Herbert was sent back to England for education at Harrow School, and studied law at Oxford University, where he was captain of his class football team in 1868.

[7] On 29 December 1874, Barrymore emigrated to the United States, sailing aboard the SS America to Boston, and joined Augustin Daly's troupe, making his début in Under the Gaslight.

He made his Broadway début in December 1875 in Pique opposite Emily Rigl; in the cast was a young actress, Georgiana Drew, known as Georgie.

On 19 March 1879, in Marshall, Texas, Barrymore and fellow actor Ben Porter were shot by a notorious gunfighter and bully named Jim Currie.

That evening, while Barrymore, Porter and the actress Ellen Cummins dined at the White House Saloon, an intoxicated Currie began insulting and goading them into a fight.

John Drew, Jr., also with the company, showed up at the doorway after being alerted by all the commotion but Currie didn't shoot him, possibly having run out of bullets.

Georgie, then several months pregnant with Ethel, rushed to Texas to be at her husband's side enduring a long train trip.

According to a 2004 A&E Biography piece, after the Ben Porter tragedy, Barrymore asked Georgiana to tour with him and Helena Modjeska in a play he had written.

[11] During this period he sailed with his wife Georgiana and their children Lionel, Ethel and John, then respectively 6, 5 and 2, to England to visit relatives he hadn't seen since migrating to America.

In 1886, Victorien Sardou, a friend of Bernhardt's, wrote his play La Tosca, which later achieved great fame as an opera.

Barrymore claimed that Bernhardt had given his play to Sardou and that La Tosca plagiarized it, and sought an injunction to stop Fanny Davenport from putting on further performances.

During his career, Maurice Barrymore played opposite many of the reigning female stars of the time including Helena Modjeska, Mrs. Fiske, Mrs. Leslie Carter, Olga Nethersole, Lillian Russell, and Lily Langtry.

On 28 March 1901, Barrymore was performing at the Lion Palace Theatre in New York when he suddenly departed from his monologue and shocked the audience with what was described as "a blasphemous attack on the Jews" and a rant of "such an emotional pitch that tears rolled down his face."

[13] In reporting his death on 25 March 1905, The New York Times recalled that "He was playing a vaudeville engagement [in 1901] at a Harlem theatre when he suddenly dropped his lines and began to rave."

A trained boxer, Barrymore retained his strength; in a scuffle with one of the Bellevue attendants, he picked the man up over his head and threw him into a corner.

[15] Barrymore died at Amityville in his sleep, and Ethel, after seeking permission from her uncle John Drew, had him buried in the family plot at Glenwood Cemetery in Philadelphia.