American actor John Drew Barrymore belonged to the illustrious Barrymore acting clan. John was practically guaranteed to become an actor because he was born into the wealthy and prominent Barrymore family. He proved to be talented and determined at the beginning of his profession. He began his acting career at 17 with the movie “The Sundowners,” feeling the pressure to live up to the outstanding acting standards set by his father and uncles. With the films “High School Confidential,” “Never Love a Stranger,” and “Night of the Quarter Moon,” he became well-known. Later in the 1960s, he also appeared in a few Italian films. However, by the late 1960s, news reports about his unpredictable alcoholic behavior began to surface, and he made fewer appearances in cinema and television. When he quit working in the middle of the 1970s, his life struck rock bottom, and it worsened every year after that. Before he died from cancer in 2004, his daughter Drew Barrymore cared for his dad in his final days in 2003.
Early Childhood & Life
John Drew Barrymore was born on June 4, 1932, in a ritzy Los Angeles home to prominent American movie star John Barrymore and his wife, Dolores Costello. While John was still a baby, his parents got divorced, and his mother got custody of him. Even though his family had been in the acting business for many years before he was born, Dolores Barrymore was aware of the negative aspects of the industry and didn’t want her son to follow in the footsteps of his alcoholic father. As a result, when John expressed interest in pursuing an acting career, his mother advised him to pursue another vocation.
To keep him as far away from performing as she could, his mother enrolled him at St. John’s Military Academy. He developed into a disobedient young man who always desired to accomplish something interesting with his life. He was also very committed to pursuing a career in movies. By the time he was in high school, he had grown to respect his father and his uncles, was well aware of his family’s past, and was confident that he would naturally gravitate toward the film industry.
He tried his hand at the theater while in college, but because he was an unusual young guy with a lot of self-confidence, he chose to play the starring roles without any prior experience instead of beginning with tiny roles like most theater actors do in their early stages. Because of “cold feet,” he had to abandon the majority of his plays in the very last second. This behavior embarrassed his aunt Ethel Barrymore, who encouraged him to eventually make his stage debut, which he subsequently recalled as the hardest thing he had to accomplish up to that point.
Career of John Drew Barrymore
Being a member of the Barrymore family, landing jobs wouldn’t have been too difficult for him, and he signed his first movie contract at the age of 17 under the name John Barrymore Jr., making his acting debut in “The Sundowners.” In the ensuing two years, he appeared in movies like “High Lonesome,” “Quebec,” and “The Big Night.” Although critics deemed his performance to be ordinary, his unorthodox good looks and tough demeanor helped him obtain enough roles to propel him to fame.
Like his father, he had developed an alcohol addiction and was now more well-known for his drunken escapades than for his acting. Later, he appeared in movies like “The Keeler Affair” and “Never Love a Stranger,” and during the 1950s, he gradually built a solid reputation as an actor. But after a while, he became tired of it and relocated to Europe to work on some movies. He became successful in the Italian cinema business and began playing the lead in numerous movies, while he also had a few supporting roles in early 1960s movies including “The Trojan Horse” and “Pilate Pius.”
He also gave television a try and discovered that it was far more exciting, thus he ended up taking guest appearances in TV shows like “Gunsmoke.” His personal life was in complete shambles in the midst of all of this since he was a heavy drinker and drug user. People continued to hire him for various roles because they still had faith in him and thought it was important to have the Barrymore name associated with their projects.
His other TV roles include those in the TV western “Rawhide,” where he played a notable character of a half-white, half-Native American man, and in the show “Wagon Train,” where he played a seemingly upbeat figure who delivers death wherever he goes. His mischief, however, even affected some who gave him a second opportunity while others rejected him. When Barrymore was cast to portray Lazarus in “Star Trek,” one of the most popular TV shows of 1966, he failed to show up for the filming and was subsequently replaced by Robert Brown.
He received a six-month SAG suspension as a result of this. His drug and alcohol abuse caused further damage to his life, costing him not only his job but also his peace of mind and married life. Even when the ban was removed, Barrymore was rarely seen. He was hardly ever seen in films or television shows, and in 1976 he finally ceased acting completely.
Individual life and death
When John began following his father’s footsteps, his mother’s worries came true. His physical and mental health deteriorated as a result of his alcoholism, and he nearly vanished from view. His first marriage, which began in his early years with Cara Williams and ended in 1959, was the first of his four marriages. His three other unions—with Gabriella Palazzoli, Jaid Barrymore, and Nina Wayne—were all deemed to have failed.
John Blyth Barrymore, Blyth Barrymore, Brahma Jessica Barrymore, and Drew Barrymore were his four children from previous marriages. The well-known Hollywood actress Drew Barrymore was responsible for taking care of her father in his final days. Even though she had detested him for a long time, she drew closer to him after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2003, took care of his food habits, and covered his medical expenditures.
When questioned by the media about how she felt, Drew, who was with him when he passed away on November 29, 2004, said that he was a cool guy and that people should smile whenever they think of him. When Drew saw what happened to her father, she was able to overcome her alcoholism from the 1990s.
John Drew Barrymore’s Net Worth
John is one of the wealthiest American movie actors. John Drew Barrymore has a net worth of $5 million, per our analysis of data from sources including Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider.