Elaine Barrie

Often noted as the fourth wife of screen legend John Barrymore, actress Elaine Barrie began her career on-stage early in life, though her tumultuous relationship with Barrymore would ultimately eclipse her career on both stage and screen. Born Elaine Jacobs to a traveling salesman in New York City in July of 1916, the starry-eyed youngster was first attracted to her future husband after viewing his performance in the 1931 film Svengali. It was as a 19-year-old student at Hunter College that she would write an adoring letter to the then 53-year-old actor (who was hospitalized at the time), and when Barrymore invited the youngster to visit him, Jacobs jumped at the chance. A hospital-room kiss soon lead to heated romance, and soon the public would know the pair by the adoring Shakespearian monikers they bestowed on one another. Fueling gossip pages with seemingly never-ending tales of both adoring love and scandalous behavior, the duo would eventually divorce -- leaving Barrie the first of Barrymore's ex-wives to capitalize on his profitable name. Barrie later romanced both Errol Flynn and Ray Milland, and exposed all in her 1964 autobiography All My Sins Remembered. Prompted into the entertainment industry by Barrymore, Barrie nevertheless only gained one full-length feature credit for her role in Midnight (1939). On March 1, 2003, Elaine Barrie died in Manhattan. She was 87.

~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide