Georgiana [Emma] Drew Barrymore

Barrymore, Georgiana [Emma] Drew (1856–93), actress. The daughter of Mrs. John Drew, wife of Maurice Barrymore, and mother of Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, and John Barrymore, she made her debut at her mother's Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia in 1872 in The Ladies' Battle. She continued under her mother's tutelage for several seasons before moving to New York where she first appeared for Augustin Daly in 1876. There had been some suspicion that her favorable notices in Philadelphia were prompted by critics' affection for Mrs. Drew, but her New York reviews immediately won her recognition as a young actress of great promise. Barrymore's other notable roles, before and after the birth of her three children, include the comic Irish maid Grace in Divorce, Maria in The School for Scandal; Eureka Grubb, the outspoken miner's daughter, in Nadjezda (1884); Madge Heskitt, the wronged wife, in Jack (1887); Lady Frank Brooks, the other woman, in On Probation (1889); Mrs. Hilary, the coquettish widow, in The Senator (1890); Mrs. Rippendale, the impudent adventuress, in Balloon; and the title role of Mrs. Wakefield in The Woman of the World (these last two plays in an 1890 double bill). Joining Charles Frohman's Comedians enabled her to play the comically jealous wife in Mr. Wilkinson's Widows (1891), the ludicrously sentimental Lucretia Plunkett in Settled Out of Court (1892), and Mrs. Briscoe, the neglected wife, in the farce The Sportsman (1893). The promising career of the tall, supple actress with large blue eyes was cut short by her early death. The Journal said of her, “Her intelligence, naïveté and personal graces, combined with the power of clear musical utterance, took a strong hold on popular appreciation.”