"The most preposterously lovely creature in all the world." - John Barrymore, 1925Dolores Costello
Dolores Costello (September 17, 1905 – March 1, 1979) was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. She was was a delicate blonde beauty who projected patrician poise as a lead actress and was nicknamed "The Goddess of the Silent Screen". She was the mother of John Drew Barrymore, and grandmother of Drew Barrymore.
Early Years
Costello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of actors Maurice Costello and the former Mae Altschuk. Dolores and her younger sister Helene 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. Dolores Costello's earliest listed credit on the IMDb is in the role of a fairy in a 1909 adaptation of Shakespeare's's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Star at Warner Bros.
The two sisters appeared on Broadway together and their success resulted in contracts with Warner Brothers Studios. In 1926, after several small parts in feature films, Dolores Costello starred opposite John Barrymore in The Sea Beast, a loose adatation of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. Warner Bros. soon began starring her in her own vehicles. Meanwhile, she and Barrymore became romantically involved and, after a two year affair, 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, and 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 cotemporary settings and elaborate costume dramas. In 1928 she was re-teamed with John Barrymore in When a Man Loves, an adatation of Manon Lescaut. In 1929 she co-starred with George O'Brien in Noah's Ark, a part-talkie epic directed by Michael Curtiz.
Sound Films
Costello spoke with a lisp (something that her granddaughter, Drew Barrymore has seemed to inherit), 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, however, became less a priority for her following the birth of her first child and she retired from the screen in 1931 to devote time to her family. However her marriage to John Barrymore proved to be a difficult one due to his increasing alcoholism, and they divorced in 1935.
Costello resumed her career a year later and achieved some successes, most notably in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). She retired permenately from acting following her appearance in This is the Army (1943), again under the direction of Michael Curtiz.
Costello spend the remaining years of her life in semi-seclusion managing an avocado farm.
Shortly before her death, she agreed to be interviewed for the documentary series Hollywood discussing her film career. She died from emphysema in Fallbrook, California in 1979 and was interred in the Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles. Her interview scenes were broadcast posthumously in 1980.
Dolores Costello has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 1645 Vine Street.
Filmography'40s
This Is the Army (1943)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)'30s
Outside These Walls (1939)
Whispering Enemies (1939)
King of the Turf (1939)
Breaking the Ice (1938)
The Beloved Brat (1938)
Yours for the Asking (1936)
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)
Expensive Women (1931)
Second Choice (1930)'20s
The Show of Shows (1929)
Hearts in Exile (1929)
Madonna of Avenue A (1929)
Glad Rag Doll (1929)
The Redeeming Sin (1929)
Noah's Ark (1928)
Glorious Betsy (1928)
Tenderloin (1928)
The College Widow (1927)
The Heart of Maryland (1927)
Old San Francisco (1927)
A Million Bid (1927)
When a Man Loves (1927)
The Third Degree (1926)
The Little Irish Girl (1926)
Bride of the Storm (1926)
The Sea Beast (1926)
Mannequin (1926)
Bobbed Hair (1925)
Greater Than a Crown (1925)
Lawful Larceny (1923)
The Glimpses of the Moon (1923)
Dolores Costello appeared as a child actress in many films made between 1909 and 1915.
The Evil Men Do (1915)
Too Much Burglar (1914)
Etta of the Footlights (1914)
Some Steamer Scooping (1914)
Fellow Voyagers (1913)
In the Shadow (1913)
The Hindoo Charm (1913)
A Birthday Gift (1913)
Ida's Christmas (1912)
The Toymaker (1912)
The Irony of Fate (1912)
Bobby's Father (1912)
Captain Barnacle's Legacy (1912)
Her Grandchild (1912)
Vultures and Doves (1912)
Wanted... a Grandmother (1912)
A Juvenile Love Affair (1912)
The Money Kings (1912)
The Troublesome Step-Daughters (1912)
Lulu's Doctor (1912)
She Never Knew (1912)
For the Honor of the Family (1912)
The Meeting of the Ways (1912)
Captain Jenks' Dilemma (1912)
Some Good in All (1911)
A Reformed Santa Claus (1911)
His Sister's Children (1911)
The Child Crusoes (1911)
A Geranium (1911)
Consuming Love(1911)
The Telephone (1910)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1909)Trivia
As a teenager Costello became a model for top New York illustrators.
It was Dolores Costello who will go down in the glorious annals of film history as the first heroine of the talking pictures, in those pre-historic days before Noah's Ark, when the talking consisted of five minutes of concentrated loud-speaking before the final close-up. She went on to be one of the leading stars of the late '20s and early '30s, making the transition into the talkies but retiring from films in 1932 to have two children (one of whom was future actor John Drew Barrymore.
Dolores Costello was once known as the Goddess of the Silent Screen but is probably best remembered today as Drew Barrymore's grandmother.
Spoke with a severe lisp until about 1930. When talkies replaced silent films, she worked with a speech pathologist for almost two years to get rid of her lisp.
WAMPAS Baby Star award winner for 1926
Mother of actor John Drew Barrymore.
Grandmother of actor John Blyth Barrymore.
Daughter of actor Maurice Costello and Mae Costello. Sister of actress Helene Costello.
Quotes
I just laid eyes upon the most preposterously lovely creature in all the world. She walked into the studio like a charming child, slender and shy and golden-haired. Never saw such radiance. My God! I knew that she was the one I had been waiting for. Waiting all my life, just for her. -John Barrymore on Dolores
Why is it that such a lovely girl as dolores has to have a mother-John Barrymore on Mae Costello
I'm tired of the waiting, the silly mix-up of it all. Drink has been one of my two great weaknesses. I have tried, since meeting Dolores to overcome the booze. Really I have. I do not want to hurt the one person I love more than I ever have loved any one else, for she seems to adore me so trustingly-John Barrymore
Dolores is no longer in love with me-John Barrymore
She was too beautiful for words, but not for arguements-John Barrymore
They were in love. Only they didn't know it. I knew it before they did-John Barrymore
John came to me just before he died, and told me he was sorry-Dolores Costello
They fell in love with the sudden fury of an earthquake-Mae Costello
Cry, laugh but never whine-Dolores Costello
