Ethel Barrymore Biography

Fast Facts

• After working in theatrical touring productions, she found Broadway success in 1901 with Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines and eventually became known as "the first lady of the American stage
• " Rasputin and the Empress (1932) was the only film in which she appeared with her brothers, John and Lionel
• Announced her retirement from acting in 1936, only to return to the Broadway stage the following year in The Ghost of Yankee Doodle
• Always preferred the stage to the screen; once said about television, "It's hell
• " Turned down a marriage proposal from Winston Churchill
• The great-aunt of actress Drew Barrymore
• A Broadway theater on West 47th Street bears her name