Drew Blythe Barrymore born February 22, [1] is an American actress, producer, talk show host and author. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Barrymore achieved fame as a child actress with her breakout role in E. Following a highly publicized childhood marked by drug and alcohol abuse, she released an autobiography Little Girl Lost , which became a New York Times best seller. She also starred in her directorial debut film Whip It.
In September , she announced she would return to the show without writers during the then-ongoing WGA strike , [3] but after backlash, she reversed the decision the same month. Barrymore is the founder of the production company Flower Films. It produced several projects in which she has starred. She launched a range of cosmetics under the Flower banner in , which has grown to include lines in perfume, hair products and eyewear.
Dutton published a collection of Barrymore's autobiographical essays in her New York Times bestselling book Wildflower in , for which she also narrated the audiobook version. Barrymore was born into an acting family. She is a great grandniece of Broadway idol John Drew Jr. Barrymore's godmothers are actress Sophia Loren [21] and Lee Strasberg 's widow, Anna Strasberg; Barrymore described her relationship with the latter as one that "would become so important to me as a kid because she was so kind and nurturing.
Barrymore's first name, Drew, was the maiden name of her paternal great-grandmother Georgie Drew, and her middle name, Blythe, was derived from the birth surname Blyth of her great-grandfather who later took the stage name of Maurice Barrymore. She and her father never had a significant relationship and seldom spoke.
In her memoir Wildflower , she says she spoke "like a valley girl " because she grew up in Sherman Oaks. She moved back to West Hollywood on becoming emancipated at age She was a regular at Studio 54 as a young girl, and her nightlife and constant partying became a popular subject with the media. She was placed in rehab at 13, [1] [23] and spent 18 months in an institution for the mentally ill. The stay was precipitated, Crosby said, because she "needed to be around some people that were committed to sobriety.
