Actress Drew Barrymore born
On this day in 1975 Drew Barrymore who will shoot to stardom as a child after appearing in ET The Extra-Terrestrial then later build a successful career as a leading lady is born in Los Angeles .Barrymore is part of a famous family of American actors that includes her grandfather John Barrymore and great-uncle Lionel Barrymore.She is a goddaughter of director Steven Spielberg.Barrymore the daughter of actor John Barrymore Jr.
(1932-2004) and German-born actress Jaid Barrymore (1946-) began appearing in TV commercials as a baby.She made her big-screen debut in 1980 in director Ken Russells Altered States.Two years later at age 7 she skyrocketed to fame with her co-starring role in Steven Spielbergs blockbuster ET The Extra-Terrestrial.
Later that year Barrymore went on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to promote the movie and also became the youngest-ever host of NBCs Saturday Night Live.Barrymores early fame soon led to a wild-child Hollywood lifestyle.By age 10 she was drinking alcohol using drugs and going to nightclubs by her early teens shed spent time in rehab.At age 15 she won legal emancipation from her mother and got her own apartment.
Around this time Barrymore began starring in a series of films that exploited her bad-girl image including Poison Ivy (1992) Guncrazy (1992) and The Amy Fisher Story (1993) a made-for-TV movie based on the Joey Buttafuoco scandal.She continued her controversial behavior throughout the early 1990s by posing nude for spreads in Andy Warhols Interview magazine and in Playboy.In 1994 Barrymore then 19 married 31-year-old bar owner Jeremy Thomas after dating him for six weeks.
The marriage lasted two months.In 1995 she made headlines once again when she exposed herself on live TV to a shocked David Letterman during his Late Night show birthday celebration.Later in the decade Barrymore got her acting career back on track.She co-starred in Boys on the Side with Whoopi Goldberg and Mary Louise Parker then appeared in director Woody Allens Everybody Says I Love You (1996) along with the hit horror-film parody Scream (1996).
In 1998 she demonstrated her skills as a romantic leading lady in The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler and Ever After a modern interpretation of the Cinderella story.The following year she starred in the popular romantic comedy Never Been Kissed which was produced by her company Flower Films.In 2000 Barrymore produced and co-starred along with Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu in the big-screen adaptation of Charlies Angels based on the hit 1970s TV show about a group of female PIs.The movie spawned a successful sequel in 2003.Barrymore continued to rack up an impressive list of credits from the 2001 cult classic Donnie Darko with Jake Gyllenhall to Fever Pitch (2005) with Jimmy Fallon and Music and Lyrics (2007) with Hugh Grant.
She voiced the character of Chloe the pampered pooch in 2008s Beverly Hills Chihuahua and received acclaim for her performance in the 2009 biopic Grey Gardens with Jessica Lange.After a second marriage to comedian Tom Green from 1999 to 2001 in 2012 Barrymore wed art consultant Will Kopelman.She gave birth to their daughter later that year.Barrymore is the great-granddaughter of actors Maurice Barrymore (1849-1905) and Georgiana Drew (1856-1893).Drew Barrymores great-uncle Lionel (1878-1954) won an Academy Award for best actor for his performance in 1931s A Free Soul.
Her grandfather John (1882-1942) was a noted Shakespearean actor and his sister Ethel (1879-1959) was a celebrated actress.
