Dolores Costello

Dolores Costello is the grandmother of actress Drew Barrymore. Shannen posed for a nine page pictorial in the December 2003 issue of Playboy magazine. Dolores Costello has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 1645 Vine Street. Her private life has also been turbulent, with a six month marriage to Ashley Hamilton, son of George Hamilton. Her interview scenes were broadcast posthumously in 1980. She is now a regular on the series North Shore, a return to her prime-time soap roots. She died from emphysema in Fallbrook, California in 1979. She hosted Scare Tactics on the Sci Fi channel until the 2004 season.

Shortly before her death, she agreed to be interviewed for the documentary series Hollywood discussing her film career. She left that series in 2001, after three years, claiming that her best work was being wasted on a show "for 12-year olds" (though rumors persist that her departure was against her will, due to a feud with costar Alyssa Milano). She retired in 1943. Although her departure from the series was reportedly acrimonious, it didn't stop Spelling from casting her in another series, Charmed. Costello attempted to resume her career and achieved some successes, most notably in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). She starred on the Aaron Spelling-produced Beverly Hills 90210 for four years, from 1990 to 1994. Her acting career became less of a priority for her following the birth of her children, however her marriage to Barrymore proved to be a difficult one due to his increasing alcoholism, and they were divorced in 1935. She was then cast as the oldest Witherspoon sibling, Kris, on the family drama Our House, which ran from 1986 to 1988.

Costello spoke with a lisp, and found it difficult to make the transition to talking pictures, but after two years of voice coaching she was comfortable speaking before a microphone. She first came to notice when she was cast as Jenny Wilder in Little House on the Prairie, which she followed up with roles in films such as Heathers. In 1926 she starred along with John Barrymore in The Sea Beast and after a two year affair, the couple married in 1928. Shannen Maria Doherty (born Easter Monday, April 12, 1971) is an American television actress, best known for her work as Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills 90210. By the mid twenties, she had become a successful and highly regarded film personality in her own right, and as a young adult her career developed to the degree that in 1926 she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star, and had acquired the name "The Goddess of the Silver Screen". The two sisters appeared on Broadway together and their success resulted in contracts with Warner Brothers Studios.

She made her first film appearances, along with her sister Helene, as a child in her father's films. Costello was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, the daughter of actors Maurice and Mae Costello. Dolores Costello (September 17, 1903 - March 1, 1979) was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies.