Drew Barrymore Biography
Biography
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To say acting is in Drew Barrymore's blood would be an
understatement. Drew's paternal great-great grandparents were
John Drew and Louisa Lane Drew. Drew's paternal grandparents
were John Barrymore and Dolores Costello, whose father Maurice
Costello was an actor. She is the great-niece of Lionel
Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, and Helene Costello, and the
great-great grandniece of John Drew, Jr., actress Louisa Drew,
and silent film actor/writer/director Sidney Drew. Drew's father
John Drew Barrymore was an actor. Her half-brother John Blyth
Barrymore is an actor. Her mother the Hungarian-American Jaid
Barrymore has also acted.
Her first name Drew was the maiden name of her paternal
great-grandmother, Georgiana Drew; Drew's middle name Blyth was
the original surname of the dynasty founded by her
great-grandfather, Maurice Barrymore.
Drew Barrymore's career began at the age 11 months when she
auditioned for a dog food commercial. When Drew was bitten by
her canine co-star, the producers feared she'd cry, but she
merely laughed, and was hired for the job.
Drew Barrymore shot to fame when she co-starred in the 1982
Steven Spielberg film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. At the age of
7, on November 20, 1982, Drew became the youngest-ever guest
host of Saturday Night Live. Drew Barrymore performed in a skit
where she revealed that she killed E.T. Barrymore also received
a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1984
for her role in Irreconcilable Differences.
In the wake of this sudden stardom, Drew Barrymore endured a
notoriously troubled childhood, drinking alcohol by the time she
was 9, smoking marijuana at 10, and snorting cocaine at 12.
Barrymore later described this period of her life in her 1990
autobiography, Little Girl Lost.
Though overcoming her substance abuse problems by the time she
entered adulthood, Drew Barrymore maintained her "bad girl"
image, and leveraged her new-found role as a s-- symbol to stage
a career comeback playing a teenage seductress in Poison Ivy,
and posing nude for the January 1995 issue of Playboy.
Steven Spielberg gave Drew Barrymore a quilt for her 20th
birthday with a note that read "Cover yourself up." Enclosed was
a copy of her Playboy appearance, with the pictures altered by
his art department so that she appeared fully clothed.
At that time Drew Barrymore had also appeared nude in her last
five movies. During a 1995 appearance on The Late Show with
David Letterman, Barrymore shocked the normally unflappable host
by climbing onto his desk and flashing him (but with her back to
the camera) for his birthday. Drew also modeled in a series of
Guess? jeans ads during this time.
Drew Barrymore has continued to be highly bankable. Drew is
especially adept at romantic comedies: The Wedding Singer and 50
First Dates. She has also produced several films, including
Charlie's Angels. Maxim magazine featured Barrymore and her
fellow Angels in their Girls of Maxim gallery.
Drew Barrymore has also recently explored more dramatic roles in
movies such as Riding in Cars with Boys, where she played a
teenage mother in a failed marriage with the drug-addicted
father (based on the real-life story of Beverly D'Onofrio),
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Donnie Darko.
On February 3, 2004, Drew Barrymore received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Drew Barrymore was married to Welsh bartender turned bar owner,
Jeremy Thomas, from March 20 to April 28, 1994, and to comedian
Tom Green from July 7, 2001 to October 15, 2002 (Green filed for
divorce in December 2001). She is currently dating drummer
Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes.
Drew has also publicly declared herself to be bis--ual,
revealing that she had slept with many women (although naming no
one as of yet publicly) as a teenager and is still interested in
women s--ually.
Trivia for Drew Barrymore
- Drew Barrymore was delivered by Dr. Paul Fleiss, father of Heidi Fleiss (The Tonight Show, January 22, 2003).
- Drew never finished high school.
- Drew Barrymore is a distant relative of Shirley Temple
- Godmother of Frances Bean Cobain.
- Former vegan.
- Drew Barrymore is the goddaughter of Steven Spielberg.
- Has 6 tattoos: a crescent moon on her big toe, a cross with ivy on her lower leg, a butterfly on her stomach, a daisy on her hip, and 2 angels on her lower back with her mother's name on one, and James, a tribute to then-boyfriend Jamie Walters, on the other.
- Drew Barrymore posed as Marilyn Monroe on the cover of the September 1996 issue of John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s George
- Second-ever guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, appearing with John Goodman and Tony Randall.
- Drew Barrymore was offered the lead in Scream, but turned it down because she thought Casey would be more fun.
- Fifth member of her family to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame 1
This Drew Barrymore Biography Page is Copyright The Planets © 2004 - 2006 Chuck Ayoub