Lionel Barrymore Movies

lionel_barrymoreWant to know the best Lionel Barrymore movies?  How about the worst Lionel Barrymore movies?  Curious about Lionel Barrymore box office grosses or which Lionel Barrymore movie picked up the most Oscar nominations? Need to know which Lionel Barrymore movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Lionel Barrymore (1878-1954) was an Oscar® winning American actor and director of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award® for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul (1931).   He and remains best known to modern audiences for the role of the villainous Mr. Potter character in 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life and that he is the great uncle to Drew Barrymore.  His IMDb page shows 221 acting credits from 1908-1956. This page will take a statistical look at Lionel Barrymore movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.

Lionel Barrymore and James Stewart in the all-time great movie It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
Lionel Barrymore and James Stewart in the all-time great movie It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

Lionel Barrymore Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews, and awards.

Lionel Barrymore Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Lionel Barrymore movies by his co-star in the move
  • Sort Lionel Barrymore movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
  • Sort Lionel Barrymore movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Lionel Barrymore movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Lionel Barrymore movie received and
  • Sort by many Oscar® wins each Lionel Barrymore movie won.
  • Sort Lionel Barrymore movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
  • Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
 
Norma Shearer and Lionel Barrymore in 1931's A Free Soul....he won an Oscar for this movie
Norma Shearer and Lionel Barrymore in 1931’s A Free Soul….he won an Oscar for this movie

Possibly Interesting Facts About Lionel Barrymore

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.

Steve’s Lionel Barrymore YouTube Video

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

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40 thoughts on “Lionel Barrymore Movies”

    1. Hey Paul. Thanks for checking out our Lionel Barrymore page. I have not yet discovered box office grosses on Broken Lullaby or The Return of Peter Grimm. Without box office grosses, I am unable to create an UMR score. That being said…I have a no source of information….and have not gone back and looked at missing Lionel movies since acquiring that source. I will check out that source later tonight to see if I can get those movies included in the table.

      Reply

  2. Added Steve’s Lionel Barrymore YouTube Video To This Page. My thoughts found on his channel are also found below.

    Poor Lionel….having to go last among the famous siblings. Good subject. Good video. Good posters. Good rankings. Good job. Good afternoon….or evening your way. I have only seen 8 of the movies and a total of 12 when looking at his other movies. Favorites would include #1 It’s A Wonderful Life, #4 Key Largo and #9 Duel In The Sun. I do not think he gave a bad performance. He is one of the great characters of all-time. Voted up and shared

    Reply

  3. Lionel has all-told appeared opposite 4 of my own most-favorite film stars in 6 movies that I have seen: Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life and Malaya [aka East of the Rising Sun] Joan Crawford in The Gorgeous Hussy; Royal Dano in Duel in the Sun and Valley of Decision; and Richard Widmark in Down to the Sea in Ships.

    The Widmark movie was one of the very first films that I ever saw and I was just a boy of 11 years of age at the time; and Richard who rose to fame playing the vicious villain in 1947’s Kiss of Death was in 1949’s Down to the Sea in Ships on the cusp of a great and very busy career as a 1950s action hero.

    I have listed in Parts 2 and 3 of this post a large number of posters/stills/lobby cards that appealed to me; but in truth Steve has packed so many wonderful vintage visuals into his Lionel video that if it didn’t represent over-kill I could mention many other ones – 99% rated overall. Good work Steve.

    Good opening quote by the way. [The movies] “No other profession has that power.” – I wonder would The Donald agree!

    Reply

    1. MY PICK OF POSTERS IN STEVE’s VIDEO

      1/Lone Star-routine Gable western in black and white and running for just 94 mins – but made profit equivalent to $10 million today.

      2/two for Mysterious Island
      3/Guilty Hands
      4/One Man’s Journey

      5/first one for The Temptress – “I vant to be alone” being a sort of contradiction of that title!

      6/Two Guys Named Joel
      7/first one for Ah Wilderness!
      8/two for Mata Hari
      9/Broken Lullaby
      10/Valley of Decision
      11/2nd one for On Borrowed Time
      12/Treasure Island
      13/Two for Duel in the Sun – Exceptionally iconic and stunning!
      14/two for Camille – The Cowboy of the Century in his heyday.
      15/first one for Captains Cantankerous
      16/foreign language one for You Can’t Take it With You

      17/both for Dinner at Eight – Harlow as usual bringing iconic raunchiness to her posters!

      18/foreign language one for Key Largo
      20/Down to the Sea in Ships – saving the best wine for the last!

