Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks sen. (actually, Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman, * May 23, 1883 in Denver, Colorado, † December 12, 1939 in Santa Monica, California ) was an American film actor, director, screenwriter and producer. He is one of the most important and successful actors of the silent film.
Life
His mother Ella Adelaide Marsh (* 1850) was first married to a John Fairbanks, who left her a widow with her child. The next husband proved to be a brutal racket, of which she had to divorce with the help of Hezekiah Charles Ullman, a well-known lawyer in New York. Later she married Fairbanks father, and the family moved to Denver. He left the family when the young Douglas was five years old.
Fairbanks was married three times. His son Douglas Jr. comes from his first marriage to Anna Beth Sully 1907-1920; he should follow his father in similar rolls of film later.
Mary Pickford and Fairbanks began their relationship in 1916, when both were still married to other partners. After his divorce from Anna Beth Sully he put Pickford an ultimatum to either marry him or separate from him. She hesitated at first, because they feared negative to get headlines, then chimed in, however, and settled in a summary trial on March 2, 1920 ( the legal validity was challenged by the State of Nevada, but in 1922 finally confirmed ) divorced and married Douglas on March 28, 1920 without their mutual friend Charlie Chaplin, because he had spoken out against their marriage (documents this can be found in Chaplin's autobiography ). Together they held the estate Pick Fair, a gift from Douglas to Mary, which was considered at the time a stronghold of the Hollywood celebrities.
The two were up in the 30s as "the " glamor couple. Fairbanks and Pickford separated in 1933, when an affair with the English model, actress Sylvia Ashley, who was later briefly with the late "King of Hollywood", Clark Gable, married, had become known. The marriage of Fairbanks and Pickford divorced in 1936, Pickford kept the estate Pick Fair.
A few months later married Fairbanks in Paris Silvia Ashley. After the divorce of Pickford Douglas Fairbanks sen. Began to indulge in the alcohol. He spent his last years with his third wife and many trips abroad. In December 1939 Fairbanks suffered a heart attack in his sleep, the consequences of which he next day, died at his home in Santa Monica.
Fairbanks 's famous last words were: "I have never felt better. " His funeral was held at the Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery. Today's grave with an elaborate marble statue was commissioned two years later by his widow in order.
Fairbanks was a member of the Freemasons. He visited with Clark Gable, the Beverly Hills Lodge 528 in Los Angeles.
Career
Douglas Fairbanks began his career as a stage actor in Denver with light comedies of Shakespeare until he moved in 1900 to New York, where British Frederick Warde began with the company. He debuted in 1902 on Broadway.
His first film turned Fairbanks 1915. With its vitality and its sympathetic charisma he quickly found the hearts in the audience. He was considered a very athletic actor and so he played mostly roles that brought his physical abilities to the full. So he put among other heroic figures represent in The Thief of Bagdad ( The Thief of Baghdad ) in 1924, The Three Musketeers ( The Three Musketeers) from 1921 and " Robin Hood" of 1922. In the 1920s, Fairbanks was by far the most popular actor in the role of specialist adventure hero and one of the biggest movie stars.
Fairbanks was also a good businessman. In addition to United Artists, which he founded in 1919 with Mary Pickford, David Griffith and Charlie Chaplin, he was a founding member of The Motion Picture Academy. During his marriage to Mary Pickford he attained the status of "King of Hollywood", which went on after his death to Clark Gable.
On April 30, 1927 Mary Pickford and Fairbanks were the first stars, immortalized in cement their hand and footprints in front of the newly opened Grauman 's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
1929 moderated Fairbanks along with William C. DeMille the first Oscar ceremony
His last silent film, The Iron Mask (1929 ), was a continuation of the 1921 rotated Three Musketeers, which Fairbanks spoke an introductory prologue. While Fairbanks in the silent film era - particularly in the 1920s - reached its zenith, leveled his enthusiasm he had initially had for the talkies, abruptly. One reason for this could be that his athletic abilities subsided and slowly decreased interest in his person. In talkies Fairbanks played no important role more; in his role specialist he was replaced by younger actors like Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power or his son, Douglas Fairbanks jr.
He and Pickford had decided, her first sound film to rotate together. They played Petruchio and Kate in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew in 1929. Yet this and his other sound films were poorly received by the audience. The last film in which he played before end of his career, was the British production of The Private Life of Don Juan of 1934.