John Barrymore’s biographer refuted a rumor that the legendary Golden Age actor’s body was stolen from the morgue by his friends in 1942 so he could join them for one more party.Drew Barrymore, the "Grand Hotel" star’s granddaughter, even confirmed the story six years ago, saying "Not only yes, but there have been cinematic interpretations of that."Terry Chester Shulman, who wrote the biography "Barrymore: The Spectacular, Tumultuous Life of America's Prince of Players," about John Barrymore told Fox News Digital: "I would like nothing more than to tell you that it's true, because it's such an outrageous story, but it isn't, and it couldn't be because both of the participants, Raoul Walsh, the director, and Errol Flynn, who the trick was supposedly played on, told totally different stories."He continued, "In their autobiographies, you think they would have gotten their story straight.But, you know, in one story … Raoul Walsh's story, Flynn runs out of the house screaming and hides behind an oleander bush, and Flynn's story, he does something else: He runs out into the porch."‘POLTERGEIST’ STAR'S FAMILY FIGHTS BACK AGAINST 'RIDICULOUS' CONSPIRACY THEORIES 38 YEARS AFTER HER DEATHJohn Barrymore's biographer refutes a story about his corpse that Drew Barrymore once confirmed.
(Michael Loccisano/Getty Images; Warner Bros./Archive Photos/Getty Images)He added that in one account, Barrymore’s body is propped in a chair in front of a door and in another it’s on a sofa."The other thing is that Walsh says that he asked Malloy, the owner of Malloy's funeral home, if he could borrow Jack's body," Shulman said."And Malloy said, ‘Yes.’"But Barrymore’s body was actually at the Pierce Brothers funeral home, not Malloy, he added.EDDIE MURPHY PAID FOR FUNERALS OF CELEBRITY FRIENDS WHO DIED BROKE IN HOLLYWOOD"So, I hate to dispel that great story," he lamented.
"And finally, Jack's great friend Gene Fowler and his son Will sat up with Jack's body all night and...