Barrymore, Maurice

Barrymore, Maurice [né Herbert Blythe] (1849–1905), actor. Born in India, he studied law in London and won some fame as an amateur boxer before turning to the stage. After a few London appearances and an American debut in Boston in Under the Gaslight, he came to New York where in 1875 he first appeared for Augustin Daly as Bob Ruggles in The Big Bonanza, replacing John Drew, whose niece Georgiana Barrymore he later married. He was an immediate success and in quick succession played Talbot Champeys in Our Boys, Laertes and Aumerle opposite Edwin Booth, Raymond Lessing in Pique, and Sir Frederick Blout in Money. Moving to Wallack's, he portrayed, among others, Charles in London Assurance and Capt. Molineux in The Shaughraun. In 1882 Barrymore joined Helena Modjeska as her leading man, acting Orlando, Romeo, Sebastian, Armand, and roles in many now‐forgotten contemporary pieces. He moved to A. M. Palmer's company in 1888, where his parts included Wilding in Captain Swift and Captain Davenport in Alabama. His greatest role is generally considered to be Rawdon Crawley in Becky Sharp (1899), in which he played opposite Mrs. Fiske. In his last active years, his erratic behavior, stemming from the paresis that ultimately killed him, caused producers to shun him, so he turned to vaudeville. Barrymore also wrote several plays, including Blood Will Tell (never produced in America), Nadjezda (1884), The Robber of the Rhine (1892), and Roaring Dick & Co. (1896). He later sued Sardou, claiming the playwright had stolen the plot of Nadjezda for Tosca, but failed to prevent Tosca's American premiere. A fellow performer once described him as “a tall man, dark and pale, with cool Northern grey eyes. . . . He was lightly built, but of a round‐muscled, strong shouldered powerful lightness.” The Evening Sun observed, “As Rawdon Crawley he was superb. In looks, speech and manner he might have stepped directly out of Thackeray's pages. His performance was a blending of sterling manliness and the gentlest pathos.” Biography: Good Times/Great Times, James Kotsilibas‐Davis, 1977.