Drew Barrymore - Early Life

Early Life

Barrymore was born in Culver City, California, the daughter of American actor John Drew Barrymore and Jaid Barrymore (née Makó), an aspiring actress. Barrymore's mother was born in a Displaced Persons camp in Brannenburg, West Germany, to Hungarian World War II refugees. Barrymore's father was of mainly English, and Irish, ancestry. Her parents divorced in 1984, when she was nine years old. She has one half-brother, John Blyth Barrymore, also an actor, and two half-sisters, Blyth Dolores Barrymore and (Brahma) Jessica Blyth Barrymore.

Barrymore was born into acting: her great-grandparents Maurice Barrymore and Georgie Drew Barrymore, Maurice Costello and Mae Costello (née Altschuk) and her grandparents John Barrymore and Dolores Costello, were all actors; John Barrymore was arguably the most acclaimed actor of his generation. She is the niece of Diana Barrymore and the grandniece of Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore and Helene Costello, the great-great-granddaughter of John Drew and actress Louisa Lane Drew, and the great grandniece of Broadway idol John Drew, Jr. and silent film actor/writer/director Sidney Drew. She is also the god-daughter of director Steven Spielberg, and Sophia Loren.

Her first name, Drew, was the maiden name of her paternal great-grandmother, Georgie Drew Barrymore; her middle name, Blyth, was the original surname of the dynasty founded by her great-grandfather, Maurice Barrymore.