I have created this homepage for a truly wonderful lady and a beautiful actress of yesteryear,Dolores Costello Barrymore, in hopes to keep her from being totally forgotten and to help introduce her to a whole new generation. I have written the following biography and added some links so you can get to know Dolores a little better.
Dolores Costello was once billed as "The Goddess of the Silent Screen" but will probably be better remembered today as Drew Barrymore's attractive grandma. This page is a tribute to a talented actress whose beautiful face appeared in close to 50 films that spanned a career which lasted over 30 years!
Why Dolores you might ask? Well, It seems that no one remebers how big a star she really was! In the late 20s there were three main types of actresses the Vamp (Theda Bara), The Flapper (Clara Bow, Joan Crawford, and Colleen Moore), and then there was the delicate swooning herione (Lillian Gish, Dolores Costello, and Corrine Grifith). Lillian is remebered as best actress of the silent screen and Corrine was billed as the most beautiful, but what about "The Goddess". The fact is that in 1928 Lillian was fired by MGM for being "A sexless antique". She would later become a character actress in 1930s and her career ended in 1987, but her roles became a lot less demanding. Corrine on the other hand lacked a good singing voice and more importantly her acting style became wooden after the advent of sound. So the "Most beautiful woman in the world" retired from films in the early 30s. What about Dolores? She made a some what smooth transition to sound (she had a severe lisp which took two years with a speech patholigist to to correct in 1930) and made some of her best films when her two contempories had either become a character actress or permantly retired.
Dolores was beautiful as well as dignified. She could keep her Partcian pose with out faltering in any perialous situation. Dolores was also the first famous female star to speak in amovie. Warner Bros. starred Dolores in many of their Vitaphone shorts, because she was the biggest female star that they had. Her sister Helene Costello and Mary MacAvoy also starred in several Vitaphone shorts. Did you know that Dolores was the namesake of America's most popular comedey duo Abbot and Costello? Lou's last name was Cristtillo, but he changed it after he met Dolores who was performing on Broadway the same time he was. Dolores was the one who told Lou to hone his craft before he goes out to Hollywood, and have the directors and producers come to him. I hope that this preface will give you a better understanding of Dolores and the world she lived in.
She was born September 17, 1903 (Dolores claimed she was born in 1906 and biographers claim 1905, but when Dolores applied for social security she gave out her real birth date 1903.) exactly one day before Greta Garbo in Pittsburgh Pennslyvania to Maurice (1879-1950) and Mae (1884-1929)Costello. Maurice would later start his film career at Edison Studios in 1908. He later moved over to Vitagraph Studios, which was where Dolores and her sister Helene (1902-1957, who died of peanoumnia and tuberucolis) made their screen debut in 1911. Dolores then appeared in numerous pictures through out the 1910s and early 20s. Most of these movies were with her celebrated father and sister. Her father would become America's first matinee idol and its most famous favorite screen personality of the early silent era. Sadly Maurice was nearly forgotten by the mid 20s and resorted to playing bit parts. He later sued his daughters for support in the 1939.
Dolores then went to New York City were she went to modeling school and later modeled for noted fashion designer James Montgomery Flagg (with whom she became romantically involved) who developed her into the most famous model of her era. Her sister later moved in with her in New York. They would then appear in the New York stage production of "George White Scandals" of 1924. After the play finished they both signed with Warner Bros. Studios. When the whole family relocated to Hollywood, she met her future husband John Barrymore (1882-1942) who also worked at Warner Bros.
When John first saw Dolores, he said she was "The most beautiful creature I have ever seen." He then made her his costar in THE SEA BEAST(1926). During their lengthy kissing scene in that picture Dolores fainted in John's arms with her arm dangling in submission, which was copied by Fay Wray in her movie THE WEDDING MARCH (1927). In 1926 Dolores was named an WAMPAS Baby Star, which was a prodigous award. She was among several other noted future actresses which included Mary Astor, Joan Crawford, Dolores Del Rio, and Fay Wray. John and Dolores later married in 1928 despite the misgivings of her mother Mae who divocred Maurice the year before. Sadly Mae died in 1929 due to heart failure at the age of forty-five. Dolores later went on to appear in several other popular silent films, When a Man Loves (with John) is a romance movie set in 18th century France and Old SanFransico which deals with racism during the San Fransican earthquake of 1906, both films were made in 1927. Then the most important film she made in the silent era Noah's Ark (1929). The special effects in this film are still amazing seventy years later. During this film six extras drowned during the flood scene and Dolores got pnoumonia while wading in the cold water in the same scene.
John and Dolores would later have two children DeDe in 1931, and John Drew in 1932. Dolores took time off her movie career to raise her newborn children. John however became more addicted to alchol at this time and after the encouragement of her sister and her new brother in law Lowell Sherman (1885-1934) she divorced John Barrymore in 1935. John's drinking became even worse after his divorce from Dolores that it eventually led to his demise at the age of sixty. He never saw much of his son John Drew when he was growing up and he would never know that his son would follow a similar destructive path.
After the divorce Dolores married Dr. John Vruwink in 1939. He was her obstetrician who deliverd both of her children and whom John accused her of having an affair with. (He also accused her of having an affair with noted Hollywood director David O. Selzick at the same time.) Her and the Doctor would later divorce after eleven years of marriage. Dolores then concentrated on reviving her acting career. She would then perform in many high budget films including LITTLE LORD FLAUNTENROY (1936), THE MAGENIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942), and THIS IS THE ARMY (1943) which was her last picture. Dolores' physical apperance was damaged because of her extreme reaction to the the studios' harsh makeup to her very senstive and delcate skin.
The makeup caused the skin on her cheeks to deteriorate, which proved to be a problem for makeup men to cover-up. After being forced into early retirement, Dolores moved away from the film colony to a town named Falls Brooks which is twenty miles outside of San Diego. She then lived alone on her Californian avocado farm. Sadly a lot of her memorabilia and important documents from both the Barrymore and Costello families were destroyed in a flood. Dolores did little in the way of perserving her films or legend until the last two years of her life. In 1977 Dolores gave interviews pertaining to her life with John Barrymore in the book "Damned in Paradise: The Life of John Barrymore" by John Kobler. Dolores was said to have looked like an old Irish washerwoman in her later years, but when she would remnsence about the old days with John and making movies she seemed to rejuvinate and look young and beautiful once again. This transformation can be noticed in the long British miniseries documentary entitled HOLLYWOOD (1980) in which Dolores was interviewed shortly before her death on March 1, 1979 at the age of seventy five after a lengthy illness.
