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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
September 17, 1903
Died
March 1, 1979
Place of Birth
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Also Known As
- Dolores Costello Barrymore
Dolores Costello
0.3 Popularity
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Dolores Costello (September 17, 1903 – March 1, 1979) was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. She was nicknamed "The Goddess of the Silent Screen". She was stepmother of John Barrymore's daughter Diana by his second wife Blanche Oelrichs, the mother of John Drew Barrymore and Dolores (Dee Dee) Barrymore, and the grandmother of John Barrymore III, Blyth Dolores Barrymore, Brahma Blyth (Jessica) Barrymore, and Drew Barrymore. Dolores Costello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of actors Maurice Costello and Mae Costello (née Altschuk). She was of Irish and German descent. She had a younger sister, Helene, and the two made their first film appearances in the years 1909–1915 as child actresses for the Vitagraph Film Company. They played supporting roles in several films starring their father, who was a popular matinee idol at the time. The two sisters appeared on Broadway together as chlorines and their success resulted in contracts with Warner Brothers Studios. In 1926, following small parts in feature films, she was selected by John Barrymore to star opposite him in The Sea Beast, a loose adaptation of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. Warner Bros. soon began starring her in her own vehicles. Meanwhile, she and Barrymore became romantically involved and married in 1928. Within a few years of achieving stardom, the delicately beautiful blonde-haired actress had become a successful and highly regarded film personality in her own right. As a young adult her career developed to the degree that in 1926 she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star, and had acquired the nickname "The Goddess of the Silver Screen". Warners alternated Costello between films with contemporary settings and elaborate costume dramas. In 1927 she was re-teamed with John Barrymore in When a Man Loves, an adaptation of Manon Lescaut. In 1928 she co-starred with George O'Brien in Noah's Ark, a part-talkie epic directed by Michael Curtiz. Costello spoke with a lisp and found it difficult to make the transition to talking pictures, but after two years of voice coaching she was comfortable speaking before a microphone. One of her early sound film appearances was with her sister Helene in Warner Bros.'s all-star extravaganza The Show of Shows (1929). Her acting career became less a priority for her following the birth of her first child, Dolores Ethel Mae "DeeDee" Barrymore, on April 8, 1930, and she retired from the screen in 1931 to devote time to her family. Her second child, John Drew Barrymore, was born on June 4, 1932, but the marriage proved difficult due to her husband's increasing alcoholism, and they divorced in 1935. She resumed her career a year later and achieved some successes, most notably in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). She retired permanently from acting following her appearance in This is the Army (1943), again under the direction of Michael Curtiz. In 1950 Costello divorced Dr. John Vruwink, whom she had married in 1939. She spent the remaining years of her life in semi-seclusion, managing an avocado farm. She died from emphysema in Fallbrook, California in 1979.
Known For
10.0
Self (archive footage)
Paris Hilton, Inc.
2009
9.0
(archive footage)
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
1990
🎬
0.0
Magic Movie Moments
1953
0.0
Self (archive footage)
The Golden Twenties
1950
5.8
Mrs. Davidson
This Is the Army
1943
7.3
Isabel Amberson Minafer
The Magnificent Ambersons
1942
7.5
Margaret Bronson
Outside These Walls
1939
0.0
Laura Crandall
Whispering Enemies
1939
7.0
Eve Barnes
King of the Turf
1939
5.4
Martha Martin
Breaking the Ice
1938
Credits
Paris Hilton, Inc.
as Self (archive footage)
2009
10.0
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
as (archive footage)
1990
9.0
🎬
Magic Movie Moments
1953
0.0
The Golden Twenties
as Self (archive footage)
1950
0.0
This Is the Army
as Mrs. Davidson
1943
5.8
The Magnificent Ambersons
as Isabel Amberson Minafer
1942
7.3
Outside These Walls
as Margaret Bronson
1939
7.5
Whispering Enemies
as Laura Crandall
1939
0.0
King of the Turf
as Eve Barnes
1939
7.0
Breaking the Ice
as Martha Martin
1938
5.4
The Beloved Brat
as Helen Cosgrove
1938
6.4
Yours for the Asking
as Lucille Sutton
1936
1.0
Little Lord Fauntleroy
as 'Dearest' Erroll
1936
6.7
Expensive Women
as Constance 'Connie' Newton
1931
4.8
Second Choice
as Vallery Grove
1930
0.0
Show of Shows
as Performer in 'Meet My Sister' Number
1929
5.5
Hearts in Exile
as Vera Zuanova
1929
0.0
Madonna of Avenue A
as Maria Morton
1929
0.0
Glad Rag Doll
as Annabel Lee
1929
0.0
The Redeeming Sin
as Joan Billaire
1929
0.0
Noah's Ark
as Marie / Miriam
1928
6.3
Glorious Betsy
as Betsy Patterson
1928
6.4
Tenderloin
as Rose Shannon
1928
0.0
The Circus: Premiere
as Self
1928
5.4
The College Widow
as Jane Witherspoon
1927
0.0
Old San Francisco
as Dolores Vasquez
1927
5.7
When a Man Loves
as Manon Lescaut
1927
6.4
The Heart of Maryland
as Maryland Calvert
1927
0.0
A Million Bid
as Dorothy Gordon
1927
0.0
The Third Degree
as Annie Daly
1926
0.0
The Little Irish Girl
as Dot Walker
1926
0.0
Bride of the Storm
as Faith Fitzhugh
1926
0.0
The Sea Beast
as Esther Harper
1926
6.4
Mannequin
as Joan Herrick
1926
0.0
Bobbed Hair
as (uncredited)
1925
0.0
Greater Than a Crown
as Isabel Frances / Princess of Lividia
1925
0.0
Lawful Larceny
as Nora the maid
1923
0.0
The Glimpses of the Moon
as Secondary Role
1923
0.0
🎬
The Heart of Jim Brice
1915
0.0
The Evil Men Do
as David - as a Little Boy
1915
0.0
🎬
Too Much Burglar
1914
0.0
Etta of the Footlights
1914
0.0
🎬
Some Steamer Scooping
as The Little Stowaway
1914
0.0
Fellow Voyagers
as Little Dolores Gray
1913
0.0
🎬
In the Shadow
as Neighbor Girl
1913
0.0
🎬
The Hindoo Charm
as Dolores Tilbury - the Older Child
1913
0.0
🎬
A Birthday Gift
1913
0.0
Ida's Christmas
as Ida - the Little Smith Girl
1912
4.0
🎬
Song of the Shell
as Little Bess M.
1912
0.0
🎬
The Toymaker
as Little Dot Avery
1912
0.0
🎬
The Irony of Fate
as Fourth Child
1912
0.0
🎬
Bobby's Father
as Bobby Ramsay
1912
0.0
🎬
Captain Barnacle's Legacy
as Ruth - Barnacle's Adopted Daughter
1912
0.0
🎬
Her Grandchild
as Little Janet - the Grandchild
1912
0.0
🎬
Vultures and Doves
as Mrs. Hanley's Little Girl
1912
0.0
🎬
Wanted... a Grandmother
1912
0.0
🎬
A Juvenile Love Affair
as Jane - Alvin's Sweetheart
1912
0.0
🎬
The Money Kings
1912
0.0
🎬
The Troublesome Step-Daughters
1912
4.0
Lulu's Doctor
as Lulu
1912
2.5
She Never Knew
as Mr. Blinn's Granddaughter
1912
0.0
🎬
For the Honor of the Family
as Alice - the Child
1912
0.0
The Meeting of the Ways
as One of Tom's Children
1912
4.0
🎬
Captain Jenks' Dilemma
as One of Widow Brown's Children
1912
0.0
🎬
Some Good in All
as Betty Lane - John's Daughter
1911
0.0
🎬
A Reformed Santa Claus
as The Widow's 1st Child
1911
0.0
🎬
His Sister's Children
as Buster aka Budge
1911
0.0
🎬
The Child Crusoes
1911
0.0
🎬
The Geranium
1911
0.0
Consuming Love; or, St. Valentine's Day in Greenaway Land
1911
0.0
The Telephone
as Daughter
1910
0.0
A Midsummer Night's Dream
as Fairy
1909
4.8