The Barrymore Family seems to be blessed with a knack for acting and yet cursed with addictive personalities. Diana Barrymore was the daughter of famed Shakespearean actor John Barrymore and the poet Blanche Oelrichs Thomas, who went by the pseudonym of Michael Strange.

By the time she was a teenager, Diana was playing Ann in the touring company of Outward Bound. John called her “the best thing I’ve ever produced” yet the two weren’t very close, despite their shared interests in acting and Brandy Alexanders.
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Dominique Dunne seemed to have it all – beauty, talent, and a famous, loving, affluent family to back her up. Her father Dominick was a producer, her brother Griffin was an actor, and her mother Ellen was a socialite.

Dominique spent the year after high school in Florence , but returned to the U.S. to study drama at Colorado State University . However, before completing her degree, she left to try her hand at acting. She quickly landed television roles on shows such as “Lou Grant,” “Hart to Hart,” “Fame,” “CHiPs,” and “Hill Street Blues.” However, it was her role as Dana Freeling in the 1982 horror Poltergeist that garnered her her biggest success.
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