Meet Drew Barrymore’s Famous Family! All About the Actress’ Hollywood Dynasty (That Goes Back Two Centuries) (2025)

Drew Barrymore has been a staple in Hollywood since the age of 7, when she starred in E.T., but her family’s legacy goes back even further.

The Drew Barrymore Show host was born in 1975 to two actor parents, John Drew Barrymore and Jaid Barrymore. Her father hails from a long line of actors dating back to about 1872, when Drew's great-grandfather, Herbert Blyth, first took the stage name Maurice Barrymore. The Drew family, from which Maurice’s wife hailed, began acting in the early 1800s.

Watching classic movies is “a portal," Drew told PEOPLE of her family dynasty in 2022. "I will be walking into the kitchen and there will be Lionel or John or Ethel or my dad, and I literally gasp," she said of seeing her family on-screen.

According to Drew’s aunt, Diana Barrymore, the family’s expectations for success were set early on. “I was supercharged,” she wrote in her 1957 memoir Too Much, Too Soon, per Vanity Fair. “Weren’t all the Barrymores? It was expected of me.”

As for Drew’s father, John Drew, he held his namesake in high regard. “When my dad would talk about his own father, I would listen as if I was being let into this fairy-tale world, where dangers lurk but fantastical magical things can occur,” Drew wrote in her 2015 memoir Wildflower.

Drew also said she felt an “umbilical” pull to go into the family business — one that gave the Barrymores the nickname “The Royal Family of the American Stage.”

"Something in being a part of my dad's family has been such a cosmic, spiritual, magnetic pull," she told PEOPLE in 2022. "I feel so compelled to do what they do."

Here is everything to know about the Barrymore family and all of Drew Barrymore’s acting ancestors.

Maurice Barrymore

Maurice Barrymore, the patriarch of the Barrymore acting clan, was born Herbert Blyth in Punjab, India in 1849. Though he studied law at the University of Oxford, he became passionate about the stage after becoming friends with a group of actors.

His father, William Blyth, didn’t approve of his newfound career choice, so Herbert performed under pseudonyms before taking Maurice Barrymore as his stage name.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Maurice made his American acting debut in Under the Gaslight on Jan. 23, 1875, cementing his stage name. He then made his Broadway debut in Pique in December 1875.

One year later, on Dec. 31, 1876, Maurice married actress Georgiana Drew, with whom he had three children: Ethel, Lionel and John Barrymore. All three children pursued acting careers of their own.

Maurice continued acting, often with Georgiana, in theater, performing everywhere from New York to San Francisco. He had several public breakdowns toward the end of his life, likely a result of a then-incurable bout of syphilis, according to The New York Times.

Near the end of his life, Maurice was transferred to a hospital in Amityville, N.Y. He died in his sleep on March 25, 1905.

Georgiana “Georgie” Drew Barrymore

Maurice’s wife, Georgiana Emma “Georgie” Drew Barrymore, was born in Philadelphia on July 11, 1856.

According to The New York Times, Georgie became involved in the theater as a young child while studying at a convent. At the time, her mother, Louisa Lane Drew, was the manager of and an actor at the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia.

Georgiana remained a member of Arch Street for several years until she was offered a place in Augustin Daly’s theater company in New York. It was there that she would meet her husband Maurice, who also performed with the company.

Georgiana starred alongside Maurice in the 1875 Broadway show Pique. She also had parts in As You Like It and Money. Her greatest performance, according to The New York Times, was that of the widow in David Lloyd and Sydney Rosenfeld’s play The Senator. In her later years, she performed in comedies with Charles Frohman’s company.

Georgiana’s doctors sent her to California after a long lung illness, believed to be tuberculosis, returned. On the way to San Francisco, she decided to remain in Santa Barbara, Calif., until she was cured. Georgiana died in Santa Barbara on July 2, 1893. She was 36.

Lionel Barrymore

Maurice and Georgiana’s firstborn child, Lionel Herbert Blyth, arrived on April 28, 1878. Born in Philadelphia, Lionel got his first taste of the limelight at age 6 while on tour with his parents. According to The New York Times, he filled in for a child actor who had become ill.

Lionel returned to the stage at 15 with his grandmother, Louisa, who starred alongside him in a production of The Rivals. The two also starred together in The Road to Ruin.

He took a hiatus to begin painting, even traveling abroad to study in Paris, but Lionel’s artistic ventures proved financially unsuccessful, and he returned to the stage. He also started his own family around this time, marrying his first wife, Doris Rankin, in 1904. The couple had two children, Ethel Barrymore II and Mary Barrymore, but both girls died in childhood, per The Green Book Magazine. Lionel and Rankin divorced in 1922.

In 1925, Lionel — by then married to actress Irene Fenwick — moved to Hollywood. In his lifetime, he starred in more than 200 films, including Treasure Island (1934) and David Copperfield (1935). With his brother John, Lionel appeared in Grand Hotel (1932) and Dinner at Eight (1933), among other projects.

In 1931, Lionel became the first Barrymore to receive an Oscar for his work in A Free Soul. The next year, he appeared alongside his siblings John and Ethel in Rasputin and the Empress. His biggest commercial success came as Mr. Potter in the 1946 Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life.

