Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe on April 28, 1878 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – November 15, 1954 in Van Nuys, California) was an American actor of stage, radio and film.

Barrymore was the elder brother of Ethel and John Barrymore, and his parents were Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew. He was married to actresses Doris Rankin and Irene Fenwick.

Doris Rankin bore Lionel two daughters, Ethel(b.1909) and Mary(b.1910). Unfortunately both baby girls did not survive infancy though Mary lived a few months. Lionel never truly got over the deaths of his girls and their loss undoubtedly strained his marriage to Doris Rankin which ended in 1923. Lionel years later developed an affection for Jean Harlow but only in a fatherly way. Jean was born around the same time as his two daughters and would've been around their age. When Jean died in 1937 Lionel & Clark Gable mourned as if she was family.

He started his stage career in the early 1900s. In 1907, after spending many years in Paris, he came back to Broadway, where he established his reputation as dramatic actor. He and Doris often acted together when in the theater. He proved his talent in many other plays such as Peter Ibbetson(with brother John) (1917), The Copperhead (1918)(with wife Doris) and The Jest (1919)(again with John).

In 1924 he left Broadway for Hollywood. In 1931 he won an Oscar for his role of an alcoholic lawyer in A Free Soul (1931), after having been nominated in 1930 for best director for Madame X. Although he could play many types of characters, such as the evil Rasputin in the 1932 Rasputin and the Empress (in which he co-starred with John and Ethel Barrymore), he was, during the 1930s and 1940s, stereotyped as grouchy, but usually sweet, elderly men in such films as The Mysterious Island (1929), Grand Hotel (1932, with John), Dinner at Eight (1933, the film also featured John, but they had no scenes together), Captains Courageous (1937), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Duel in the Sun (1946), and Key Largo (1948). Perhaps his best known role was as Mr. Potter, the miserly banker in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). The role was obviously based on Ebenezer Scrooge, whom Barrymore had been playing on radio annually since 1934.

He played the irascible Doctor Gillespie in a series of Doctor Kildare movies in the 1930s and 1940s, and the title role in the 1940s radio series Mayor of the Town. After breaking his hip twice, he was confined to a wheelchair, but still acted. This is why he played Dr. Gillespie in a wheelchair, and why he was unable to play Scrooge in the 1938 MGM film version of A Christmas Carol.

Barrymore died on November 15, 1954 from a heart attack, and is entombed in the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.

He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street.

He is the great-uncle of actress Drew Barrymore.

Filmography

• Fighting Blood (1911)

• Heredity (1912)

• The New York Hat (1912)

• The Tender Hearted Boy (1913)

• The Work Habit (1913)

• The Strong Man's Burden (1913)

• Almost a Wild Man (1913)

• Strongheart (1914)

• The Great Adventure (1921)

• I Am the Man (1924)

• The Temptress (1926)

• Body and Soul (1927)

• Sadie Thompson (1928) with Gloria Swanson

• West of Zanzibar (1928) with Lon Chaney and Warner Baxter

• A Free Soul (1931) with Leslie Howard and Clark Gable

• Grand Hotel (1932) with Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, and Wallace Beery

• Dinner at Eight (1933) with Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, and Jean Harlow

• Treasure Island (1934) with Wallace Beery

• Carolina (1934) with Janet Gaynor

• The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield, the Younger (1935) with W. C. Fields

• Ah, Wilderness! (1935) with Wallace Beery

• The Little Colonel (1935) with Shirley Temple

• Mark of the Vampire (1935) with Bela Lugosi

• The Devil-Doll (1936; directed by Tod Browning) with Maureen O'Sullivan

• Captains Courageous (1937) with Spencer Tracy

• You Can't Take It With You (1938) with Jean Arthur and James Stewart

• Test Pilot (1938) with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy

• On Borrowed Time (1939)

• The Bad Man (1941) with Wallace Beery and Ronald Reagan

• The Penalty (1941) with Edward Arnold

• A Guy Named Joe (1943) with Spencer Tracy

• Since You Went Away (1944) with Claudette Colbert and Shirley Temple

• It's a Wonderful Life (1946) with James Stewart and Donna Reed

• Duel in the Sun (1946) with Joseph Cotten and Gregory Peck

• Key Largo (1948) with Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson

• Down to the Sea in Ships (1949) with Richard Widmark

• Malaya (1949) with Spencer Tracy and James Stewart

• Lone Star (1952) with Clark Gable and Ava Gardner