
Dolores Costello
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Female
Birthday
1903-09-17
Day of Death
1979-03-01 (75 years old)
Place of Birth
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Dolores Costello
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dolores Costello (September 17, 1903 – March 1, 1979) was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. She was nicknamed "The Goddess of the Silent Screen". She was stepmother of John Barrymore's daughter Diana by his second wife Blanche Oelrichs, the mother of John Drew Barrymore and Dolores (Dee Dee) Barrymore, and the grandmother of John Barrymore III, Blyth Dolores Barrymore, Brahma Blyth (Jessica) Barrymore, and Drew Barrymore.
Dolores Costello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of actors Maurice Costello and Mae Costello (née Altschuk). She was of Irish and German descent. She had a younger sister, Helene, and the two made their first film appearances in the years 1909–1915 as child actresses for the Vitagraph Film Company. They played supporting roles in several films starring their father, who was a popular matinee idol at the time.
The two sisters appeared on Broadway together as chlorines and their success resulted in contracts with Warner Brothers Studios. In 1926, following small parts in feature films, she was selected by John Barrymore to star opposite him in The Sea Beast, a loose adaptation of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. Warner Bros. soon began starring her in her own vehicles. Meanwhile, she and Barrymore became romantically involved and married in 1928.
Within a few years of achieving stardom, the delicately beautiful blonde-haired actress had become a successful and highly regarded film personality in her own right. As a young adult her career developed to the degree that in 1926 she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star, and had acquired the nickname "The Goddess of the Silver Screen".
Warners alternated Costello between films with contemporary settings and elaborate costume dramas. 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.
Costello spoke with a lisp and found it difficult to make the transition to talking pictures, but after two years of voice coaching she was comfortable speaking before a microphone. One of her early sound film appearances was with her sister Helene in Warner Bros.'s all-star extravaganza The Show of Shows (1929).
Her acting career became less a priority for her following the birth of her first child, Dolores Ethel Mae "DeeDee" Barrymore, on April 8, 1930, and she retired from the screen in 1931 to devote time to her family. Her second child, John Drew Barrymore, was born on June 4, 1932, but the marriage proved difficult due to her husband's increasing alcoholism, and they divorced in 1935.
She resumed her career a year later and achieved some successes, most notably in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). She retired permanently from acting following her appearance in This is the Army (1943), again under the direction of Michael Curtiz.
In 1950 Costello divorced Dr. John Vruwink, whom she had married in 1939. She spent the remaining years of her life in semi-seclusion, managing an avocado farm.
She died from emphysema in Fallbrook, California in 1979.
Known For
Acting
(2009)
Paris Hilton, Inc.
as Self (archive footage)
(1990)
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
as (archive footage)
(1953)
(1950)
The Golden Twenties
as Self (archive footage)
(1943)
This Is the Army
as Mrs. Davidson
(1942)
The Magnificent Ambersons
as Isabel Amberson Minafer
(1939)
King of the Turf
as Eve Barnes
(1939)
Whispering Enemies
as Laura Crandall
(1939)
Outside These Walls
as Margaret Bronson
(1938)
Breaking the Ice
as Martha Martin
(1938)
The Beloved Brat
as Helen Cosgrove
(1936)
Little Lord Fauntleroy
as 'Dearest' Erroll
(1936)
Yours for the Asking
as Lucille Sutton
(1931)
Expensive Women
as Constance 'Connie' Newton
(1930)
Second Choice
as Vallery Grove
(1929)
Show of Shows
as Performer in 'Meet My Sister' Number
(1929)
Glad Rag Doll
as Annabel Lee
(1929)
Hearts in Exile
as Vera Zuanova
(1929)
Madonna of Avenue A
as Maria Morton
(1929)
The Redeeming Sin
as Joan Billaire
(1928)
Noah's Ark
as Marie / Miriam
(1928)
Tenderloin
as Rose Shannon
(1928)
Glorious Betsy
as Betsy Patterson
(1928)
The Circus: Premiere
as Self
(1927)
The College Widow
as Jane Witherspoon
(1927)
When a Man Loves
as Manon Lescaut
(1927)
The Heart of Maryland
as Maryland Calvert
(1927)
Old San Francisco
as Dolores Vasquez
(1927)
A Million Bid
as Dorothy Gordon
(1926)
Mannequin
as Joan Herrick
(1926)
The Sea Beast
as Esther Harper
(1926)
The Little Irish Girl
as Dot Walker
(1926)
The Third Degree
as Annie Daly
(1926)
Bride of the Storm
as Faith Fitzhugh
(1925)
Bobbed Hair
as (uncredited)
(1925)
Greater Than a Crown
as Isabel Frances / Princess of Lividia
(1923)
The Glimpses of the Moon
as Secondary Role
(1923)
Lawful Larceny
as Nora the maid
(1915)
The Evil Men Do
as David - as a Little Boy
(1915)
(1914)
Some Steamer Scooping
as The Little Stowaway
(1914)
(1914)
(1913)
Fellow Voyagers
as Little Dolores Gray
(1913)
(1913)
The Hindoo Charm
as Dolores Tilbury - the Older Child
(1913)
In the Shadow
as Neighbor Girl
(1912)
The Irony of Fate
as Fourth Child
(1912)
A Juvenile Love Affair
as Jane - Alvin's Sweetheart
(1912)
(1912)
(1912)
The Meeting of the Ways
as One of Tom's Children
(1912)
(1912)
Captain Barnacle's Legacy
as Ruth - Barnacle's Adopted Daughter
(1912)
For the Honor of the Family
as Alice - the Child
(1912)
Captain Jenks' Dilemma
as One of Widow Brown's Children
(1912)
Vultures and Doves
as Mrs. Hanley's Little Girl
(1912)
Bobby's Father
as Bobby Ramsay
(1912)
The Toymaker
as Little Dot Avery
(1912)
Her Grandchild
as Little Janet - the Grandchild
(1912)
She Never Knew
as Mr. Blinn's Granddaughter
(1912)
Ida's Christmas
as Ida - the Little Smith Girl
(1912)
Lulu's Doctor
as Lulu
(1912)
Song of the Shell
as Little Bess M.
(1911)
(1911)
(1911)
His Sister's Children
as Buster aka Budge
(1911)
(1911)
Some Good in All
as Betty Lane - John's Daughter
(1911)
A Reformed Santa Claus
as The Widow's 1st Child
(1910)
The Telephone
as Daughter
(1909)
A Midsummer Night's Dream
as Fairy