Barrymore, a talented young actress, has been as well known for her wild antics off-screen as for her acting ability. Ildiko Jaid, estranged from husband John Barrymore Jr., began taking her daughter to auditions as a baby.The youngest Barrymore appeared in her first television commercial for Puppy Choice dog food before she was a year old.
She made her big screen debut at the age of four in Ken Russell's Altered States (1980). At the age of seven, Barrymore landed her most famous role as Gertie, the adorable little sister in E.T.: The Extraterrestrial (1982). The role pushed Barrymore into the spotlight. After the movie she appeared on NBC's The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and became the youngest-ever host of Saturday Night Live.
Jaid began taking her daughter to night clubs, and it was at Studio 54 and the China Club that Barrymore developed a pre-teenage fondness for drugs and alcohol. At age 13, an enraged Barrymore became violent when she was unable to throw her mother out of the house. She was placed in a rehabilitation center, and later wrote of the experience in her autobiography, Little Girl Lost.
Because of her reputation as a wild child in trouble, film projects were slow to materialize. Barrymore made some minor films, including Irreconcilable Differences, Firestarter and Cat's Eye. In the 1990s, she began starring in a series of films that exploited her bad-girl image, including Poison Ivy (1992), Guncrazy (1992), and The Amy Fisher Story (1993), a made-for-TV movie based on the Joey Buttafuoco scandal.
Barrymore entered into a short-lived marriage to bar owner Jeremy Thomas at age 19, which lasted from March to May of 1994. She continued her controversial behavior throughout the early 1990s by posing nude for spreads in Andy Warhol's Interview and in Playboy. She also made headlines when she exposed herself on live TV to a shocked David Letterman during his Late Night show birthday celebration.
Her luck began to change in 1995, when Barrymore founded her own production company, Flower Films. The same year, she gave a solid performance in the film Boys on the Side co-starring Whoopi Goldberg and Mary-Louise Parker. The next year she made a memorable terror-filled appearance in the blockbuster Scream (1996) and co-starred in Woody Allen's musical Everybody Says I Love You (1996).
In 1998, she proved her strength as a romantic leading lady when she co-starred in the popular comedy, The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler and in Ever After, a version of the Cinderella story co-starring Anjelica Huston.
* Also Credited As:
Drew Blythe Barrymore
* Born:
Drew Blythe Barrymore on February 22, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA
* Job Titles:
Actress, Director, Producer
Family
* Aunt: Diana Barrymore. Born in 1920; died in 1960
* Father: John Barrymore Jr.. Born June 4, 1932; separated from Barrymore s mother before her birth, they divorced in 1984; was estranged from daugther for most of his life; died of cancer on Nov. 29, 2004 at age 72
* Godmother: Anna Strasberg.
* Grandfather: John Barrymore. Born in 1882; highly acclaimed matinee idol of stage and screen in the 1920s and 30s; known as The Great Profile ; died in 1942
* Grandmother: Dolores Costello. Popular star of silent films who made a memorable comeback in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
* Grandparent: John Barrymore.
* Great-Aunt: Ethel Barrymore. Legendary stage performer who in her later years played character roles in Hollywood films; Oscar winner as Best Supporting Actress for None But the Lonely Heart (1944)
* Great-Aunt: Helene Costello. Sister of Dolores Costello, also a silent screen star
* Great-Grandfather: Maurice Barrymore. Born in 1847; popular stage actor and matinee idol; died of syphilis in 1905
* Great-Grandfather: Maurice Costello. Known as The Dimpled Darling ; was one of the first matinee idols of the screen
* Great-Grandmother: Georgianna Drew. Born in 1855; died in 1893
* Great-Great-Grandfather: John Drew.
* Great-Great-Grandmother: Louisa Lane Drew. First woman theater manager in USA
* Great-Uncle: Lionel Barrymore. Born in 1878; famed, prolific actor who worked primarily in Hollywood over the course of his lengthy career; Oscar winner as Best Actor for A Free Soul (1931); died in 1954
* Half-Brother: John Blyth Barrymore. Born in 1954; son of John Barrymore and Cara Williams
* Half-Sister: Blyth Dolores Barrymore. Born in 1962; daughter of John Barrymore and Gabriella Palazzoli
* Half-Sister: Jessica Barrymore. Older; daughter of John Barrymore and Nina Wayne
* Mother: Ildiko Jaid. Separated from Barrymore s father before her birth; they divorced in 1984; posed for Playboy magazine in September 1995, eight months after her daughter did in January 1995; mother and daughter have a strained relationship
* Parent: John Drew Barrymore.
Significant Others
* Companion: Alex Piro.
