Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore (born February 22, 1975) is an Emmy Award- and Golden Globe-nominated American actress and film producer, the youngest member of the Barrymore family of American actors. She has her own production company, Flower Films. Barrymore made her screen debut in Altered States (1980); her breakout role two years later was in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. She quickly became one of Hollywood’s most recognized child actresses going on to establish herself in mainly comic roles. She has hosted Saturday Night Live 5 times, which places her among Candice Bergen and Bill Murray.
Early life
Barrymore was born in Culver City, California to American actor John Drew Barrymore and Ildiko Jaid Barrymore (nee Mako), an aspiring actress born in a displaced persons camp in Brannenburg, West Germany to Hungarian World War II refugees. Her parents divorced after she was born. She has a half-brother John Blyth Barrymore, also an actor, and two half-sisters, Blyth Dolores Barrymore and Brahma (Jessica) Blyth Barrymore.
Barrymore was born into the acting profession, coming from a long line of acting talent stretching back nearly 200 years; her great-great grandparents John Drew, Louisa Lane Drew, her great-grandparents Maurice Barrymore, Georgiana Drew and Maurice Costello, and her grandparents John Barrymore and Dolores Costello were all highly successful actors; John Barrymore was arguably the most acclaimed actor of his generation. She is the grand-niece of Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore (whom Winston Churchill once proposed to), and Helene Costello, and the great grandniece of John Drew, Jr., actress Louisa Drew, and silent film actor/writer/director Sidney Drew. Her father and half-brother are also actors. She is also the goddaughter of director Steven Spielberg.
Her first name, Drew, was the maiden name of her paternal great-grandmother, Georgiana Drew; her middle name, Blyth, was the original surname of the dynasty founded by her great-grandfather, Maurice Barrymore.
Rise to fame
Barrymore’s career began when she was eleven months old, when she auditioned for a dog food commercial. When she was bitten by her canine co-star, the producers were afraid she would cry, but she merely laughed, and was hired for the job. She made her film debut in Altered States (1980). A year later, she landed the role of Gertie in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which made her famous. She received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1984 for her role in Irreconcilable Differences.
Rebellious era
In the wake of this sudden stardom, Barrymore endured a notoriously troubled childhood, already a regular at the famed Studio 54 when she was a little girl, smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol by the time she was 9, smoking marijuana at 10, and snorting cocaine at 13. She was in rehab at age 13 and a second time at 14. Barrymore later described this period of her life in her 1990 autobiography, Little Girl Lost. Her nightlife and constant partying became a popular subject with the media.
New image
In adulthood, she kept a “bad girl” image, and used her new-found role as a sex symbol to stage a career comeback playing a manipulative, evil teenage seductress in Poison Ivy (1992). The film found enormous success on VHS when it was first released. She posed nude for the January 1995 issue of Playboy. Spielberg gave her a quilt for her 20th birthday with a note that read “Cover yourself up”. Enclosed were copies of her Playboy pictures, with the pictures altered by his art department so that she appeared fully clothed. At that time, she had also appeared nude in five of her recent movies. During a 1995 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, Barrymore climbed onto Dave Letterman’s desk and bared her breasts to him, her back to the camera. The flash was intended to celebrate his birthday. She also modeled in a series of Guess? jeans ads during this time. She got breast reduction surgery in 1992, and has said on the subject:
You should have seen the size of them I was a 34DD. Everybody stared at them and it was so embarrassing. They’d be like “you changed,” and they’d be staring straight at my breasts. After I got my boobs reduced to a 34C, all the sudden this thing that was so scary and embarrassing wasn’t a problem anymore.
