Dolores Costello

Drew Barrymore’s grandmother & famous silent film star, Dolores Costello, in a 1926 sitting by photographer John Ellis. She was born on September 17, 1905 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dolores appeared in numerous pictures throughout the 1910s and the early 1920s, mostly with her father and sister Helene. They were signed by Warners Bros. where Dolores met future husband John Barrymore. He coined her nickname “The Goddess of the Silent Screen”. Barrymore soon made Dolores his co-star in "The Sea Beast" (1926). They married in 1928, and had two children, DeDe in 1931 and John Drew Barrymore in 1932. 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. Dolores took time off from her movie career in the early 1930s to raise her young children. Her sister Helene successfully convinced Dolores to divorce Barrymore in 1935, mainly because of his excessive drinking. After the divorce Dolores returned to acting, appearing in several big-budget pictures, and her career seemed to be back on track. Her physical appearance, however, was greatly damaged due to the harsh studio make-up used in the early years. The skin on her cheeks was in the process of deteriorating, forcing her into early retirement. She lived in semi-seclusion on her Southern California avocado farm, Fallbrook Ranch, where much of the memorabilia and papers from both the Barrymore and Costello family were destroyed in a flood. Shortly before her death, she was interviewed for the documentary series "Hollywood" (1980) discussing her film career. She passed away from emphysema in Fallbrook, California, in 1979, and is interred in Calvary Cemetery.

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