John Barrymore

(aka "The Great Profile")
February 14, 1882 - May 29, 1942
Born John Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

See Internet Movie Database Filmography

A Few Favorite Memories of John Barrymore

• As "Dr. Henry Jekyll" and "Mr. Edward Hyde" in the greatest silent version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920).
  
  
• As "Sherlock Holmes" in the silent Sherlock Holmes (1922), with Roland Young as Dr. Watson and Gustav Von Seyffertitz as Professor Moriarty.
  
  
• As "Captain Ahab Ceeley" in the first of two very liberal film versions of "Moby Dick" he starred in, The Sea Beast (1926). In this one, Dolores Costello supplies Ahab's love interest!
  
  
• As "Don Jose de Marana/Don Juan de Marana" in Don Juan (1926), with Myrna Loy, Warner Oland, Montagu Love, Mary Astor and Nigel De Brulier.
  
  
• As "François Villon" in The Beloved Rogue (1927), with Conrad Veidt (as King Louis XI), Henry Victor, Angelo Rossitto and Nigel De Brulier.
  
  
• As "Captain Ahab Ceely" again in the sound version of Moby Dick (1930). Still a long way from the novel, but with Noble Johnson as Queequeg, and Nigel De Brulier as Elijah.
  
  
• Literally mesmerizing as "Maestro Svengali" in Svengali (1931), with Marian Marsh, Donald Crisp and Bramwell Fletcher.
  
  
• As crippled puppeteer "Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov" in The Mad Genius (1931), with Marian Marsh, Luis Alberni, Frankie Darro, and Boris Karloff in a small role.
  
  
• As "Duke of Chamerace," aka master thief "Arsène Lupin" in Arsène Lupin (1932), ably supported by his brother Lionel Barrymore as his detective adversary, Karen Morley and Tully Marshall.
  
  
• As ruined and doomed "Baron Felix von Geigern, " having the worst night of his life in Grand Hotel (1932), with Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore and Lewis Stone.
  
  
• As "Prince Paul Chegodieff," doing his damnedest to do away with brother Lionel's mad monk in Rasputin and the Empress (1932).
  
  
• As washed up actor "Larry Renault" in Dinner at Eight (1933), with Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow and Lionel Barrymore.
  
  
• As "Oscar Jaffe" in the screwball comedy classic Twentieth Century (1934), with Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly, and Roscoe Karns.
  
  
• As "Mercutio," run through and killed by Basil Rathbone in Romeo and Juliet (1936), with Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard.
  
  
• As "Colonel J.A. Nielson," friend and advisor to John Howard's stalwart English detective hero in a trio of good light mysteries: Bulldog Drummond's Revenge (1937), Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937) and Bulldog Drummond's Peril (1938).
  
  
• As "Professor Gibbs," the eccentric inventor who makes Virginia Bruce disappear in Universal's wacky gangster/comedy The Invisible Woman (1940).

Last revised May 9 2021 by George "E-gor" Chastain.

Maintained by George "E-gor" Chastain (e-mail: egorschamber@gmail.com)