Ethel Barrymore

Ethel Barrymore Trivia and Quotes

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Trivia

  • Ethel Barrymore appeared in the 1953 film Main Street To Broadway with brother Lionel. It was Lionel's last film. []
  • The Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York was named in her honor. []
  • Ethel was a strong supporter of the Actors' Equity Association, having a high profile role in their 1919 strike. []
  • Ethel made her Broadway debut in 1901 in Captain Jinks of the Horses Marines. []
  • Ethel earned $15,000 for her first film role. []
  • Ethel's final film role was in Johnny Trouble. []
  • Ethel made her screen debut in The Nightingale. []
  • Ethel and her brother Lionel are the first brother and sister to be awarded an Oscar. []
  • Ethel's nephew is John Drew Barrymore. []
  • Ethel's children are Samuel Colt, Ethel Colt, and John Drew Colt. []

  • Ethel appeared in Young At Heart with Frank Sinatra and Doris Day.

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  • Ethel has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard. []
  • Ethel is buried in Calvary Cemetary in Los Angeles. []
  • Ethel reportedly disliked Laurence Olivier's 1948 movie version of Hamlet saying that Olivier was a much inferior Melancholy Dane to her brother John. []
  • During the 1920's, Ethel co-starred with Walter Hampden on Broadway as Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Her brother John had earlier played the role of Hamlet to great acclaim. []
  • Ethel was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1950 for Pinky but did not win. []
  • Ethel was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1948 for The Paradine Case but didn't win. []
  • Ethel was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1947 for The Spiral Staircase but didn't win. []
  • Ethel has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard. []
  • Ethel was 5 feet, 7 inches tall. []
  • Ethel once appeared as the Mystery Guest on an episode of What's My Line? []
  • The 1932 film Rasputin and the Empress was Ethel's first talking picture. This was also the only film that Ethel Barrymore appeared in with both her brothers, John and Lionel. []
  • Ethel frequently played ailing old women in her screen roles. []
  • Ethel co-starred with Humphrey Bogart in the 1952 film Deadline, USA. []
  • Ethel published her memoir entitled Memories in 1955. []
  • In 1951, Ethel accepted the Best Actress Academy Award for Judy Holliday who was absent from the ceremony. []
  • Ethel appeared in the 1932 film Rasputin and the Empress with siblings John and Lionel. It was the only time all three appeared together. []
  • Ethel was a Roman Catholic. []
  • Ethel is the great aunt of actress Drew Barrymore. []
  • Ethel was the sister of well-known actors John and Lionel Barrymore. []
  • Ethel won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1944 for her performance as Cary Grant's mother in None But the Lonely Heart. []
  • Winston Churchill once reportedly proposed to Ethel but got turned down. []
  • Ethel was married to stockbroker Russell Colt from 1909 to 1923. The couple had three children. []
  • Ethel reportedly slapped one of Al Capone's hoodlums who had come to shake her down for "protection" money while she was appearing in a play in Chicago. []

Quotes

  • Ethel: (On Hollywood) It looks, it feels, as though it had been invented by a Sixth Avenue peepshow man. []
  • Ethel: We who play, who entertain for a few years, what can we leave that will last? []
  • Ethel: You grow up the day you have the first real laugh at yourself. []
  • Ethel: The best time to make friends is before you need them. []
  • Ethel: Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. []
  • Ethel: Fundamentally I feel that there is as much difference between the stage and the films as between a piano and a violin. Normally you can't become a virtuoso in both. []
  • Ethel: [her last words] Is everybody happy? I want everybody to be happy. I know I'm happy. []
  • Ethel: [on Hollywood] The people are unreal. The flowers are unreal, they don't smell. The fruit is unreal, it doesn't taste of anything. The whole place is a glaring, gaudy nightmarish set, built up in the desert. []
  • Ethel: Half the people in Hollywood are dying to be discovered and the other half are afraid they will be. []
  • Ethel: You must learn day by day, year by year to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens. []
  • Ethel: For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of a Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of a MaCaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros. []

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