In his later years, Lionel used a wheelchair after sustaining a hip injury, which never healed, and developing arthritis. Still, he continued to perform, playing the part of Ebenezer Scrooge in the annual radio broadcast of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Lionel also authored several books, including the autobiography We Barrymores (1951) and the historical fiction Mr. Cantonwine: A Moral Tale (1953).

He died of a heart attack at Valley Hospital in Van Nuys, Calif., on Nov. 15, 1954. He was 76.

Ethel Barrymore

Ethel Barrymore was born to Maurice and Georgiana on Aug. 15, 1879, in Philadelphia.

Like her elder brother, Ethel took to the stage early. She was 14 years old when she decided to pursue acting, making her Broadway debut as Julia in The Rivals, according to The New York Times.

Ethel initially hoped to deviate from her family’s career trajectory. “I always hoped to be a pianist,” she once said, according to The New York Times. “But I had to eat, and acting seemed like the natural thing to do, since the family was already in it." Ethel also noted that, even after years of working, she was shy and “always scared to death” onstage.

Ethel lamented her family name in her 1955 autobiography, Memories. “I think my brothers and I were born under a dark star,” she wrote. “There was no such thing for us as enduring happiness.”

The audiences loved her, however. While Lionel was the first to receive an Oscar, Ethel was the first to achieve superstardom. She acted alongside some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Frank Sinatra and Doris Day in Young at Heart (1954). She was heralded by the likes of President Harry S. Truman, who reportedly called her "a great lady and a great artist," and Winston Churchill, whose marriage proposal she once turned down, per The New York Times.

Ethel also received plenty of professional accolades. She won an Academy Award in 1945 for None but the Lonely Heart, in which she starred opposite Cary Grant. In 1947, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her work in The Spiral Staircase (1946). She received the same nomination twice more, for her roles in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case (1947) and Pinky (1949).

The New York Times reported that in 1936, Ethel took time off to focus on her family. She married Russell G. Colt in 1909 and the couple welcomed three children — Samuel Colt, Ethel Barrymore Colt and John Drew Colt — all of whom pursued acting careers. Ethel and Russell divorced in 1923.

The actress died of heart disease at the age of 79 on June 18, 1959.

John Barrymore

Both of Drew’s paternal grandparents were also famous actors. Her grandfather, John Barrymore, was born on Feb. 14, 1882, in Philadelphia.

He initially set out to be a visual artist, studying at King’s College London and working as a freelance cartoon artist for The New York Evening Journal. John eventually took his place on the stage in a 1900 production of A Man of the World directed by his father, Maurice. He then made his Broadway debut and starred in Shakespearean stage productions in the U.S. and in England.

Known as “The Great Profile” for his prominent facial features, John transitioned into film in An American Citizen (1914).

His decades-long career followed, with credits in titles such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Sherlock Holmes (1922) and Don Juan (1926). His stage credits included Richard III (1920) and Hamlet (1922). John’s health began to deteriorate as a result of alcoholism, forcing him to use cue cards to read his lines in his last years of life.

His drinking also took a toll on his personal life. His third wife, Dolores Costello, who was known as the “Goddess of the Silver Screen,” divorced him in October 1935. (The actor was also married to Katherine Corri Harris, Blanche Oelrichs and, later, Elaine Barrie.)

John’s final film was Playmates (1941). He collapsed one year later while rehearsing a scene from Romeo and Juliet. According to John Barrymore: Shakespearean Actor by Michael A. Morrison, John was diagnosed with bronchial pneumonia, hardening of the arteries, hemorrhaging ulcers and cirrhosis of the liver. He died on May 29, 1942, at age 60.

John’s legacy was carried on through his three children: Diana Barrymore, whom he shared with Oelrichs, as well as Dolores Ethel Mae and John Drew Barrymore, whom he shared with Costello. Both Diana and John Drew followed in their father’s theatrical footsteps.

In 2020, John's granddaughter, Drew, confirmed on Hot Ones that his body was once stolen from its final resting place by his friends W.C. Fields, Errol Flynn and Sadakichi Hartmann, who wanted to play a “final” game of poker with him. The escapade was rumored to have inspired the film Weekend at Bernie’s (1989).

“I can’t know ever if that’s even true,” Drew said of the movie’s origins.

Diana Barrymore

John Barrymore and his second wife, Blanche Oelrichs, welcomed their daughter Diana on March 3, 1921.

In her memoir Too Much, Too Soon, Diana recalled that she didn't have a close relationship with her father and first saw him when she was old enough to read. Diana later found a baby photo of herself with John tucked into a copy of his 1926 memoir.

After studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Diana made her Broadway debut in The Romantic Mr. Dickens, according to TIME. She later made the transition into film, appearing in films like Nightmare (1942) and Ladies Courageous (1944).

Her performances gained the attention of her famous father, who is said to have told reporters: "Isn't she lovely! I worked like hell on Hamlet and Richard III but she was the best thing I ever produced!"

Diana was married three times throughout her life: to Bramwell Fletcher, tennis player John Howard and Robert Wilcox.

