Ethel Barrymore Colt

Ethel Barrymore Colt (April 20, 1912 – May 22, 1977) was an American actress and producer and a soprano who sang in more than 100 concerts in the United States, Canada, and South America. She was a member of the ninth generation of the Barrymore acting family. Her obituary in The Washington Post described her as "a versatile and talented singer, actress and producer, playing dramatic roles on Broadway and in summer stock and singing in grand opera, operetta, musical comedy and on the concert stage." Early years Colt was born on April 20, 1912, in Mamaroneck, New York, the daughter of Russell G. Colt and Ethel Barrymore. She was the niece of John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore and the granddaughter of Maurice Barrymore, Georgie Drew Barrymore, and Samuel Colt. She had two brothers, Samuel Colt and John Drew Colt. Her parents were divorced on July 6, 1923. As an adult, she commented on her early years: "People think the Barrymores are peculiar people who sit around the hearth soliloquizing from Shakespeare. But as a matter of fact, my childhood was revoltingly normal." In another interview, she said: "In our family, we never discussed acting. We thought it almost indecent to talk shop." Colt attended the Lenox School in Manhattan and acted in a class play and played basketball at Notre Dame Convent in Moylan, Pennsylvania, from which she graduated in 1929. In June 1929 she received the school's gold medal in music. After graduating, she attended the Villa Gazzola school in Verona, Italy, and studied in Italian music conservatories. Career Colt found that bearing the lineage of the Barrymore family meant that she had to overcome obstacles. She said: "I figured that a career would be easy to build. But I found out that if you have a name like Barrymore and you get a job, everybody calls it influence. If you don't get a job, they assume you're no good. You can't win." In her later years, she said that she had "a lifelong love affair with the stage", which led to a commitment to persevere through her difficult times. She added that her mother sympathized with her but was unable to teach her.