Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blythe (September 21, 1849 – March 26, 1905) —stage name
Maurice Barrymore — was the
patriarchOriginally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy...
of the
Barrymore acting familyThe Barrymore family is an American acting family.The Barrymores are also the inspiration of a Broadway and West End play called The Royal Family....
and great-grandfather of actress
Drew BarrymoreDrew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film producer and film director. She is the youngest member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was eleven months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
.
Early life
Born Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blythe in the Sikh holy city,
AmritsarAmritsar is a city in the northwestern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering just over 3,695,077...
,
PunjabPunjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between India and Pakistan...
or more precisely
Fort AgraAgra Fort is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Agra, India. The fort is also known as Lal Qila, Fort Rouge and Red Fort of Agra. It is about 2.5 km northwest of its much more famous sister monument, the Taj Mahal. The fort can be more accurately described as a walled palatial city.It is...
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, he was the son of William Edward Blythe, a surveyor for the
British East India CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
and his wife Matilda Chamberlayne. Herbert had an older brother named Will and a sister named Evelin. Matilda, after a difficult pregnancy died shortly after giving birth to Herbert on September 21 1849. In his formative years Herbert was raised by his Aunt Amelia Blythe, his mother's sister. Amelia, a Chamberlayne by birth, had married a brother of Herbert's father and was a Blythe by marriage. Herbert was sent back to England for education at
Harrow SchoolHarrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London. Harrow has educated boys since 1243 but was officially founded by John Lyon under a Royal Charter of Elizabeth I in 1572....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and studied Law at Oxford University where he was Captain of his class football (soccer US) team in 1868. Herbert also became enamored of the sport of boxing. The
Marquess of Queensberry rulesThe Marquess of Queensberry rules is a code of generally accepted rules in the sport of boxing. They were named so because the 9th Marquess of Queensberry publicly endorsed the code...
were firmly established at this time but it wasn't unusual to see
bare knuckleBare-knuckle boxing is the original form of boxing closely related to ancient combat sports...
fights. On March 21, 1872 Herbert won the
middleweightMiddleweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have begun in the 1840s. In the bare-knuckle era, the first middleweight championship fight was between Tom Chandler and Dooney Harris in 1867...
boxing championship of
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. His father expected him to become a
barristerA barrister is a lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions that employ a split profession in relation to legal representation. In split professions, the other types of lawyers are mainly solicitors...
, but Herbert fell in with a group of actors, which scandalized the elder Blythe. That same year 1872 Herbert sat for his first posed theatrical photographic portrait by noted photographer Oliver Sarony, an older brother of the better remembered
Napoleon SaronyNapoleon Sarony was an American lithographer and photographer. He was a highly popular and prolific portrait photographer, most known for his portraits of the stars of late 19th century American theater....
. In order to spare his father the "shame" of having a son in such a "dissolute" vocation, he took the stage name Maurice Barrymore (though he never legally changed from "Blythe"), inspired by a conversation he had with fellow actor Charles Vandenhoff about William Barrymore, an early 19th-century English thespian, after seeing a poster depicting Barrymore in the
Haymarket TheatreThe Theatre Royal Haymarket or Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre is a West End theatre in The Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
. He wanted his first name to be pronounced in the French manner (môr-ĒS) instead of the English (MÔR-is). His friends avoided that altogether by simply calling him "Barry".
Career and Marriage to Georgiana Drew
On December 29, 1874, Barrymore boarded the SS
America for
BostonBoston is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England"...
, and joined
Augustin DalyJohn Augustin Daly was an American theatrical manager and playwright active both in the U.S. and UK.-Biography:Daly was born in Plymouth, North Carolina and educated at Norfolk, Va...
's troupe making his debut in
Under the Gaslight.
He made his
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
debut in December 1875 in
Pique; in the cast was a young actress,
Georgiana DrewGeorgiana Emma Drew , aka Georgie Drew Barrymore, was an American stage actress.Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, her family — parents John Drew and Louisa Lane Drew, brothers John Drew Jr. and Sidney, and sister Louisa — were all actors. She made her theatrical debut in 1872 in The Ladies'...
. Maurice and Georgiana had been introduced earlier by her brother
John Drew Jr.John Drew, Jr. was an American stage actor noted for his roles in Shakespearean comedy, society drama, and light comedies. He was the eldest son of John Drew and Louisa Lane Drew, and the brother of Louisa Drew, Georgiana Drew & Sidney Drew...
who had befriended Maurice when he first arrived in America. After a brief courtship Maurice & 'Georgie' married on December 31, 1876, and had three children:
LionelLionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, radio and film. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul .-Early life:...
(b. 1878),
EthelEthel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the famous Barrymore family.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...
(b. 1879), and
JohnJohn Sidney Blyth Barrymore was an American actor, frequently called the greatest of his generation. He first gained fame as a stage actor, lauded for his portrayals of Hamlet and Richard III...
(b. 1882). Georgiana died July 2, 1893 from
consumptionTuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria...
, and Barrymore re-married exactly one year after her death to Mamie Floyd, much to Ethel's consternation. During his career, Maurice Barrymore played opposite many of the reigning female stars of the time including
Helena ModjeskaHelena Modjeska , was a renowned Polish, European and American actress who specialized in Shakespearean and tragic roles....
,
Mrs. FiskeMinnie Maddern Fiske , born as Marie Augusta Davey, but often billed simply as Mrs. Fiske, was one of the leading American actresses of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. She also spearheaded the fight against the Theatrical Syndicate for the sake of artistic freedom...
,
Mrs. Leslie CarterFor the female soloist popstar see Leslie Carter.Caroline Louise Dudley was an American silent film and stage actress who used her married name, Mrs. Leslie Carter, as her stage name to spite her former husband. She was called "The American Sarah Bernhardt".-Early life:Caroline Dudley was born in...
