1. Lionel Herbert Blythe was born in Philadelphia Pennsyvania in 1878.  He is the second generation of the Barrymore acting family.

2. Lionel Barrymore was the son of actors Georgiana Drew Barrymore and Maurice Barrymore. He was the elder brother of Ethel and John Barrymore, the uncle of John Drew Barrymore and Diana Barrymore and the great-uncle of Drew Barrymore.

3. Lionel Barrymore and his sister Ethel Barrymore were the first Oscar-winning brother and sister in acting categories.

4.  Lionel Barrymore had extreme problems with his income taxes, and during the last 15 years of his life routinely turned over all of his paycheck to the Internal Revenue Service except for a small sum to maintain his living expenses. The IRS also took the proceeds from a sale of his artwork after his death.

5.  By the late 1930s, severe arthritis had led Lionel Barrymore to be confined to a wheelchair.  From 1938, his screen roles were written to accommodate his disability.

6.  Lionel Barrymore received two Oscar® nominations.  He was nominated as Best Director for 1929’s Madame X and he won the Best Actor Oscar for 1931’s A Free Soul.  His climatic court room speech in A Free Soul is one of the longest takes in a commercial film…using more than one camera it lasts 14 minutes.

7.  Lionel Barrymore was married two times in his life. He had 2 children.

8.  Lionel Barrymore spent most of his screen career under contract to MGM (1926-52).  I for one was very happy for that..because MGM is the best studio when searching for old box office numbers.

9.  Lionel Barrymore convinced James Stewart to take the role of George in 1946’s It’s A Wonderful Life, despite Stewart’s feeling that he was not up to it so soon after World War II.

10. Check out Lionel Barrymore’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.