High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Raffles The Amateur Cracksman is a 1917 silent film starring John Barrymore. The film also co-stars Frank Morgan, Evelyn Brent and Mike Donlin. The film was directed by George Irving. John Sidney Blyth Barrymore (February 15, 1882 May 29, 1942) was an American actor. He first gained fame as a stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III. His success continued with motion pictures in various genres in both the silent and sound eras. Barrymore's personal life has been the subject of much writing before and since his passing in 1942.