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Sr. Douglas Fairbanks Biography |
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (May 23, 1883 - December 12, 1939) was an American actor and film producer.
Fairbanks became noted for his swashbuckling roles in such films as The Black Pirate, The Mark of Zorro, Arizona, Robin Hood, The Thief of Bagdad and The Three Musketeers.
Born Douglas Elton Thomas Ulman in Denver, Colorado, he was raised by his mother after his parents divorced. He attended Colorado School of Mines and Harvard University, and worked in a hardware store and as a clerk in a Wall Street office before appearing on Broadway in 1902. In 1907, he married Anna Beth Sully, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist; they had one son, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and divorced before 1920.
In 1915 he moved to Hollywood. While traveling with Charlie Chaplin in a War Bonds drive, he met and fell in love with Mary Pickford, whom he married on March 28, 1920 and divorced in 1936. He, Pickford, Chaplin and D. W. Griffith formed United Artists studios in 1919. He was a founder of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences and produced its first awards program.
During the years of their marriage, Fairbanks and Pickford were regarded as "Hollywood Royalty", and they became famous for entertaining at their estate Pickfair.
In 1936, Fairbanks married his third and last wife, a British divorcée, Sylvia, Lady Ashley (1906-1977, née Edith Louise Hawkes). A lingerie model turned showgirl, Sylvia Fairbanks would later become a wife of Clark Gable. David Niven described her as "a ravishing blond beauty, outspoken and impeccable sense of humour. She was a selfish woman. She was a man's woman. She was devoted to the great indoors, to her milky white skin, her flawless complexion, loathed the thought of animals being slaughtered, was happiest among the chattering chic of café society and owned a Chihuahua the size of a mouse called Minnie. She adored spending money."
Douglas Fairbanks died in 1939 and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood, California.
He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7020 Hollywood Blvd. His handprints and Pickford's were the first to be saved in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater. |
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| Sr. Douglas Fairbanks Resources |
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