Drew Barrymore

Anne Helm and Drew's father, John Drew Barrymore, in Gunsmoke, 1964

Drew Blythe Barrymore was born in Culver City, California, to American actor John Drew Barrymore and aspiring actress Jaid Barrymore (born Ildikó Jaid Makó),[7] who was born in a displaced persons camp in Brannenburg, West Germany, to Hungarian World War II refugees.[8] Barrymore is one of four children and has a half-brother, John,[9] who is also an actor. Her parents divorced in 1984, when she was nine years old.[2]

Barrymore was born into an acting family. All of her paternal great-grandparents—Maurice and Georgie Drew Barrymore, Maurice and Mae Costello (née Altschuk)—as well as her paternal grandparents, John Barrymore and Dolores Costello, were actors,[10] with John being arguably the most acclaimed actor of his generation.[2][11] Barrymore is a niece of Diana Barrymore, a grandniece of Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, and Helene Costello,[12] and a great-great-granddaughter of Irish-born John and English-born Louisa Lane Drew, all of whom were also actors. She is a great-grandniece of Broadway idol John Drew Jr. and silent film actor, writer, and director Sidney Drew.[13]

Barrymore's godmothers are actress Sophia Loren[14] and Lee Strasberg's widow, Anna Strasberg; Barrymore described her relationship with the latter as one that "would become so important to me as a kid because she was so kind and nurturing."[15] Her godfather is director Steven Spielberg.[16][17][18][19]

Barrymore's first name, Drew, was the maiden name of her paternal great-grandmother Georgie Drew, and her middle name, Blythe, was the surname of the family first used by her great-grandfather Maurice Barrymore.[16] In her 1991 autobiography Little Girl Lost, Barrymore recounted early memories of her abusive father, who left the family when Barrymore was six months old. She and her father never had anything resembling a significant relationship and seldom spoke to each other.[20]

Barrymore grew up on Poinsettia Place in West Hollywood until the age of 7, when she moved to Sherman Oaks. In her 2015 memoir, Wildflower, she says she talks "like a valley girl" because she grew up in Sherman Oaks. She moved back to West Hollywood upon becoming emancipated at 14.[21] Barrymore attended elementary school at Fountain Day School in West Hollywood and Country School.[22]

In the wake of her sudden stardom, Barrymore endured a notoriously troubled childhood. She was a regular at the racy Studio 54 as a young girl, and her nightlife and constant partying became a popular subject with the media. She was placed in rehab at the age of 13,[2][16] and spent 18 months in an institution for the mentally ill.[23] A suicide attempt at 14 put her back in rehab, followed by a three-month stay with singer David Crosby and his wife. The stay was precipitated, Crosby said, because she "needed to be around some people that were committed to sobriety." Barrymore later described this period of her life in her autobiography, Little Girl Lost. After a successful juvenile court petition for emancipation, she moved into her own apartment at the age of 15.[20][11]

Barrymore with President Reagan in 1984

Barrymore's professional career began at eleven months, when she auditioned for a dog food commercial. She was nipped by her canine co-star, to which she merely laughed and was hired for the job. After her film debut with a small role in Altered States (1980),[2] she played Gertie in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg felt that she had the right imagination for her role after she impressed him with a story that she led a punk rock band.[24] E.T. is the highest-grossing film of the 1980s and made her one of the most famous child actors of the time. Barrymore won a Young Artist Award for Best Supporting Actress.[16][25]

In the 1984 horror film adaptation of Stephen King's 1980 novel Firestarter, Barrymore played a girl with pyrokinesis who becomes the target of a secret government agency known as The Shop. The same year, she played a young girl divorcing her famous parents in Irreconcilable Differences, for which she was nominated for her first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.[16][26] In a review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert stated, "Barrymore is the right actress for this role precisely because she approaches it with such grave calm."[27]

Barrymore and Corey Feldman at the Academy Awards in 1989

Barrymore endured a troubled youth and continued to act intermittently during the decade. She starred in the 1985 anthology horror film Cat's Eye, also written by King. The film received positive reviews and Barrymore was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actress.[28] She starred alongside Jeff Bridges and Alice Krige in the 1989 romantic comedy See You in the Morning. Vincent Canby of The New York Times criticized the "fashionable phoniness" of the film, but positively singled out Barrymore for her performance.[29] After her twelve-day rehab treatment at ASAP,[30] Barrymore starred in Far from Home (1989) as a teenager who gets stranded with her father in the small town in a remote part of the desert. The film went largely unnoticed by audiences and received negative reviews from critics, who dismissed the sexual portrayal of her role.[31]

In the early 1990s, Barrymore's rebelliousness played itself out on screen and in print. She forged an image as a manipulative teenage seductress, beginning with Poison Ivy (1992), which was a box office failure, but was popular on video and cable.[2][32] Her character "Ivy" was ranked at #6 on the list of the top 26 "bad girls" of all time by Entertainment Weekly.[33] In 1992, Barrymore was 17 when she posed nude with her then-fiancé, actor Jamie Walters, for the cover of the July issue of Interview magazine; she also appeared nude in pictures inside the issue.[34]

