Lionel Barrymore - ©Theda Bara

The name I present in this post is Lionel Barrymore, who was a film and theater actor from the United States, who debuted on stage as a child, being one of the first and best known theater actors to also act in cinema, where he starred in 250 films, many of them still in silent films. The actor was also very successful on the radio.

Among the talkies, he acted in the classic: “It's a Wonderful Life” (1946). But his big moment in Hollywood came 15 years earlier, when he played the alcoholic lawyer “Stephen Ashe”, which earned him the Oscar for best actor in 1931, for his performance in the film: “A Free Soul” (from the same year).

Lionel Barrymore is the great-uncle of actress Drew Barrymore (1980-) and tells the family story in the memoir: “We Barrymore's”, released in (1951).

The actor has a star on the Los Angeles Walk of Fame, at 1724 Vine Street, in the Cinema category.

Lionel Barrymore, born: Lionel Herbert Blythe Barrymore, on April 28, 1878, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, died on November 15, 1954, in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, United States, aged 76.

Barrymore was married to two American women, first the stage actress Doris Rankin (1887-1947), from 1904 to 1923; whom he divorced to marry the silent film actress Irene Fenwick (1887-1936) from 1923 to 1936. After being widowed he never wanted to marry again.