Diana Barrymore was sent to boarding school at the tender age of six!!! (edit) Diana Barrymore also had a younger sister, Delores Ethel Blyth Barrymore. She was from Diana's father ,John Barrymore's marriage, to actress Delores Costello. (edit) Diana Barrymore's autobiography, Too Much, Too Soon, was written by Gerold Frank. Diana herself, cooperated fully with the writing of the 300 page book and is listed as co-author, even though Frank did the actual writing. (edit) Diana Barrymore was at the hospital the night her father, screen legend John Barrymore died on May 29, 1942. She was there for her father in death, even though he had never been there for her in life. (edit) Diana Barrymore was put on suspension by Universal Studios in 1943, when she refused to make a comedy with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. The suspension last for six months. (edit) At age, eighteen in 1939, Diana Barrymore was doing summer stock in Maine for $10 a week. By 1942, at age twenty-one, she was under contract in Hollywood, making $1000 a week. (edit) In 1937, Diana Barrymore became a student at The American Academy Of Dramatic Art in New York City. She enrolled at age sixteen, but left after less than a year. (edit) Diana Barrymore died virtually broke. A trust fund left to her by her father, John Barrymore, a $50,000 bequest by her late half-brother Robin, all her career earnings, and a jewel collection had been squandered by Diana on high living, alcohol and drugs, and husbands and lovers that constantly mooched off of her. (edit) Diana Barrymore was hospitalized several times for her alcohol and drug dependency. One such stay lasted almost a year and another for two months. She also tried to attain sobriety through the twelve step program offered at Alcoholic's Anonymous, but failed in all her attempts. She was a suicide shortly before her 39th birthday in January of 1960. (edit) Diana Barrymore was estranged from most family at the end of her life,but she did revive a relationship with her favorite cousin, Dirk Drew Davenport Summers (daughter of actor Harry Davenport), before her death in 1960. (edit) Diana Barrymore had a problem with becoming involved with men that abused her. Second husband John Howard managed to get her arrested in Louisville, Kentucky, for being drunk and disorderly in public and a third husband, Robert Wilcox, assaulted her when he found her with a lover named Tom Farrell. In an ironic twist, the lover Tom Farrell also physically attacked Diana when he found her having an innocent drink with an old friend. Farrell beat her so badly, that she suffered a broken nose and required hospitalization. (edit) In 1950, CBS offered Diana Barrymore her own talk show. The show was to be called The Diana Barrymore Show and was to have aired on a daily basis. However, Diana Barrymore appeared on the set, totally inebriated the first day the series was to broadcast and CBS yanked it from the schedule. (edit) Diana Barrymore was married three times. Her first marriage was to Bramwell Fletcher, an actor eighteen years her senior. This marriage lasted from 1942-1946. Diana Barrymore's second marriage was to tennis pro John Howard. They only lived together for six months, but Howard contested the divorce and it was three before Diana finally was shed of him. Diana's final marriage was in 1950 to Robert Wilcox, an alcoholic actor. This marriage lasted until Wilcox's death from a heart attack in 1955. Diana Barrymore had no children from any of her marriages. (edit) In 1940, Diana Barrymore made her Broadway debut in the play The Romantic Mr. Dickens. She had the role of Caroline Bronson. (edit) Diana Barrymore appeared on stage at the Harris Theater, in Chicago, in 1940, in the play , Outward Bound. In an ironic twist of fate, John Barrymore, her estranged father, was appearing in the theater next door, The Selwyn Theater, in the play, My Dear Children. (edit) Diana Barrymore was one of the many actresses tested by David O. Selznick for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind. (edit) Diana Barrymore's screen career was quickly derailed with her alcohol and drug abuse problems. She was widely followed in the press because of her outrageous behavior on and off the set. Her antics were described in an, October 1942 article, in Colliers Magazine, titled The Barrymore Brat. (edit) Diana Barrymore was promoted as 1942's Most Sensational New Screen Personality by Universal Studios. Diana had signed a contract with the studio and they sought to capitalize on the Barrymore name with the press campaign. (edit) The New York Dolls dedicated their 1974 album, "The New York Dolls In Too Much, Too Soon", to Diana Barrymore. (edit) Diana Barrymore is buried next to her mother, the poet Michael Strange, in Woodlawn Cemetery, in The Bronx, New York. (edit) Diana Barrymore was on the cover of "Life Magazine" in 1939 at the age of eighteen. (edit) In the film, "Too Much, Too Soon", Diana Barrymore was played by Dorothy Malone and her father, John Barrymore, was played by his old friend, Errol Flynn. (edit) Diana Barrymore was the daughter of John Barrymore, the older sister of John Drew Barrymore, the niece of Ethel and Lionel Barrymore and the aunt of present day actress, Drew Barrymore. (edit)

Diana Barrymore: So much has been dreamed, so little done; there was so much promise and so much waste. (edit) Diana Barrymore: Damn Mother for her indifference and disdain of me and damn Daddy for the crazy, mixed-up life he led. (edit)