Drew Barrymore Biography

The Drew Barrymore biography has all the typical ingredients of just about every other childhood star bio. There were the drugs, the alcohol and rehab all by the time she was 14.

Drew Barrymore comes from a family with a long history in the entertainment industry. The Barrymores have worked in theater and film since the early 1900's, so it's no wonder that Drew decided to carry on the family tradition and take up acting as a profession herself. It wasn't long after she was born that her acting career began.

There's no doubt that in Hollywood, Drew Barrymore has plenty of family connections. These connections and her natural acting ability more than likely shepherded her first official appearance on television when she was 11-months old in a dog food commercial. Shortly after finishing the commercial, her next acting gig came along at the age of two in the film Suddenly Love. The part was small and uncredited and was cast by director Stuart Margolin, a friend of Drew's mother Jaid.

A few years later in 1980, Drew was cast in the Oscar nominated film Altered States alongside William Hurt. Two years after Altered States, Barrymore took on the role that was the catalyst for her acting career and her downward spiral into booze and drugs.

Steven Spielberg's film about an alien stranded on earth and a group of children that befriended him was the role that made seven-year-old Drew Barrymore a bankable Hollywood starlet. Her role as Gertie won her a Young Artist Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture and not only thrust her into the public spotlight, but threw her into the adult Hollywood lifestyle of booze, partying and drugs.

After the tremendous success of E.T., Drew started club hopping and had become a regular patron of New York's famed Studio 54. The club was known for catering to the rich and famous and was equally known for the widespread drug use and the open sexual encounters of its patrons. During this time, Drew's career was coming together, while her personal life was falling apart. She began drinking alcohol at nine, smoking marijuana at 10 and snorting cocaine at 12. By the time she was 14, when most of her peers were just beginning to like boys, Drew Barrymore entered rehab.

Like many young Hollywood stars, Barrymore's first rehab stint lasted only two weeks before she left. Drew didn't immediately go back to rehab and stayed sober on her own for two months before she began abusing again. This time, she stole her mom's credit cards and left without telling anyone where she was going. Jaid Barrymore hired a private investigator who found her daughter in Los Angeles en route to Hawaii. Drew was taken back home and back to rehab, in handcuffs.

Barrymore's second rehab stay was more successful than the first as she stayed there for 90 days and began making a concerted effort to stay sober. Drew was taking all the steps to rebuild her career and put her addiction demons behind her, doing a lengthy interview with People chronicling her troubles. She also appeared in a television movie about teens and drug abuse. Everyone believed that the now 15-year-old child star had her feet solidly planted in recovery, but just a short time later, Drew began abusing drugs again and in 1989, attempted suicide by slashing her wrists.

Drew's family and friends believed that she had hit the proverbial "rock bottom" after slashing her wrists and, once again, placed the troubled teen back into rehab. Barrymore completed the 90-day treatment program successfully and has not been back to rehab since.

Drew had another personal success shortly after her third and final rehab stay and officially cut ties to her professional relationship with her mother Jaid, who at the time, was Drew's manager. A New York court allowed Drew to emancipate herself from her mother's care at age 15. After a few attempts at reconciliation, Drew and her mother continue to have an estranged relationship.

After her childhood troubles, Drew Barrymore was officially "blacklisted" in Hollywood and had a hard time finding work. She made a few forgettable films like 1992's Poison Ivy and the made-for-TV movie The Amy Fisher Story. Regardless of her ultra fast rise to stardom and equally fast fall, Barrymore continued to pursue acting.

Now, at the age of 33, Barrymore owns a successful production company called Flower Productions and is a well-respected actress, earning an estimated $15 million per film.

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