      Reply

      1. MY STILLS/LOBBY CARDS SELECTIONS FROM STEVE’s VIDEO

        1/Calling Dr Kildare
        2/Mysterious Island
        3/One Man’s Journey
        4/Yellow Ticket
        5/The Temptress
        6/Sadie Thompson
        7/Mata Hari
        8/Devil Doll
        9/Barrymore and Dano in Duel in the Sun – magical!
        10/Captains Cantankerous
        11/You Can’t Take it With You – Lionel getting billed before my Jimmy: the cheek!
        12/Dinner at 8
        13/Grand Hotel
        14/A Yank at Oxford – The Cowboy of the Century in his prime.
        15/Down to the Sea in Ships – ah nostalgia!
        16/Test Pilot
        17/Rasputin
        18/Key Largo
        19The Girl from Manchester – Harlow as usual leaving little to the imagination

        20/Mark of the Vampire showcasing the great Bela [or “Bala” as Johnny Depp called him in 1994’s Al Wood]

        Reply

        1. Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating (ooo), and info, much appreciated. Happy you liked the posters and stills.

          Does look like Royal Dano has turned up a few times in my recent batch of videos and occasionally with some real beauties by his side, the lucky devil. 😉

          Barry Lionelmore was one of the great character actors, he could easily play kindly old geezers in one film and nasty old coots in others. Probably his most famous role is as the horrible Mr. Potter who steals James Stewarts money, driving him to near suicide, in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’.

          As Bruce writes in the trivia box, by the age of 60 severe arthritis crippled Barrymore and he played his remaining roles sitting down or in a wheelchair.

          Six films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – It’s a Wonderful Life, Grand Hotel, David Copperfield, Dinner at Eight, Captains Courageous and Camille.

          It’s a Wonderful Life tops both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes chart, it’s also no.1 on Bruce’s charts and my video chart.

          Not bad for a film that didn’t make much of a splash on it’s initial release, and like The Wizard of Oz, became a much loved film after it became a regular fixture on American TV especially during the Xmas holidays.

          Lionel Barrymore on child star Margaret O’Brien – “If that child had been born in the middle ages, she’d have been burned as a witch.”

          “Louis B. Mayer gets me $400 worth of cocaine a day to ease my pain. I don’t know where he gets it. And I don’t care. But I bless him every time it puts me to sleep.”

          Reply

          1. HI STEVE

            Pleasing feedback as always; and the quotes were very telling.

            I agree with you about Lionel’s versatility as a character actor: with the same ease he played bad guy Potter and contrastingly the stalwart, kindly and honorable whaler captain in my Richard’s Down to the Sea in Ships.

            Take care.

          2. HI STEVE: Thanks for the as always thoughtful feedback including the interesting and telling quotes. As the American politicians have been squaring off to each other in the news recently it is perhaps appropriate to mention in passing that Lionel was a staunch supporter of the Republican party of his time.

            I agree with you about Lionel’s considerable versatility as a character actor and for example he could with ease play bad guy Potter as you mention whilst contrastingly being admirable as the stalwart, kindly and courageous captain of the whaling vessel in Down to the Sea in Ships with my Richard.

            “He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters.”

            Psalms 107:23

    1. Hey Dan?….48 movies with Lionel Barrymore? That seems a little on the high side. I looked through a section of Carey’s movies I did not see many Barrymore/Carey movies. Still thanks for stopping by.

      Reply

      1. That’s per the website Deja Scene. Here’s some I found;

        A Cry for Help (1912)
        A Girl’s Stratagem (1913)
        An Adventure in the Autumn Woods (1913)
        Brutality (1912)
        Duel in the Sun (1946)
        Friends (1912)
        Gold and Glitter (1912)
        Judith of Bethulia (1914)
        Love in an Apartment Hotel (1913)
        The Burglar’s Dilemma (1912)
        The Enemy’s Baby (1913)
        The God Within (1912)
        The Informer (1912)
        The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
        The One She Loved (1912)
        The Painted Lady (1912)
        The Telephone Girl and the Lady (1913)
        The Wanderer (1913/II)

        That’s 19 at least.

        Reply

        1. I guess we will stick with their 48. That is a huge percentage for the both of them in each other’s filmography. I will have to check out Deja Scene. Good stuff.

          Reply

  5. I did not know the Barrymore family ran this deep with actors. At first I was expecting not to know anything but I have in fact seen It’s A Wonderful Life. I mean it’s the only one but still…I knew who he was.
    Seen: 1/69 or 1%
    Favorite Top 10: It’s A Wonderful Life
    UMR Snub (Too High or Too Low): N/A
    Guilty Pleasure: N/A
    Best Performance: N/A

    Reply

    1. Hey BryRog57……yep…..the Barrymore acting family has been around for almost 150 years……with Drew holding up the flag for the last 40 years. So It’s A Wonderful Life is your favorite and least favorite Lionel movie. Your tally of 1……means Lionel is probably your 2nd best tally when looking at Barrymore movies….Drew 1st and Lionel 2nd…..thanks for checking out one of our classic pages.

      Reply

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