In the 1992 crime film Guncrazy, Barrymore played a teenager who kills her sexually abusive stepfather after he teaches her how to use a gun.[26] Variety remarked that she "pulls off impressively" her character,[35] and Barrymore was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for her performance. In 1993, she took on the role of the younger sister of a murdered ballerina in No Place to Hide and starred as a writer followed by what is apparently her evil twin in Doppelganger. Both thrillers were panned by critics and failed to find an audience.[36][37][38] She appeared in the Western comedy Bad Girls (1994), which follows four former prostitutes on the run following a justifiable homicide and prison escape. Roger Ebert, in his review for the film, wrote for Chicago Sun-Times: "What a good idea, to make a Western about four tough women. And what a sad movie."[39]

When Barrymore was 19, she posed nude for the January 1995 issue of Playboy.[40][41] Director Steven Spielberg, who is also her godfather, gave her a quilt for her 20th birthday with a note that read, "Cover yourself up."[16] Enclosed were copies of her Playboy pictures; the pictures had been altered by his art department so that she appeared fully clothed.[42]

During her appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1995, Barrymore climbed onto David Letterman's desk, flashed her breasts to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek as a birthday present.[11] She modeled in a series of Guess? jeans ads during this time.[43]

Barrymore in 1997

In Boys on the Side (1995), Barrymore played a pregnant girl who wants to escape from her abusive boyfriend.[44] The film went little-seen in theaters but was positively received by critics.[45] In the same year, she briefly appeared in Joel Schumacher's film Batman Forever, as Sugar, a moll to Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones).[46][47] In 1996, she made a brief but notable appearance in Wes Craven's slasher Scream. Barrymore read the film's script and was interested in being involved, approaching the production team herself to request a role. The producers were quick to take advantage of her unexpected interest, and signed her to play the lead role of Sidney Prescott, but when she was faced with unexpected commitments, she instead played the smaller role of Casey Becker and the lead role was given to Party of Five star Neve Campbell.[48] Scream was released to critical acclaim and made $173 million worldwide.[49][50] By the mid- and late 1990s, Barrymore re-established her image and continued to be a highly bankable star.[2][51]

In The Wedding Singer (1998), Barrymore played Julia Sullivan, the love interest of Robbie Hart (Adam Sandler).[52] Variety found the film to be a "spirited, funny and warm saga" that serves them up "in a new way that enhances their most winning qualities".[53] Budgeted at $18 million, the film grossed $123.3 million internationally.[54] Barrymore starred in two other 1998 film releases, Home Fries and Ever After.[55] Home Fries saw her play a pregnant woman unknowingly falling for the stepson of the deceased father of her baby. In the romantic drama Ever After, inspired by the fairy tale Cinderella, she took on the leading role; the film, which made $98 million globally,[56] served as a reminder, according to Roger Ebert, of how well "she can hold the screen and involve us in her characters".[57]

Barrymore voiced the title role of an anthropomorphic Jack Russell terrier in the television Christmas special Olive, the Other Reindeer, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy.[58] After establishing Flower Films,[59] Barrymore and Nancy Juvonen produced the company's first film, Never Been Kissed (1999), in which Barrymore played an insecure copy editor for the Chicago Sun-Times enrolling in high school as part of assigned research. While reviews from critics were mixed, CNN noted: "There are two words which describe why this film works: Drew Barrymore. Her comedic timing and willingness to go all out in her quest for a laugh combine to make Never Been Kissed a gratifying movie-going experience".[60] The film was a commercial success, grossing $84.5 million.[61]

Barrymore at the 2007 premiere of Music & Lyrics

In Charlie's Angels (2000), Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu played the trio of investigators in Los Angeles. The film was a major box office success and helped solidify the standing between Barrymore and the company.[16][62] Barrymore starred in Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), as a teenage mother in a failed marriage with the drug-addicted father (based on Beverly Donofrio's real-life story).[2] When the production of Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko was threatened, Barrymore stepped forward with financing from the company, and played the title character's English teacher. Although the film was less than successful at the box office in the wake of 9/11, it reached cult status after the DVD release, inspiring numerous websites devoted to unraveling the plot twists and meanings.[63]

In 2002, Barrymore starred with Sam Rockwell and Julia Roberts in George Clooney's directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, based on the autobiography of television producer Chuck Barris.[64] In 2003, she reprised her role as Dylan Sanders in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle,[2][62] and starred with Ben Stiller in Duplex. Flower Films and Happy Madison Productions produced 50 First Dates (2004), in which Barrymore took on the role of a woman with short-term memory loss, and who is the love interest of a marine veterinarian (Sandler).[65][66] Summing up Barrymore's appeal, Roger Ebert, in his review for the film, remarked that Barrymore displayed a "smiling, coy sincerity", in what he described as an "ingratiating and lovable" film.[67] 50 First Dates was a commercial success; it made US$120.9 million in North America and US$196.4 million worldwide.[68]

