Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore (born
February 22,
1975 in
Culver City, California) is an
American film and
television actress and
producer.
To say acting is in Barrymore's blood would be an understatement. Her paternal great-great grandparents were
John Drew and
Louisa Lane Drew. Her paternal grandparents were
John Barrymore and
Dolores Costello, whose father
Maurice Costello was an actor. She is the great-niece of
Lionel Barrymore,
Ethel Barrymore, and
Helene Costello, and the great-great grandniece of
John Drew, Jr., actress Louisa Drew, and silent film actor/writer/director Sidney Drew. Her father
John Drew Barrymore was an actor. Her half-brother
John Blyth Barrymore is an actor. Her mother the
Hungarian-American Jaid Barrymore has also acted.
Her first name
Drew was the maiden name of her paternal great-grandmother,
Georgiana Drew; her middle name
Blyth was the original surname of the dynasty founded by her great-grandfather,
Maurice Barrymore.
Her career began at the age 11 months when she auditioned for a
dog food commercial. When she was bitten by her canine co-star, the producers feared she'd cry, but she merely laughed, and was hired for the job.
She shot to fame when she co-starred in the 1982
Steven Spielberg film
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. At the age of 7, on
November 20,
1982, Barrymore became the youngest-ever guest host of
Saturday Night Live. She performed in a skit where she revealed that she killed E.T. She also received a
Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in
1984 for her role in
Irreconcilable Differences.
In the wake of this sudden stardom, she endured a notoriously troubled childhood, drinking
alcohol by the time she was 9, smoking
marijuana at 10, and snorting
cocaine at 12. Barrymore later described this period of her life in her
1990 autobiography,
Little Girl Lost.
Though overcoming her substance abuse problems by the time she entered adulthood, she maintained her "bad girl" image, and leveraged her new-found role as a
sex symbol to stage a career comeback playing a teenage seductress in
Poison Ivy, and posing
nude for the January 1995 issue of
Playboy.
Steven Spielberg gave her a quilt for her 20th birthday with a note that read
"Cover yourself up." Enclosed was a copy of her
Playboy appearance, with the pictures altered by his art department so that she appeared fully clothed.
At that time she had also appeared
nude in her last five movies. During a
1995 appearance on
The Late Show with David Letterman, Barrymore shocked the normally unflappable host by climbing onto his desk and flashing him (but with her back to the camera) for his birthday. She also modelled in a series of
Guess? jeans ads during this time.
Barrymore has continued to be highly bankable. She is especially adept at
romantic comedies:
The Wedding Singer and
50 First Dates. She has also produced several films, including
Charlie's Angels.
Maxim magazine featured Barrymore and her fellow Angels in their
Girls of Maxim gallery.
She has also recently explored more dramatic roles in movies such as
Riding in Cars with Boys, where she played a teenage mother in a failed marriage with the drug-addicted father (based on the real-life story of
Beverly D'Onofrio),
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and
Donnie Darko.
Barrymore's career makes for colorful copy. In the words of
Yahoo! Movies:
Heir to a Hollywood dynasty, child star, prepubescent drug and alcohol abuser, teenage sexpot, and resurrected vessel of celluloid purity, Drew Barrymore is nothing if not the embodiment of the rise and fall of Hollywood fortunes, self-reinvention, and the healing powers of good PR.She was the subject of
My Date with Drew (2005). In it, an aspiring filmmaker and fan uses his limited resources in an attempt to gain a date with her.
On
February 3,
2004, she received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
See also:
2004 in filmBarrymore was married to Welsh bartender turned bar owner, Jeremy Thomas, from
March 20 to
April 28,
1994, and to comedian
Tom Green from
July 7,
2001 to
October 15,
2002 (Green filed for divorce in December 2001). She is
currently dating drummer
Fabrizio Moretti of
The Strokes.
Barrymore has also publicly declared herself to be
bisexual, revealing that she had slept with many women (although naming no one as of yet publicly) as a teenager and is still interested in women sexually. [
1]
* Delivered by
Dr. Paul Fleiss, father of
Heidi Fleiss (
The Tonight Show,
January 22,
2003).
* Never finished high school.
* Distant relative of
Shirley Temple * Godmother of
Frances Bean Cobain.
* Former
vegan.
* Goddaughter of
Steven Spielberg.
* Has 6 tattoos: a crescent moon on her big toe, a cross with ivy on her lower leg, a butterfly on her stomach, a daisy on her hip, and 2 angels on her lower back with her mother's name on one, and James, a tribute to then-boyfriend
Jamie Walters, on the other.
* Posed as
Marilyn Monroe on the cover of the September 1996 issue of
John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s
George* Second-ever guest on
Late Night with Conan O'Brien, appearing with
John Goodman and
Tony Randall.
*Offered the lead in
Scream, but turned it down because she thought Casey would be more fun.
*Fifth member of her family to receive a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame 1*
Barrymore family*
Drew Smiles*
Angel Drew*
The Drew Barrymore Collective*
Drew Barrymore Web*
Drew Barrymore at FilmReference.com*
Drew Barrymore Videos*
When Young Stars Burn Out MSN Movies
