Ethel Barrymore belonged to a distinguished theatre family. Her uncle was the actor John Drew, and her two brothers were John and Lionel. She debuted in 1894 as Julia in The Rivals and in 1897 she was chosen by Sir Henry Irving to play in his great success The Bells. She did not play in Shakespeare until 1922 when she took the role of Juliet. In 1925 she played Ophelia in Walter Hampden's Hamlet and later that same year she played Portia in The Merchant of Venice.

Ethel Barrymore is probably best known to most of us as an actress in the cinema. She had her first part in 1914 in the film The Nightingale and her last in 1957, Johnny Trouble. She played in at least thirty-eight films--and that does not include some notable appearances in television productions and her own series "The Ethel Barrymore Theatre" in 1957.

                                                             

A studio postcard

A role in a non-Shakespearean play