Maurice Barrymore - Last Years

Last Years

In 1896, Barrymore became the first major Broadway star to headline in vaudeville—a brave foray at the time that he speculatively would have later made into motion pictures had he lived. In the 1895 theater season on Broadway he co-starred with Mrs. Leslie Carter in The Heart of Maryland. In the 1899 season on Broadway he had a success playing opposite Mrs. Fiske in the part of Rawdon Crawley in Becky Sharp. This play was based on a character from William Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair. Becky Sharp was Barrymore's last Broadway success. In 1900, Barrymore toured the U.S. with a play called The Battle of the Strong. In the company of this play was a five year old child actress, Blanche Sweet, who grew up to be a silent movie actress and acted with Lionel in his first film. When the Battle of the Strong company stopped in Louisville, Kentucky Barrymore sat for his last posed photograph. Also during this time he got to spend time with his son John, who was now in his late teens. Lionel and Ethel were on the road in theater companies having already started their careers.

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Famous quotes containing the word years:

    The years do not wait for us.
    —Chinese proverb.

    Confucian Analects.

    Without any extraordinary effort of genius, I have discovered that nature was the same three thousand years ago as at present; that men were but men then as well as now; that modes and customs vary often, but that human nature is always the same. And I can no more suppose, that men were better, braver, or wiser, fifteen hundred or three thousand years ago, than I can suppose that the animals or vegetables were better than they are now.
    Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)