In the American adaptation of the 1997 eponymous British remake Fever Pitch (2005), Barrymore played the love interest of an immature school teacher (Jimmy Fallon). The film grossed a modest US$50 million worldwide and had generally favourable reviews by critics who felt it "has enough charm and on-screen chemistry between [Fallon and Barrymore] to make it a solid hit".[69] She and Hugh Grant starred in Music and Lyrics, which focuses on the relationship that evolves between a former pop music idol and an aspiring writer as they struggle to compose a song for a reigning pop diva. The romantic comedy, released in February 2007, received largely positive reviews, with The Washington Post finding the two to be "great together" in it.[70] The film was a commercial success, grossing US$145 million globally.[71][72]

Barrymore at Lucky You premiere, 2007

Barrymore starred in Curtis Hanson's little-seen poker-themed film Lucky You later in 2007, as an aspiring singer and the subject of the affections of a talented poker player,[73][74] and also reunited with Never Been Kissed director Raja Gosnell for the commercial hit Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008), in which she voiced the titular character, a richly pampered pet who gets dognapped in Mexico and has to escape from an evil Doberman.

In 2009, Barrymore starred in the ensemble comedy He's Just Not That Into You, which received mixed reviews, partly due to her limited time on screen,[75][76][77] while it grossed US$178 million worldwide.[78] She played the lead role of Edith Bouvier Beale, the daughter of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (Jessica Lange), in the HBO film Grey Gardens, directed by Michael Sucsy and based on the 1975 documentary of the same name. The television film was a huge success, winning five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. Rolling Stone writer Peter Travels found Barrymore to be a "revelation" in her role.[79] Barrymore received a nomination for the 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film and won the Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries award.

Barrymore made her directorial debut with the sports dramedy Whip It (2009); she also starred opposite Elliot Page and Marcia Gay Harden in the film, about a high-schooler (Page) who ditches the teen beauty pageant scene so she participate in an Austin roller derby league.[80] Barrymore worked with screenwriter Shauna Cross for months on script revisions, with Barrymore pushing her to "avoid her story's tidier prospects, to make things 'more raw and open ended.'"[81] While the film found limited box office receipts, it was favorably received;[82][83] according to review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, critics agreed that her "directorial debut has enough charm, energy, and good-natured humor to transcend its many cliches".[84][85] For her venture, Barrymore garnered nominations for a Bronze Horse at the Stockholm Film Festival and for the EDA Female Focus Award at the 2009 Alliance of Women Film Journalists. In Everybody's Fine, her last 2009 film release, Barrymore played the daughter of a recently widowed retiree (Robert De Niro).[86] The drama flopped at the box office,[87] but Stephen Holden for The New York Times considered Barrymore "as ingenuous as ever" in what he described as a "small role".[88][89]

Toni Collette and Barrymore attending the premiere of Miss You Already at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival

In 2010, Barrymore starred with Justin Long in Nanette Burstein's Going the Distance. The film follows a couple dealing the ups and downs of a long-distance relationship, while commuting between New York City and San Francisco. It garnered generally mixed reviews by critics,[90] who summed it as "timelier and a little more honest than most romantic comedies",[91] and budgeted at US$32 million,[92] the film made US$40 million at the worldwide box office.[93]

On August 2, 2011, Barrymore directed the music video for the song "Our Deal," for the band Best Coast, which features Chloë Grace Moretz, Miranda Cosgrove, Tyler Posey, Donald Glover, Shailene Woodley and Alia Shawkat.[94] Barrymore starred with John Krasinski in the drama Big Miracle (2012), which covers Operation Breakthrough, the 1988 international effort to rescue gray whales from being trapped in ice near Point Barrow, Alaska.[95] The film saw her play Rachel Krameron, based on Greenpeace activist Cindy Lowry.[96] Despite a positive critical reception, the film flopped at the box office.[97]

In Blended (2014), Barrymore played Lauren Reynolds, a recently divorced woman ending up on a family resort with Jim Friedman (Sandler). Film critic James Berardinelli dismissed the "hit-and-miss humor" of the story and wrote that "as [Sandler and Barrymore] are concerned, the third time is definitely not the charm",[98] as part of an overall lukewarm critical response.[99] The film, however, ultimately grossed US$128 million worldwide.[100] She and Toni Collette starred in Miss You Already (2015), as two long-time friends whose relationship is put to the test when one starts a family and the other becomes ill. Reviewers embraced the film, while it received a limited theatrical release.[101][102]

From 2017 to 2019, Barrymore starred in the Netflix television series Santa Clarita Diet, portraying a real estate agent who, after experiencing a physical transformation into a zombie, starts craving human flesh. Along with co-star Timothy Olyphant, Barrymore also served as an executive producer on the single-camera series,[103] which was favorably received upon its premiere;[104][105][106] Rolling Stone felt that "much of [the series' laughs] comes down to the uncrushable Drew Barrymore charm" and furthermore remarked: "The show is a welcome comeback for Barrymore, the eternally beloved grunge-era wild thing—it's not just her big move into TV, but her first high-profile performance anywhere in years. In a way, it circles back to the roles she was doing in the early [90s], playing deadly vixens in flicks like Guncrazy or Doppelganger".[107]

Barrymore starred in Jamie Babbit's film The Stand In.[108] It was set to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2020, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[109][110] On September 14, 2020, Barrymore premiered a syndicated daytime talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show.[111]