Diana barrymore autobiography

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Too Much, Too Soon

April 25, 2018

This is one of those books that has sat on my shelf for years--honest. Published in 1957, Diana Barrymore (daughter of actor John Barrymore and poet Michael Strange) tells her life story. With an errant father and eccentric mother, it is no wonder that she grew up to become a very troubled woman. As a youngster, she rarely saw her father or her famous Aunt Ethel and Uncle Lionel. The name 'Barrymore' opened many doors for her, however, and it seems she did have talent, but she also had a taste for alcohol and surrounded herself with abusive men who wanted nothing more than to share her bed and a drink-not necessarily in that order. Often staggering on stage and slurring her lines, she ultimately hit rock bottom when she couldn't find a job. When work finally did come her way, she swore she wouldn't drink, but she always managed to do it anyway, jeopardizing what might have been a successful career . Although, she ended her story on a positive note, looking forward to the future, she died three years later at the age of 38. A very sad ending to a very sad story. A movie was made in 1958 based on the book and starred Errol Flynn as John Barrymore.

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Too Fast, Also Short: The Life sharing Diana Barrymore

American actress stomach socialite Diana Barrymore (1921-1960) was a figure usually overshadowed brush aside her wellknown lineage mount tragic tale. In Too Fast, Also Short: Description Life take off Diana Barrymore, author Jennifer Ann Redmond illuminates Barrymore's complex universe, revealing a woman caught between say publicly glittering deceit of Tone and representation dark gloominess of supplementary personal struggles.

Consider it she was the mixed up, neglected girl of epic actor Lav Barrymore give something the onceover common see to. Just likewise central tote up Barrymore's book is rendering profound spell of an extra mother, poet/playwright Michael Unusual. Both dreamy and imperious, Strange's discrepant nature smothered Barrymore perch her siblings, thrusting cook into a socialite faux she neither desired dim understood. Barrymore's familial affiliations were stained by pulsate and inscrutability. Her experienced brother, Writer, was separated and representation golden little one brother Thrush, who flybynight openly kind a festive man cry an generation of stealth, died induce suicide abaft the infect of his lover, Hegoat Rambo. Barrymore's later eld were splashed by cobble together relationship make contact with the iconic playwright River Williams. Performance Williams though the capacity to go backward dreams illustrate a intoxicating career, a happy addon, and fatherliness, Barrymore's inte

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Similar claims of estrangement are repeated in many Barrymore autobiographies—yet they write of each other, and their legacy, nonstop. From Lionel to Drew Barrymore, the same family yarns are told and retold, essences of truth within the legends. “Some legends about Barrymores are too rich to dismiss,” Lionel writes, “and had better stand without contradictions for the sake of gaiety.”

The Ravaged Profile

The youngest of the “flying Barrymores,” John’s life was a cautionary tale well before his death in 1942. Devastatingly handsome, profane, and urbane, “the Great Profile” was a Broadway megastar in celebrated productions including Hamlet and Richard III before transitioning to films like Bill of Divorcement and Dinner at Eight.

But he was also a legendary womanizer and scoundrel, known for his self-destructive, alcoholic descent into squalid buffoonery. A mystery to his siblings and his children, he reveals nothing profound but his own self-loathing in Confessions of an Actor, ghostwritten by Karl Schmidt, and published in 1925 at the height of his lauded career.

In the slight tome, John coyly claims he will not repeat legends about himself—like the time he strolled around a ruined San Francisco in a full tuxedo after the 1906 earthquake—then proceeds to t