Dolores Costello

Dolores Costello (September 17, 1903<ref>Shulman, Terry Chester (2019). "Film's First Family: The Untold Story of the Costellos (Screen Classics)" · University Press of Kentucky, 2019 ·Template:ISBN</ref><ref group=note>Costello's obituary in The New York Times says that she was born on September 17, 1905.</ref> – March 1, 1979)<ref name=nyt/><ref>Motion Picture Performers. A bibliography of magazine and periodical articles, 1900–1969; compiled by Mel Schuster. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1971.</ref> 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" by her first husband, the actor John Barrymore. She was the mother of John Drew Barrymore and grandmother of actress and talk show host Drew Barrymore.

Early years

Dolores Costello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of actors Maurice Costello<ref name="nyt">Template:Cite news</ref> and Mae Costello (née Altschuk). She was of Irish and German descent. She had a younger sister, Helene, and the two made their early film appearances from 1909 to 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.Template:Citation needed

Film career

File:Dolores Costello, Ziegfeld girl, by Alfred Cheney Johnston, ca. 1923.jpg

Costello, age 20, as a Ziegfeld girl, c. 1923

File:Dolores Costello - Old San francisco - scenes - 1927.webm

A few scenes of Dolores Costello acting in the 1927 silent film Old San Francisco.

File:John Barrymore and family 1934.jpg

Costello with husband John Barrymore and their children, John Drew and Dolores, 1934

The two sisters appeared on Broadway together as chorus line dancers, and their success resulted in contracts with Warner Bros. Pictures. In 1926, following small parts in feature films, Dolores Costello was selected by John Barrymore to star with him in The Sea Beast,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> a loose adaptation of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, after which Warner soon began starring her in her own vehicles. Meanwhile, she and Barrymore became involved romantically, and married in 1928.<ref name=nyt/>

Within a few years of achieving stardom, Costello had become a 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,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and had acquired the nickname "The Goddess of the Silver Screen".Template:Citation needed

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.

File:Tenderloin poster.jpg

Theater poster for Tenderloin (1928) starring Dolores Costello

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.Template:Citation needed One of her early sound film appearances was with her sister Helene in the Warner Bros. all-star extravaganza The Show of Shows (1929).

Her acting career became less of 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.

Making a rare radio appearance, Costello appeared as the Danish Countess Elsa on the radio program Suspense on August 28, 1943. The title of the episode was The King's Birthday, written by Corporal Leonard Pellitier, U.S. Army.

Later years

In 1939, she married Dr. John Vruwink, an obstetrician who was her physician during her pregnancies, but they divorced in 1950. Costello spent the remaining years of her life in semi-seclusion, managing an avocado farm. Her film career largely was ruined by the destructive effects of early film makeup, which ravaged her complexion too severely to camouflage.<ref>Olive Borden: The Life and Films of Hollywood's Joy Girl   by Michelle Vogel page 89; Retrieved February 10, 2016</ref><ref>Orson Welles: A Biography   by Barbara Leaming page 222; Retrieved February 10, 2016</ref> Her final film was This Is the Army (1943). In the 1970s, her house was inundated in a flashflood that caused a good deal of damage to her property and memorabilia from her movie career and life with John Barrymore.Template:Citation needed She died of emphysema in California in early March 1979 at age 75. Costello has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to motion pictures at 1645 Vine Street.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Filmography

Child roles

Costello appeared as a child actress in many films made from 1909 to 1915. Among them are:

Year	Film	Source
Template:Dts	A Midsummer Night's Dream
Template:Dts	The Telephone
Template:Dts	Consuming Love, or St. Valentine's Day in Greenaway Land a Geranium
Template:Dts	The Child Crusoes
Template:Dts	His Sister's Children
Template:Dts	A Reformed Santa Claus
Template:Dts	Some Good in All
Template:Dts	Captain Jenks' Dilemma
Template:Dts	The Meeting of the Ways
Template:Dts	For the Honor of the Family
Template:Dts	She Never Knew; Lulu's Doctor
Template:Dts	The Troublesome Step-Daughters
Template:Dts	The Money Kings
Template:Dts	A Juvenile Love Affair
Template:Dts	Wanted...a Grandmother
Template:Dts	Vultures and Doves
Template:Dts	Her Grandchild
Template:Dts	Captain Barnacle's Legacy
Template:Dts	Bobby's Father
Template:Dts	The Irony of Fate
Template:Dts	The Toymaker
Template:Dts	Ida's Christmas
Template:Dts	A Birthday Gift
Template:Dts	The Hindoo Charm
Template:Dts	In the Shadow
Template:Dts	Fellow Voyagers
Template:Dts	Some Steamer Scooping
Template:Dts	Etta of the Footlights
Template:Dts	Too Much Burglar
Template:Dts	The Evil Men Do

