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Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr.[1] (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor and filmmaker,[2] best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films. One of the biggest stars of the silent era, Fairbanks was referred to as "The King of Hollywood".[3] He was also a founding member of United Artists as well as the Motion Picture Academy and hosted the 1st Academy Awards in 1929.

For his son, see Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman

(1883-05-23)May 23, 1883

December 12, 1939(1939-12-12) (aged 56)

  • Actor
  • filmmaker

1899–1934

Anna Beth Sully
(m. 1907; div. 1919)
(m. 1920; div. 1936)
(m. 1936)

Born in Denver, Colorado, Fairbanks started acting from an early age and established himself as an accomplished stage actor on Broadway by the late 1900s. He made his film debut in 1915 and quickly became one of the most popular and highest paid actors in Hollywood. In 1919, he co-founded United Artists alongside Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and D. W. Griffith. Fairbanks married Pickford in 1920 and the couple came to be regarded as "Hollywood royalty". Primarily a comedic actor early in his career, he moved into the adventure genre with the 1920 film The Mark of Zorro and found further success in films including Robin Hood (1922) and The Thief of Bagdad (1924).


Fairbanks' career rapidly declined with the advent of the "talkies" in the late 1920s. His final film was The Private Life of Don Juan (1934), after which he retired from acting but continued to be marginally involved in the film industry and United Artists. He died in 1939 at the age of 56.

Goessel, Tracey (October 1, 2015). The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks. Chicago: Chicago Review Press.  978-1-61373-404-9. [1]

ISBN

Vance, Jeffrey (December 8, 2008). . Berkeley, California: Academy Imprints/University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25667-5.

Douglas Fairbanks

at the American Film Institute Catalog

Douglas Fairbanks

at IMDb

Douglas Fairbanks

at the TCM Movie Database

Douglas Fairbanks

at the Internet Broadway Database

Douglas Fairbanks

at Project Gutenberg

Works by Douglas Fairbanks

at Internet Archive

Works by or about Douglas Fairbanks

at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Works by Douglas Fairbanks

official website, including news from 2005 to 2007; at the Wayback Machine

DouglasFairbanks.org

(formerly DouglasFairbanks.org), including news from 2009 to 2012; at the Wayback Machine

DouglasFairbanks.wordpress.com

Archived March 30, 2018, at the Wayback Machine tribute website run by a Fairbanks family member

100 Years of Doug

Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Image of writer Karl Vollmoeller and Douglas Fairbanks visiting the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, 1927.