Dolores Costello

Dolores Costello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the daughter of actors Maurice Costello[2] 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.

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

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

The two sisters appeared on Broadway together as chorines, 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,[4] 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 they married in 1928.[2]

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,[5] 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.

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. 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.[6][7]

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 is The King's Birthday, written by Corporal Leonard Pellitier, U.S. Army.

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.[8][9] Her final film was This Is the Army (1943). In the 1970s, her house was inundated in a flash flood that caused a good deal of damage to her property and memorabilia from her movie career and life with John Barrymore.

Costello has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to motion pictures at 1645 Vine Street.[10]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dolores Costello.

• Dolores Costello photo gallery
• Dolores Costello at IMDb
• Dolores Costello at the Internet Broadway Database
• Dolores Costello at Find a Grave
• Photographs of Dolores Costello
• Dolores and Anita Louise with the legendary Daniel Frohman in 1936 at Actors Fund Benefit (Corbis Images)