Date of Birth: February 22, 1975
Place of Birth: Los Angeles, Calif., USA
Sign: Sun in Pisces, Moon in Cancer
Relations: Father: John Drew Barrymore, Jr. (actor); mother: Ildiko Jaid Barrymore (actress); brother: John (actor); great-uncle: Lionel Barrymore (actor); great-aunt: Ethel Barrymore (actress); grandfather: John Barrymore, Sr. (actor); godfather: Steven Spielberg (director); ex-husband: Jeremy Thomas; fiancé: Tom Green (TV personality)
Education: High school dropout.
HEIR TO A Hollywood dynasty, child star, prepubescent drug and alcohol abuser, teenage sex pot, and resurrected vessel of celluloid purity, Drew Barrymore is nothing if not the embodiment of the rise and fall of Hollywood fortunes, self-reinvention, and the healing powers of good PR. The granddaughter of John Barrymore and grandniece of Ethel Barrymor and Lionel Barrymore, Barrymore was born in Culver City, California on February 22, 1975. From there, she didn't waste much time getting in front of the cameras, making her first commercial at nine months and her first television movie, Suddenly Love, at the age of two. Two years later, she made her film debut, appearing as William Hurt's daughter in Altered States (1980). At the advanced age of seven, Barrymore became a true celebrity, thanks to her role as the cherubic Gertie in Steven Spielberg's E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. The huge success of that 1982 film endeared Barrymore to millions of her audience, but following leads in two more films, Irreconcilable Differences and Firestarter (both 1984), the young actress began to succumb to a destructive lifestyle defined by drugs, alcohol, and too much partying. A child expected to behave like an adult, Barrymore began drinking at the age of nine and started taking drugs a short while later. Unsurprisingly, observers began writing Barrymore off as just another failed child star when she was barely into her teens. She made a string of (largely forgettable) movies, many of which only reinforced her image as a has-been. However, in the middle of her teen years, Barrymore entered rehab, cleaned herself up, and wrote an autobiography, Little Girl Lost, which detailed her travails with drugs and alcohol. In the early 1990s, she entered another phase in her career, gaining notoriety for playing a series of vampy, trampy trailer-park Lolitas. In this capacity, she turned in memorable performances in Poison Ivy (1992), the 1993 made-for-TV The Amy Fisher Story, and Batman Forever (1995), all of which featured her pouting seductively and showing more thigh than all the Rockettes combined. Barrymore's on-screen antics were ably complemented by the off-screen reputation she was forming at the time: First, she could be seen posing nude with then-boyfriend Jamie Walters on the cover of Interview magazine; then, modeling for a series of trashy Calvin Klein ads, flashing David Letterman during an appearance on The Late Show as a "birthday present" to the host; and finally, posing nude for Playboy in 1995. In 1996, Barrymore's image underwent an abrupt and effective transformation from slut to sweetheart. With a brief but memorable role in Wes Craven's Scream and a lead in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You that featured her as a Kelly Girl for the '90s, Barrymore's career received an adrenaline shot to the heart. She began working steadily again, and she reshaped her off-screen persona into that of a delightful and sweet-natured girl trying to mend her ways. This new image was supported by her screen work, much of which featured her as a chaste heroine. Her starring role as the "real" Cinderella in Ever After (1998) was a good example, and it had the added advantage of turning out to be a fairly solid hit. Barrymore's other major 1998 film, The Wedding Singer, was another hit, further enhancing her reputation as America's new sweetheart. The following year, the actress all but put the final nail in the coffin of her wild-child reputation of years past, starring as the nerdy, lovelorn twenty-something reporter who bears the titular condition of Never Been Kissed.
Movies:
1998 Ever After: A Cinderella Story
1998 Home Fries
1998 Never Been Kissed
1998 The Wedding Singer
1997 Best Men
1997 Inside The Goldmine
1997 Wishful Thinking
1996 Everyone Says I Love You
1996 Scream
1995 Batman Forever
1995 Mad Love
1995 Boys on the Side
1994 Inside the Goldmine
1994 Bad Girls
1993 Wayne's World 2
1993 No Place To Hide
1992 Poison Ivy
1992 Motorama
1989 See You in the Morning
1988 Far From Home
1985 Cat's Eye
1984 Irreconcilable Differences
1984 Firestarter
1982 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
1980 Altered States
TV:
1993 The Amy Fisher Story
1992 2000 Malibu Road
1992 Doppelganger
1992 Guncrazy
1992 The Sketch Artist
1989 The Ring 15 and Getting Straight
1987 Conspiracy of Love
1986 Babes in Toyland Movie
1986 The Screaming Woman Movie
1980 Bogie
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
