Lionel Barrymore

Birth Name:

Lionel Herbert Blythe

Birth Place:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Profession

Actor, Director, Soundtrack, Writer, Assistant director

Married Irene Fenwick, who was a former girlfriend of his brother John Barrymore
Born to a theatrical family, he started acting alongside his grandmother, Louisa Drew, as a teenager
Quote: "Hollywood is tied hand and foot to the demands for artificiality of the masses all over the world․"
Quote: "I can remember when nobody believed an actor and didn't care what he believed ․․․ acting was thought to be a vocation [meant for] scatterbrains, show-offs, wastrels and scamps․ I don't believe that's true today and I don't think that it ever was․"
Best known for playing Mr․ Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life" and Martin Vanderhof in "You Can't Take It with You․"
Despite his protests that he would rather be an artist and composer than an actor, he spent more than 60 years performing on stage, screen and radio
Became a member of the historic actor's club The Lambs in 1900
Due to the effects of arthritis, he was confined to a wheelchair starting in 1938, but he was so popular that parts were written around him
Is considered to be the inventor of the boom microphone, which is held over actors' heads while they speak
Was cast as Mr․ Potter in "It's A Wonderful Life" due to his annual work as Ebenezer Scrooge in radio broadcasts of "A Christmas Carol․"

Fast Facts