him he was already destroyed. We shared the alley where the Selwyn and Harris Theatres joined, and I could have cried daily to see the curious that came around just to see what shocking things he'd say or do. Because he could be so simple and dear, it was one of the saddest things I've ever seen." Orson Welles befriended Barrymore around this time and often dined with him after his performance, "He was so generous to a young theatre man like myself and so kindly and so gentlemanly and so warm. He was such a good man. He was so sick he could hardly get through it and pretended to be drunk. He knew he was prostituting himself, and that everybody he cared about was ashamed of him, but he managed to play it as though it were a great lark, and to bring the audience into it as though they were at a party. A great performance, really."

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• John Barrymore
• 1939
• Interview
• My Dear Children
• funny
• inebriated
• drunk
• intoxicated
• The Barrymores
• Drew Barrymore
• Lionel Barrymore
• Ethel Barrymore

[toniaugusta]

I believe he was sick, I mean ill, not intoxicated, when he did this interview.

[warp13]

Inspire of this. He was one if the greatest if not the greatest actor of his time, he surely is one of mine. When he is on the screen, he is all that one can look at.

[vgoth100]

The incredible man that was Barrymore was an enigma; great actor, great charlatan, great ham, great human! It's such a shame that at his height he was doing stage and silent films....one only needs to watch Dinner at Eight or The Tempest, or Twentieth Century to see what a gem we had in him. Drew is the spitting image of her grandfather, it's nice to see she has done well for herself. Long live JB!