,
Olga NethersoleOlga Isabel Nethersole CBE RRC was an English actress, theatre producer and health educator.She was born in London, of Spanish descent on her mother's side, and made her stage début at Brighton in 1887....
,
Lillian RussellLillian Russell was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th century and early 20th century, known for her beauty and style, as well as for her voice and stage presence.Russell was born in Iowa but raised in Chicago...
, and Lily Langtry.
Marshall Texas Incident
On March 19, 1879, in
MarshallMarshall is a town in Harrison County in the northeastern corner of Texas. This town is a major cultural and educational center in East Texas, and the tri-state area. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the population of Marshall was about 23,935...
,
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
, Barrymore and fellow actor Ben Porter were shot by an intoxicated
Texas and Pacific RailwayThe Texas and Pacific Railway Company was created by federal charter in 1871 with the purpose of building a southern transcontinental railroad between Marshall, Texas, and San Diego, California....
engineer named Jim Currie (who shared a cell with the accused killer of
Diamond BessieDiamond Bessie is the popular name given to Bessie Moore, née Annie Stone, a prostitute whose murder in the woods outside of Jefferson, Texas propelled her to the level of local legend. She was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head sometime during the early afternoon of Sunday, January 21,...
). Porter was killed; doctors spent the night operating on Barrymore to save his life. He made a full recovery, and returned to Marshall for the legal maneuverings that followed. Currie's brother was mayor of
ShreveportShreveport is the third-largest city and the principal city of the third largest metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Louisiana, as well as being the 99th-largest city in the United States....
,
LouisianaThe State of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
and apparently used his influence to secure a not guilty verdict (after a 10 minute deliberation). An enraged Barrymore vowed never to return to Texas.
According to a 2004
A&EA&E is a cable and satellite television network with headquarters in Manhattan and offices in Stamford, Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, and London. A&E stands for Arts & Entertainment, which, for many years, was in the channel's full title...
Biography piece, after the Ben Porter tragedy, Maurice asked Georgiana to tour with him and
Helena ModjeskaHelena Modjeska , was a renowned Polish, European and American actress who specialized in Shakespearean and tragic roles....
in a play he had written. Georgiana and the children had converted to Roman Catholicism under Helena's influence. Learning that he and Helena had resumed their romance, Georgiana, who had been given ownership of the play by Maurice, forced his hand by closing it. Helena's husband, its producer,
suedA lawsuit is a civil action brought before a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have received damages from a defendant's actions, seeks a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
her. The real reason for Georgiana's actions never got into the press. However, Maurice's many dalliances did make the tabloids.
Nadjezda
Around 1884 and 1885 Barrymore wrote a play titled
Nadjezda. During this period he sailed with his wife Georgiana and their children Lionel, Ethel and John, then respectively 6, 5 and 2, to England to visit relatives he hadn't seen since migrating to America. He had previously come into some money left to him by his now deceased aunt Amelia, the woman who raised him. During the trip to Europe in 1885 Barrymore came into contact with the great French actress & star
Sarah BernhardtSarah Bernhardt was a legendary French stage actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress in the history of the world". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of Europe in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...
. Without copyrighting his play, he gave a copy of the manuscript to Bernhardt. Between 1885 and 1887 Bernhardt had the copy in her possession and allegedly had given it to playright
Victorien SardouVictorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play. He also wrote the play La Tosca on which Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca is based. The fedora hat is named after another of his plays,...
to review. Sardou in 1886 wrote his famous play
La ToscaLa Tosca is a five-act drama by the 19th-century French playwright Victorien Sardou that was first produced in 1887 in Paris, with Sarah Bernhardt in the title role. Bernhardt's revival in New York in 1900 was also well received...
which later achieved great fame as an opera. Barrymore upon the creation of Sardou's play realized that
La Tosca was a plagiarization of his story
Nadjezda.
Last Years
In 1896 Barrymore became the first major Broadway star to headline in vaudeville—a brave foray at the time that he speculatively would have later made into motion pictures had he lived. In the 1895 theater season on Broadway he co-starred with Mrs. Leslie Carter in The Heart of Maryland. In the 1899 season on Broadway he had a winning success playing opposite Mrs. Fiske in the part of Rawdon Crawley in Becky Sharp. This play was based on a character from William Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair.
Becky Sharp was Barrymore's last Broadway success. In 1900 Barrymore toured the U.S. with a play called
The Battle of the Strong. When the
Battle of the Strong company stopped in
Louisville, KentuckyLouisville is Kentucky's largest city and county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's estimated population as of 2008 was 713,877 , with a population of 1,244,696 in the Louisville...
Barrymore sat for his last posed photograph. Also during this time he got to spend time with his son John who was now in his late teens. Lionel and Ethel were on the road in theater companies having already started their careers.
Death
Barrymore eventually became infected with
syphilisSyphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the spirochetal bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The route of transmission of syphilis is almost always through sexual contact, although there are examples of congenital syphilis via transmission from mother to child in utero.The...
. Exactly when is unknown. The March 25 1905
New York Times reported: "He was playing a
vaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
engagement(in 1901) at a
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.Harlem has been defined by a series...
theatre when he suddenly dropped his lines and began to rave, (to the horror of his son John). The following day he became violent and was taken to Bellevue insane ward by his son John." During his stay at Bellevue he nearly strangled his daughter Ethel when she paid a visit to him. He died in his sleep, and Ethel had him buried at Glenwood Cemetery in Philadelphia. Barrymore had lived long enough to see all three of his children grow to adulthood and enter the family business of
actingActing is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play...
. There are no photographs that survive of Barrymore taken with either of his three children.
External links