The technicians who applied the makeup that enhanced the startling beauty of the woman known as ‘The Goddess of the Silent Screen’ did not know that they were ravaging and deteriorating her delicate skin; destroying her luminous face; and later forcing the star to abandon Hollywood and hide away alone on an avocado farm for the rest of her life.
Dolores Costello was born Sept. 17, 1905, in Pittsburgh, Penn. Her father, Maurice, was a theatrical star for 15 years before becoming a famous and extremely popular matinee idol of the young silver screen; he appeared in dozens of films on the East Coast at Edison Studios, and then at Eastern Vitagraph Studios. When a small child was needed in one of his movies, Maurice, who was publicized as the ‘Dimpled Darling,’ made sure Dolores or Helene, her younger sister, got the role. In 1908, when Dolores was three, she made her film debut at Edison playing a little boy, and a year later played a fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1909). Later, Dolores won roles in 12 Vitagraph films between 1911-1914.
Dolores spent the rest of her childhood in a private school, but once in her teens, the ethereal, stunning blonde left home for modeling school in New York City. She soon posed for renowned fashion designer James Montgomery Flagg, who turned her into the most sought after and celebrated model of the time. Eventually, Helene followed her sister to New York and, in 1924, they both became chorus girls on Broadway, dancing together in the famed George White’s Scandals. While the show was on tour in Chicago, both sisters were signed to a movie contract with Warner Bros. Studios, and the whole family relocated to Hollywood, where mother Mae diligently chaperoned her ‘poor angels.’
In 1925, Dolores appeared in a few average films for Warner Bros. before making the acquaintance of John Barrymore, who—despite being 15 years her senior—became enamored of the beautiful starlet. When Barrymore, known as ‘The Great Profile,’ first saw his future wife wandering around the lot he remarked that she was ‘…the most preposterously lovely creature in the world, a charming child, slender and shy and golden-haired. Never saw such radiance. My God! I knew that she was the one I had been waiting for. Waiting all my life. Just for her.’ Barrymore dumped his girlfriend, movie star Mary Astor, and Dolores became John’s leading lady in the 1926 silent version of Moby Dick, re-titled The Sea Beast (1926). During one of their lengthy kissing scenes, Costello fainted, and the intriguing image of her lifeless expression and swinging arms were captured on celluloid and kept in the movie. In 1927, Costello starred with Barrymore again in When A Man Loves. That same year, Mae divorced Maurice, and Dolores won the lead role in Old San Francisco (1927), a movie dealing with race relations during the great 1906 earthquake.
The following year, Helene appeared in the first all-talking picture, Lights of New York (1928). Helene’s voice was deemed inadequate for sound films, and she quickly faded from view while Dolores, who had worked for two years with a speech therapist to correct her severe lisp, became one of the first stars in talking pictures at Warner Bros.. Helene died in 1957.
Dolores Costello married John Barrymore in 1928. They had two children, John Drew and Dede. The star promoted his wife’s career relentlessly. She, in turn, put up with the public exploits of her famous, alcoholic and abusive husband. Barrymore stated, ‘Why is it that such a lovely girl as Dolores has to have a mother?’ Mae died in 1929, the same year that Costello starred in Noah’s Ark (1929). The special effects in the movie are still spectacular today. During the filming of one violent and uncontrolled scene, six extras drowned and Costello contracted pneumonia after hours of wading in cold water. Other films she starred in were Show of Shows (1929) and Second Choice (1930). After appearing in Expensive Women (1931), she took time off to raise her children.
In 1935, Costello divorced Barrymore, and the next year she returned to her career in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936). In 1939, she married her obstetrician, Dr. John Vruwink, who Barrymore had accused her of having an affair with during their marriage. Also that year, her widowed father Maurice, who had attempted various comebacks through the years but was now long forgotten in the film world, sued both his daughters for support, and married 30-year-old Ruth Reeves. (He was 62.) Two years later, Reeves filed for a Tijuana divorce, citing him as ‘unreasonably and insanely jealous.’ In 1940, the once rich-and-famous Maurice Costello took a role as an extra for $12.50 a day in the musical film Tin Pan Alley (1940), starring Alice Faye and Betty Grable. He died iin 1950, after four years at the Motion Picture Country House, where his estate was valued at under $100.
In 1942, Barrymore visited Dolores to tell her he was ‘sorry’ ; he died shorty thereafter of a combination of pneumonia and cirrhosis of the liver,. That same year, Dolores Costello was cast as Isabel Amberson in one of the great films of the 20th century, Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons. It was her last big role. The lovely Costello was blessed with a very fair, perfect and delicate complexion, and she developed severe reactions to the harsh makeup then used in her movies. The skin on her cheeks began to deteriorate, and artists found her condition impossible to hide. Her beauty ravaged, poor Dolores was forced into retirement after her final film, a musical entitled This Is The Army (1943). She divorced Vruwink in 1950 and moved away from Hollywood to live alone on an avocado farm in Fallbrook, a town 20 miles outside San Diego. In 1977, her life was reported in the book Damned in Paradise: The Life of John Barrymore, by John Kobler. Appearing very old and haggard, Costello agreed to various interviews during this time, and she was chronicled in a British miniseries, Hollywood, released in 1980.
Dolores Costello, who made 32 Hollywood films, and was the grandmother of actress Drew Barrymore, died from emphysema after a long illness at age 73 on March 1, 1979.
Sources:
The Stars by Richard Schickel
They Had Faces Then by John Springer and Jack D. Hamilton
Stars of the Photoplay by Photoplay Magazine
Classics of the Silent Screen by Joe Franklin
The New York Times Directory of The Film
Dolores Costello Web sites
Maurice Costello Biography Web site by Robert S. Birchard
Steve Starr is the author of Picture Perfect-Deco Photo Frames 1926-1946, published by Rizzoli International Publications. A photographer, designer, artist, and movie star historian, he is the owner of Steve Starr Studios, specializing in original Art Deco photo frames and artifacts and celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2007.
Steve Starr’s column, STARRLIGHT on movie stars of the 1920’s, 1930’s, and 1940’s appears in various publications including Entertainment Magazine Online-www.EMOL.org/reporters/Starr, the Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine, and the Windy City Times.
Visit www.SteveStarrStudios.com where you can enter The Starrlight Room, and view a portion of his collection of framed stars, read STARRLIGHT stories, and enjoy photos, autographs and letters he has received from some of his favorite luminaries.
STARRGAZERS-Radiant photography by Steve Starr is available for events and portraits. For further information, phone 773-463-8017. Steve Starr is a photo contributor to various periodicals, which include Nightspots, Clubline, Image Chicago Magazine, and Entertainment Magazine Online, and is the House Photographer for the gorgeous Rumba Restaurant and Nightclub, 351 West Hubbard Street, Chicago.
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