Diana was found dead in her Manhattan apartment on Jan. 25, 1960. She was 38. Her cause of death was presumed to be an overdose, as she was found with empty liquor bottles and various drugs in her apartment, though officially it was listed as “unknown.” According to the Lodi News-Sentinel, Diana's autopsy failed to provide a cause of death.

John Drew Barrymore

John Barrymore and Dolores Costello welcomed Drew's father, John Drew Barrymore, on June 4, 1932.

He followed in his parents' footsteps early on, making his debut on the silver screen at age 18 with The Sundowners and High Lonesome.

John Drew was married four times and fathered four children. He and his first wife, Cara Williams, welcomed son John Blyth Barrymore III in 1954. Four years later, he had Blyth Dolores Barrymore with his second wife, Gabriella Palazzoli. Daughter Jessica Blyth Barrymore was born to John Drew and Nina Wayne in 1966 and the actor welcomed his youngest, Drew, with Jaid Barrymore in 1975.

John Drew was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in his later years and was supported by Drew, who paid for his hospice care. “I just understood what an incapable human being he was,” she told Vulture.

John Drew died on Nov. 29, 2004, at the age of 72. "He was a cool cat. Please smile when you think of him," Drew said in a statement at the time, according to The Washington Post.

Jaid Barrymore, 78

Drew’s mother, Ildikó Jaid Barrymore, is also an actress. Born in Germany to Hungarian refugees on May 8, 1946, she immigrated to the U.S. with her parents in the 1950s, according to El País.

In 1971, she married John Drew and entered into the Barrymore dynasty. The couple separated when Drew was young and finalized their divorce in 1984, after which Jaid became Drew’s manager. The mother-daughter duo went their separate ways when Drew was emancipated at the age of 14.

“She had lost credibility as a mother by taking me to Studio 54 (so wrong but so fun) instead of school,” Drew wrote in Wildflower.

Jaid continued to act throughout the 1990s and 2000s with small parts in films and shorts.

In Wildflower, Drew wrote that she was financially supporting her mother. "I will always support her. I can't turn my back on the person who gave me my life,” she told PEOPLE in 2022. “I can't do it. It would hurt me so much.”

John Blyth Barrymore III, 70

John Drew and his first wife, actress Cara Williams, welcomed John Blyth Barrymore III on May 15, 1954.

According to the actor, who shared his story with The Arts and Entertainment Magazine in 2011, his career began when he was 4 months old, starring alongside his father in a Hallmark Hall of Fame live TV play.

As a teenager, John Blyth starred in the TV film Me and Benjy (1967). Several years later, he appeared on TV in series like Kung Fu and Lou Grant. Later, he earned bit parts in several films, including Nocturna (1979) and Full Moon High (1981).

He has one son, John Blyth Barrymore Jr., with his first wife, Jacqueline, and two daughters, Blyth Lane and Sabrina Brooke, with his second wife, Rebecca Pogrow.

Drew Barrymore, 50

John Drew and Jaid welcomed Drew on Feb. 22, 1975, and she got her first starring role at the age of 7 in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

In 1983, Drew attended her first Oscars ceremony, where E.T. won four awards. The actress struggled with addiction issues and in April 1990, she told the L.A. Times that after going to rehabilitation programs, she had slowed her lifestyle down significantly.

“I don’t do that stuff anymore ... I don’t go around it,” Drew said. “Through sobriety I’ve found another life, a better life. But it hasn’t been easy.”

In February 1991, the child star emancipated herself at the age of 14 and moved into an apartment of her own.

Drew flourished professionally, regularly working on hit films such as Poison Ivy (1992), Wayne’s World 2 (1993) and Boys on the Side (1995). At 20, she started her own production company, Flower Films, with Nancy Juvonen. With Flower Films, she starred in some of her biggest hits, including Never Been Kissed (1999), Charlie’s Angels (2000), 50 First Dates (2004) and Fever Pitch (2005). Whip It (2009) marked Drew’s directorial debut.

Drew married longtime friend Will Kopelman in 2012. The couple welcomed daughters Olive and Frankie during their relationship, leading Drew to pull away from acting. “It was like, there is one role of your entire life that’s going to matter the most, and it’s being a real-life mother,” she told Vulture. Drew and Kopelman divorced in 2016.

The Wildflower author gave further insight into her career path in an interview with The Guardian in 2015. “I don’t want my girls to grow up saying, ‘Oh wow, yeah, she really worked hard, but I didn’t see her,’ ” she said. “I want them to be like, ‘I don’t know how the hell she was there for all those things, and she still worked!’ ”

According to the TV personality, therapy, her daughters andThe Drew Barrymore Show, her talk show that premiered in 2020, helped her to quit drinking after her 2016 divorce. “It was my kids that made me feel like it's game time," she told PEOPLE in 2022, adding that developing the show “gave me something to focus on and pour myself into. It gave us something to believe in."

In June 2023, Drew told Vulture that she was working on her complex relationship with her mother and with herself. “I forgive my mom. I forgive my dad,” she said. “I’ve never forgiven myself, but I’d like to and I’m ready to.”