Return to prominence
She made a comeback in the successful 1996 horror film Scream. Barrymore has continued to be highly bankable, and a top box office draw. She has been especially adept in romantic comedies, such as Wishful Thinking (1996), The Wedding Singer (1998), Home Fries (1998), Never Been Kissed (1999), 50 First Dates (2004), and Fever Pitch (2005). Summing up Barrymore’s appeal, Roger Ebert, in his review of 50 First Dates describes Barrymore as having a “smiling, coy sincerity”, describing the film as “ingratiating and lovable”. She has also produced several films, including Charlie’s Angels (2000), a major box office success of 2000. After Charlie’s Angels, Drew had a dramatic role in the comedy/drama Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), where she played a teenage mother in a failed marriage with the drug-addicted father (based on the real-life story of Beverly D’Onofrio). In Richard Kelly’s debut movie Donnie Darko she had the fairly small role of Karen Pomeroy, the title character’s English teacher. In 2003, she reprised her role as Dylan Sanders in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. Maxim magazine featured Barrymore and her fellow Angels in their “Girls of Maxim” gallery after the launch of the film. Later in 2002, Barrymore appeared in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, alongside Julia Roberts. In the words of Yahoo! Movies:
Heir to a Hollywood dynasty, child star, prepubescent drug and alcohol abuser, teenage sexpot, and resurrected vessel of celluloid purity, Drew Barrymore is nothing if not the embodiment of the rise and fall of Hollywood fortunes, self-reinvention, and the healing powers of good PR.
She was the subject of My Date with Drew (2005). In it, an aspiring filmmaker and fan uses his limited resources in an attempt to gain a date with her.
On February 3, 2004, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One of her most recent roles has involved her becoming a recurring character in the hit animated comedy Family Guy as Brian Griffin’s shallow girlfriend, Jillian. She has since appeared in four episodes.
Barrymore has also appeared in the films Lucky You (2007) and Music and Lyrics (2007). She recently hosted Saturday Night Live for the fifth time, making her the second female host in the show’s history to do so (Candice Bergen being the first) and still remains the youngest celebrity to host the show (Barrymore hosted in 1982 at age 7; Jodie Foster was 14 when she hosted it in 1976). Barrymore has a worldwide box office gross that stands at over $2.3 billion. According The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Star Salary Top 10, she is one of the actresses with the second highest salary per movie for 2006.
In March 2007, former magazine editor Jane Pratt claimed on her Sirius Satellite Radio show that she had a romance with Barrymore. This was after Barrymore’s own 2003 admission that she considered herself bisexual, commenting: “”I don’t think I could ever just solely be with a woman…It’s just not enough for me.”
It was announced on April 11, 2007 that Barrymore will become CoverGirl Cosmetic’s newest model and spokeswoman. In April 2007, Barrymore reached No. 1 in People’s annual 100 Most Beautiful People list, taking the title from Angelina Jolie. In May 2007, Barrymore was named Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme. In June 2007, Gucci announced that Drew Barrymore would be the new face for their jewelry line.
Personal life
Barrymore had her first kiss with actor Breckin Meyer, who went to her elementary school according to an extra on the DVD 50 First Dates. She was married to Welsh bartender turned bar owner, Jeremy Thomas, from March 20-April 28, 1994, and to comedian Tom Green from July 7, 2001-October 15, 2002 (Green filed for divorce in December 2001).
In January 2007, Barrymore broke up with her boyfriend, drummer Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes, with whom she had been since April 2002.
Drew, along with R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, are the godparents of Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of Courtney Love and the late Kurt Cobain.
Filmography
1980 Altered States
1982 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
1984 Firestarter
Irreconcilable Differences
1985 Cat’s Eye
1986 Babes in Toyland
1989 See You In The Morning
Far From Home
1991 Motorama
1992 Waxwork II: Lost in Time
Poison Ivy
Guncrazy
1993 No Place to Hide
Doppelganger
Wayne’s World 2
1994 Inside the Goldmine
Bad Girls
1995 Boys on the Side
Mad Love
Batman Forever
1996 Everyone Says I Love You
Scream
1997 Wishful Thinking
Best Men
1998 The Wedding Singer
Ever After
Home Fries
1999 Never Been Kissed
2000 Skipped Parts
Titan A.E.
Charlie’s Angels
2001 Donnie Darko
Freddy Got Fingered
Riding in Cars with Boys
2002 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
2003 Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle
Duplex
2004 50 First Dates
2005 Fever Pitch
2006 Curious George
2007 Music and Lyrics
Lucky You
2008 South of the Border
He’s Just Not That Into You
from www.wikipedia.org