* Companion: Brandon Davis. Briefly dated in 2002; no longer together
* Companion: Eric Erlandson. Guitarist for the rock group Hole (featuring Courtney Love); dated c. 1995; no longer together
* Companion: Fabrizio Moretti. Drummer for the band The Strokes; began dating in May 2002; briefly split in the Fall of 2002; rumored to be engaged as of January 2003; ended relationship in January 2007
* Companion: Jamie Walters. Announced engagement in August 1992; separated in January 1993
* Companion: Jeremy Davies. Dated briefly in 1999; no longer together
* Companion: Joel Shearer. Dated in 2002; no longer together
* Companion: Justin Long. Met on the set of He s Just Not That Into You (2009); began dating in August 2007 and split in July 2008; began dating again in early 2009
* Companion: Leland Hayward.
* Companion: Luke Wilson. Together from 1996-1998; appeared together in Best Men (1997) and Home Fries (1998)
* Companion: Phedon Papamichael. Reportedly dated c. 1992; no longer together
* Companion: Spike Jonze. Dated for a few months in 2007; no longer together
* Companion: Val Kilmer. Rumored to have been involved c. 1995; Barrymore has said they were only friends
* Companion: Will Kopelman. Son of former Chanel CEO Arie Kopelman; reportedly dating as of February 2011
* Husband: Jeremy Thomas. Welsh-born; married March 20, 1994 after a five-week courtship; together for 19 days; filed for divorce May 10, 1994; divorce finalized 11 months later
* Husband: Tom Green. Began dating in March 2000; announced engagement in July 2000; eloped in the South Pacific in March 2001; remarried in a larger ceremony before friends and family on July 6, 2001; Green filed for divorce on Dec. 17, 2001; divorced finalized in 2002
Milestones
* 1980 Made first film appearance in a bit part in Altered States
* 1980 TV-movie debut in Bogie (CBS); played Leslie Bogart as a child
* 1982 Played Gertie, the younger sister, in E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial
* 1984 Played the title character in the sci-fi thriller Firestarter
* 1984 Starred as a young girl divorcing her parents in Irreconcilable Differences
* 1986 Starred in the NBC TV remake of Babes in Toyland
* 1990 At age 15, filed papers to become legally emancipated from her parents
* 1991 Lived with film director Tamra Davis and her husband briefly
* 1992 Directed by Davis in Guncrazy (shown at film festivals before airing on Showtime prior to its 1993 theatrical release)
* 1992 First starring film role, Poison Ivy
* 1992 TV series debut as regular, had featured role in the short-lived summer serial 2000 Malibu Road (CBS)
* 1993 Played Long Island Lolita Amy Fisher in the ABC TV-movie, The Amy Fisher Story
* 1994 Founded the production company, Flower Films, Inc
* 1995 Cast as the flirtatious Holly in Boys on the Side, also featuring Whoopi Goldberg and Mary-Louise Parker
* 1995 Starred opposite Chris O Donnell as his free-spirited, mentally ill romantic interest in Mad Love
* 1996 Made cameo appearance as a high school student targeted by the killer in Scream
* 1996 Played featured role as Edward Norton s fiancee in Woody Allen s Everyone Says I Love You ; had singing voice dubbed
* 1998 Played a character based on Cinderella in the romance Ever After
* 1998 Starred opposite Adam Sandler in the popular romantic comedy The Wedding Singer
* 1999 Starred as an awkward twentysomething reporter who returns to high school for an undercover assignment in Never Been Kissed
* 2000 Co-starred with Cameron Diaz in big screen version of the 1970s TV series Charlie s Angels
* 2001 Executive produced and played supporting role of an English teacher in the critically acclaimed film Donnie Darko
* 2001 Played a teenage mother in a failed marriage with the drug-addicted father (based on the real-life story of Beverly D Onofrio) in Penny Marshall s Riding in Cars With Boys ; also executive produced
* 2002 Played the female lead in George Clooney s directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
* 2003 Reprised role in Charlie s Angels: Full Throttle ; made under her production banner, Flower Films
* 2004 Reunited with Adam Sandler for the comedy 50 First Dates, playing a chronic amnesiac
* 2005 Co-starred with Jimmy Fallon in the Americanized version of Nick Hornby s Fever Pitch, directed by the Farrelly Brothers
* 2007 Co-starred with Eric Bana in Lucky You, a drama directed by Curtis Hanson (lensed 2005)
* 2007 Starred opposite Hugh Grant in the romantic comedy Music & Lyrics
* 2008 Lent her voice to the live-action comedy, Beverly Hills Chihuahua
* 2009 Joined an ensemble cast for the feature adaptation of the bestselling book, He s Just Not That Into You ; also produced through her production company, Flower Films
* 2009 Made directorial debut with the film, Whip It! ; also produced and co-starred in the film with Ellen Page
* 2009 Portrayed Edith Bouvier Beale Little Edie, opposite Jessica Lange as Big Edie, in the HBO film Grey Gardens ; earned an Emmy nomination for Best Actress in a TV Movie
* 2010 Co-starred opposite Justin Long in Going the Distance, a romantic comedy about long-distance relationships
* Acted in television commercials as a baby