At the time. Drew Barrymore was only seven years old, the youngest in the cast. It was inconceivable then, back in 1982, that E.T. (described as the best film Disney never made) would become the biggest money-maker of all time, and that a decade later the most famous member of its cast would be the kid sister. 

     Drew Barrymore's fame rests on a number of factors. She is the youngest member of one of Hollywood's most prestigious acting dynasties. Her grandfather is the legendary actor, matinee idol and writer John Barrymore; her great-aunt the Oscar-winning actress Ethel Barrymore, and her great-uncle the Oscar-winning actor Lionel Barrymore. Even her father, the actor-turned-poet John Jr., courted some fame, although his drug busts and failed marriages earned the lions share of public attention. 

     Drew herself became a tabloid favourite when she took to drinking at nine, became a cocaine addict at 12, and entered rehab at 13-all of which she chronicled in her 1989 book. Little Girl Lost. 

     She is also one of the few child actresses who has managed to make a successful transition to adult star, winning special kudos for her role as a psychotic nympho in the 1992 Poison lvy. While Playboy singled out her 'emphatic screen presence'. Rolling Stone raved: 'as the teen fatale of this low-budget, high-style find, Drew Barrymore kicks her E. T. image over the rainbow. Now little Gertie rivals Sharon Stone in indulging basic instincts ... Barrymore nails every carnal, comic and vulnerable shading in her role; she's a knockout.' 

     Drew herself is a little more philosophical. Although in 1992 she admitted, 'Everybody's all over me,' she was quick to add, 'but I know that next month the hype might not be there.' 

     Born Drew Blyth Barrymore on 22 February 1975, in Los Angeles, the actress made her professional debut at 11 months, doing a dog food commercial. Eighteen months after that she appeared in the TV movie Suddenly, Love, with Cindy Williams and Joan Bennett, played William Hurt's daughter, Margaret, in Altered States, and did another TV movie, Bogie, a poor biog of Humphrey Bogart.Then came E.T. 

     When Drew was cast as Henry Thomas's cute kid sister (who screams the house down on encountering the alien, then dresses him in drag), her formidable lineage was unknown to Spielberg. However, she had enough professional confidence that the director allowed her to let me do what I wanted ... as long as I knew my lines'. 

     In Irreconcilable Differences she played Ryan O'Neal and Shelley Longs daughter, Casey, who sues her insufferable parents for divorce; and she landed the title role in Firestarter, as a 'pyrokinetic' nine-year-old on the run. In the latter she was supported by no less than George C. Scott, Martin Sheen, Art Carney and Louise Fletcher. 

    Stephen King, on whose novel Firestarter was based, was so impressed with the little actress that (with a little encouragement from Dino De Laurentiis), he wrote Cat's Eye specially for her. This was the story of a little girl whose cat protects her from a menacing troll hiding in her bedroom wall. Two other segments based on Stephen King short stories completed the movie, with the likes of James Woods and Kobert Hays filling out an impressive cast. Drugs, booze and rehab followed, and the little child star with the heartbreaking gaze vanished. 

     Four years later, aged 14, Drew Barrymore returned with a vengeance. In Far From Home she played her first sexy adolescent, Joleen Cross, who is struggling to put away childish things while fighting off an insane killer in a trailer park. The film tried to be more than just another slasher movie, bringing in themes of father-daughter bonding (Matt Frewer, who top-billed, played her old man), but it was hardly par for the course. 

     She fared better, in a supporting role, in Alan J. Pakulas classy, semi-autobiographical See You In the Morning, the story of musical families. Psychiatrist Jeff Bridges has two children by model Farrah Fawcett, and falls for photographer Alice Krige, who has three kids other own. Barrymore played the eldest, Cathy, and improvised her scenes with Krige. Particularly memorable is the episode in which mother and daughter lie in bed talking. Looking at her child's blossoming form, Krige Remarks wistfully, How I longed to be big-breasted.'To which Barrymore answers smartly. Its no fun, believe me.' 

     Neither Far From Home nor See You In the Morning did well at the box-office, and Ms Barrymore threw herself into a flurry of work - before her options could run out. She burned up the screen in Poison Ivy (French-kissing co-star Sara Gilbert, coming on to her best friends father, making love on the bonnet of a Mercedes) and won the reviews other career. It 1992 didn't give her any commercial breaks, it was her most visible year since E. T. phoned home. 

     Besides the widely-publicized release of Poison Ivy, she had a cameo in the road movie Motorama, played a victimized eyewitness in Sketch Artist, with Jeff Fahey; was haunted by her own malevolent spirit in Doppelganger, was nominated for a Golden Globe as a man-eating killer in Guncrazy (a teenage version of Bonnie and Clyde), and played the actress tenant of a prostitute in the TV movie 2000 Malibu Road. She also starred in Ectopia, with her then-boyfriend Balthazar Getty, and played the title role in the timid TV movie Beyond Control: The Amy Fisher Story, based on journalists' accounts and court records of the notorious case surrounding the 17-year-old would-be murderess. 

     On a personal note, she was spotted dating Billy Idol in January 1994, then married the British club owner Jeremy Thomas two months later, even changing her name to Drew Thomas. By June the marriage was over.  She also caused a furore when she bared her breasts on TV's The David Letterman Show, danced topless in a ritzy night-club and posed completely naked for Playboy, a stunt which she described as 'an amazing and daring adventure'. 

    But, while she continued to compete for the title of busiest actress in Hollywood, she was honing her craft.  She was terrific as a wild and unpredictable runaway in the touching, funny Boys On the Side, a female road movie that teamed her with Whoopi Goldberg and Mary-Louise Parker. She was also startlingly good in Mad Love, as another runaway, this time a wayward, unstable spirit in love with Chris O'Donnell (although the film itself smacked of MTV opportunity). And in Woody Alien's Everyone Says I love You she played a Manhattan socialite with a propensity for swallowing engagement rings. 'Getting hired to work on a Woody Alien film is the biggest compliment you can get,' she allowed, 'because he is showing that he trusts you and believes you have the ability to be prepared and deliver the performance that he wants.' She even got to sing a solo
number (I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All?'), although her voice was dubbed by Olivia Hayman. She then landed a genuine hit, playing a high school student lured into a series of deadly games by a anonymous caller in Wes Craven's Wicked horror spoof scream.