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Births on April 28

Lionel Barrymore
1878Apr, 28

Lionel Barrymore

Lionel Barrymore, American actor and director (d. 1954)
Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe; April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul (1931), and remains best known to modern audiences for the role of villainous Mr. Potter in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life.

He is also particularly remembered as Ebenezer Scrooge in annual broadcasts of A Christmas Carol during his last two decades. He is also known for playing Dr. Leonard Gillespie in MGM's nine Dr. Kildare films, a role he reprised in a further six films focusing solely on Gillespie and in a radio series titled The Story of Dr. Kildare. He was a member of the theatrical Barrymore family.

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Events on 1878

  • 18Feb

    Lincoln County War

    John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
  • 3Mar

    Treaty of San Stefano

    The Russo-Turkish War ends with Bulgaria regaining its independence from the Ottoman Empire according to the Treaty of San Stefano; a few months afterwards the Congress of Berlin stripped its status to a vassal principality of the Ottoman Empire.
  • 25May

    Comic opera

    Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London.
  • 15Jun

    Sallie Gardner at a Gallop

    Eadweard Muybridge takes a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs; the study becomes the basis of motion pictures.
  • 22Oct

    Salford, Greater Manchester

    The first rugby match under floodlights takes place in Salford, between Broughton and Swinton.