John Barrymore
![Barrymore in 1918](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Actor_John_Barrymore_%28SAYRE_2535%29.jpg)
After a success as ''Hamlet'' in London in 1925, Barrymore left the stage for 14 years and instead focused entirely on films. In the silent film era, he was well received in such pictures as ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' (1920), ''Sherlock Holmes'' (1922) and ''The Sea Beast'' (1926). During this period, he gained his nickname, the Great Profile. His stage-trained voice proved an asset when sound films were introduced, and four of his works, ''Grand Hotel'' (1932), ''Dinner at Eight'' (1933), ''Twentieth Century'' (1934), and ''Midnight'' (1939), have been inducted into the National Film Registry.
Barrymore's personal life has been the subject of much attention before and since his death. He struggled with alcohol abuse from the age of 14, was married and divorced four times, and declared bankruptcy later in life. Much of his later work involved self-parody and the portrayal of drunken has-beens. His obituary in ''The Washington Post'' observed that "with the passing of the years – and as his private life became more public – he became, despite his genius in the theater, a tabloid character." Although film historians have opined that Barrymore's "contribution to the art of cinematic acting began to fade" after the mid-1930s, Barrymore's biographer, Martin Norden, considers him to be "perhaps the most influential and idolized actor of his day". Provided by Wikipedia