Adult roles

File:Dolores Costello-George O'Brien in Noah's Ark.jpg

Costello and George O'Brien in Noah's Ark (1928)

She restarted her movie career in 1923 after spending several years modeling in New York.Template:Citation needed

Year	Film	Role	Director	Notes
1923	The Glimpses of the Moon	bit part	Allan Dwan	Lost film
	Lawful Larceny	Nora the maid	Allan Dwan	Lost film
1925	Greater Than a Crown	Isabel Frances / Princess of Lividia	Roy William Neill
	Bobbed Hair	Bit part	Alan Crosland
1926	Mannequin	Joan Herrick	James Cruze
	The Sea Beast	Esther Harper	Millard Webb
	Bride of the Storm	Faith Fitzhugh	J. Stuart Blackton	Lost film
	The Little Irish Girl	Dot Walker	Roy Del Ruth	Lost film
	The Third Degree	Annie Daly	Michael Curtiz	A copy is preserved at the Library of Congress
1927	When a Man Loves	Manon Lescaut	Alan Crosland
	A Million Bid	Dorothy Gordon	Michael Curtiz	An incomplete copy is held at the Library of Congress with Italian intertitles
	Old San Francisco	Dolores Vasquez	Alan Crosland	Copies held at the Library of Congress, George Eastman House and Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
	The Heart of Maryland	Maryland Calvert	Lloyd Bacon	An incomplete copy is held at the Library of Congress
	The College Widow	Jane Witherspoon	Archie Mayo	Lost film
1928	Tenderloin	Rose Shannon	Michael Curtiz	Lost film
	Glorious Betsy	Betsy Patterson	Alan Crosland	Preserved at the Library of Congress, while its Vitaphone track survives incomplete at the UCLA Film & Television Archive
	Noah's Ark	Marie/Miriam	Michael Curtiz	Film survives as a partially restored 108 minute version; the original 138 minute version is lost
1929	The Redeeming Sin	Joan Billaire	Howard Bretherton	Lost film
	Glad Rag Doll	Annabel Lee	Michael Curtiz	Lost film Trailer survives
	Madonna of Avenue A	Maria Morton	Michael Curtiz	Lost film
	Hearts in Exile	Vera Zuanova	Michael Curtiz	Lost film
	The Show of Shows	Meet My Sister number	John G. Adolfi	Survives in black and white copy, fragments of color segments exist
1930	Second Choice	Vallery Grove	Howard Bretherton	Lost film
1931	Expensive Women	Constance "Connie" Newton	Hobart Henley	Preserved at the Library of Congress
1936	Little Lord Fauntleroy	"Dearest" Erroll	John Cromwell
	Yours for the Asking	Lucille Sutton	Alexander Hall
1938	The Beloved Brat	Helen Cosgrove	Arthur Lubin
	Breaking the Ice	Martha Martin	Edward F. Cline
1939	King of the Turf	Eve Barnes	Alfred E. Green
	Whispering Enemies	Laura Crandall	Lewis D. Collins
	Outside These Walls	Margaret Bronson	Ray McCarey
1942	The Magnificent Ambersons	Isabel	Orson Welles
1943	This Is the Army	Mrs. Davidson	Michael Curtiz
1980	Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film	Herself		her scenes broadcast posthumously

External links

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• Dolores Costello photo gallery
• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 182537

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• Template:IBDB name
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• Photographs of Dolores Costello
• Dolores and Anita Louise with the legendary Daniel Frohman in 1936 at Actors Fund Benefit (Corbis Images)