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John Drew Barrymore, the heir to an acting dynasty and the father of movie star Drew Barrymore, died Monday (Nov. 29, 2004) in Los Angeles. He was 72.
"He was a cool cat. Please smile when you think of him," Drew Barrymore said in a statement issued by her publicist's office. No information was released about the cause of death.
Mr. Barrymore was part of an acting clan that included his father, the famed stage and early film actor John Barrymore, and his father's siblings, Lionel Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore. Drew Barrymore was his daughter by his third wife, Ildiko Jaid Barrymore. Mr. Barrymore's mother was actor Dolores Costello.
He started his career while a teen, appearing first as John Barrymore Jr. and then as John Drew Barrymore. He had movie roles in the 1950s in The Sundowners, High Lonesome, Quebec, The Big Night, Thunderbirds and While the City Sleeps. By the early 1960s he had left Hollywood for Italy to work in European movies. In a 1962 interview he made no apologies for headline-grabbing street brawls there: "I'm not a nice, clean-cut American kid at all." Later, Mr. Barrymore had sporadic film and TV roles.
As a teen star battling alcoholism, Drew Barrymore wrote about her father in the memoir Little Girl Lost. He was depicted as showing up rarely, and to ask for money.
Sunset on a sensation?SPOILER ALERT: Jeopardy! fans afraid to learn to much about upcoming episodes are warned that they read at their own peril.
Ken Jennings has bulldozed through Jeopardy!, raking in more than $2.4-million and dazzling the nation. But this week, there are signs the end is near. People at recent tapings say Jennings is no longer on the show. And in Washington, D.C., some contestants who lost to him plan to gather for a viewing party this week. Though he is still a big draw, his ratings have drifted off from the summer. It may be a sign some viewers miss the show's more competitive days.