Drew Barrymore (actress). Drew Blythe Barrymore was born on February 22, 1975, in Los Angeles,California. The daughter of actor John Drew Barrymore Jr. and Ildiko Jaid, Barrymore's great-grandparents were actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew, and her grandparents were actors John Barrymore and Dolores Costello. The director Steven Spielberg is her godfather.
Barrymore, a talented young actress, has been as well known for her wild antics off-screen as for her acting ability. Ildiko Jaid, estranged from husband John Barrymore Jr., began taking her daughter to auditions as a baby. The youngest Barrymore appeared in her first television commercial for Puppy Choice dog food before she was a year old.
She made her big screen debut at the age of four in Ken Russell's Altered States (1980). At the age of seven, Barrymore landed her most famous role as Gertie, the adorable little sister in E.T.: The Extraterrestrial (1982). The role pushed Barrymore into the spotlight. After the movie she appeared on NBC's The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and became the youngest-ever host of Saturday Night Live.
Jaid began taking her daughter to night clubs, and it was at Studio 54 and the China Club that Barrymore developed a pre-teenage fondness for drugs and alcohol. At age 13, an enraged Barrymore became violent when she was unable to throw her mother out of the house. She was placed in a rehabilitation center, and later wrote of the experience in her autobiography, Little Girl Lost.
Because of her reputation as a wild child in trouble, film projects were slow to materialize. Barrymore made some minor films, including Irreconcilable Differences, Firestarter and Cat's Eye. In the 1990s, she 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.
Barrymore entered into a short-lived marriage to bar owner Jeremy Thomas at age 19, which lasted from March to May of 1994. She continued her controversial behavior throughout the early 1990s by posing nude for spreads in Andy Warhol's Interview and in Playboy. She also made headlines when she exposed herself on live TV to a shocked David Letterman during his Late Night show birthday celebration.
Her luck began to change in 1995, when Barrymore founded her own production company, Flower Films. The same year, she gave a solid performance in the film Boys on the Side co-starring Whoopi Goldberg and Mary-Louise Parker. The next year she made a memorable terror-filled appearance in the blockbuster Scream (1996) and co-starred in Woody Allen's musical Everybody Says I Love You (1996).
In 1998, she proved her strength as a romantic leading lady when she co-starred in the popular comedy, The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler and in Ever After, a version of the Cinderella story co-starring Anjelica Huston.
In 1999, she earned her first credit as an executive producer with the likable comedy Never Been Kissed, in which she also starred. The next year, she also produced and starred in the hit film Charlie's Angels, playing alongside Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Bill Murray. The movie became a blockbuster hit, bringing in more than $40 million in its opening weekend.
Charlie's Angels signaled the beginning of true financial success for Flower Films. Barrymore's next choice for the company was the dark drama, Donnie Darko, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. The film, in which Barrymore also co-starred, became an instant cult classic and was nominated for more than a dozen independent film awards.
In 2002, Barrymore appeared as the love interest of Chuck Barris in the critically acclaimed biopic, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, also starring Sam Rockwell. Through this performance, Barrymore's reputation as a legitimate film actress was finally solidified.
Barrymore brought back her successful Charlie's Angels franchise in 2003 with Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. This time, she also brought actress Demi Moore and comedian Bernie Mac onboard. The film was another box-office smash. That same year Flower Films also released the comedy Duplex, in which Barrymore starred with Ben Stiller.
The next year, Barrymore starred in another Flower Films movie, 50 First Dates, a romantic comedy co-starring Adam Sandler. She also earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Flower Films—and Barrymore— kept busy the next few years, producing such films as Fever Pitch (2005), Music and Lyrics (2007) and the recent box office hit, He's Just Not That Into You (2009). Barrymore is reportedly in talks to direct the third movie in the Twilight film series, Eclipse.
Barrymore's other recent acting projects include Lucky You (2007), Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008), and the biopic Grey Gardens (2009) co-starring Jessica Lange.
In addition to acting, Barrymore has a successful career as a model, becoming the face of CoverGirl Cosmetics and Gucci Jewelry in 2007. That same year, she was listed No. 1 in People magazine's annual 100 Most Beautiful People list.
After her marriage with Thomas ended in 1994, Barrymore has had a string of romantic relationships. In 2000, she became engaged to the eccentric Canadian comic Tom Green, of MTV's The Tom Green Show. After many false wedding rumors (some started by Green himself), the pair eloped in March 2001. The couple filed for divorce six months later. Since then, she has been linked to Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti and actor Justin Long. Barrymore and Long split in 2008.
