Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Biography

On the basis of his father's name, who was a famous actor known for his roles in 'The Mask of Zorro' and 'Robin Hood', he was signed to Paramount studios at the age of 14.

He made several appearances in silent movies including 'Stella Dallas' in 1925, 'An American Venus' in 1926 and 'Women Love Diamonds' in 1927, which impressed his father, his stepmother Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin, who encouraged Douglas to keep acting.

After the 1927 stage play 'Young Woodley', he was taken more seriously, and then made the successful crossover into film, following the advent of 'talkies'.

Fairbank's career was boosted when he married Lucile le Seur, a young starlet later known as Joan Crawford. He married Crawford, who was four years older than him, on 3 June 1929. They soon became the toast of Hollywood.

He fared better in Oscar-winning 'Morning Glory' in 1933, in which he first donned the classic 'Fairbanks' moustache.

The couple went on a delayed honeymoon to England - a country that Fairbanks visited a lot during his life - where they were entertained by Noel Coward and Prince George of Kent. He became active in society and politics but Crawford was more interested in her career and had an affair with Clark Gable. They divorced in 1933.

A talented writer, Fairbanks wrote humorous pieces for Vanity Fair about the Hollywood scene. He set up his own production company, Criterion Films, in 1935.

'The Prisoner of Zenda' (1937) gave Fairbanks his best role, as the cold-blooded villain, Rupert of Hentzau.

With his father's death in 1939, Fairbanks began to move into public life, organising the Hollywood pro-Allied Forces William Allen White Committee during the Second World War.

He also married Mary Lee Eppling in 1939 and the couple had three daughters called Daphne, Victoria and Melissa. Mary died in 1988.

Spending 1939-1940 in London hospitals, he took special care of war refugees, and was appointed by Roosevelt to act as envoy for a Special Mission to South America in 1940.
Commissioned as a lieutenant in the Navy in 1941, he was a chief officer in Special Operations, participating in the allied invasion of Elba and Sicily. Working his way up, he rose to the level of Captain in 1945.

As chairman of the charity CARE, he organised food aid for war-torn countries.

However, he returned to acting with 'Sinbad The Sailor', and wrote 1948's 'The Exile' - both the kind of movies his father, Fairbanks Sr, would have loved.

In 1949, he was awarded an honorary knighthood and he often entertained Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in his London mansion 'The Boltons'.

Concentrating on production, Fairbanks made and presented the TV anthology 'Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents' through the early 1950s.

After a poorly received Henry Higgins in a 1968 'My Fair Lady', he returned to international life as part of a US delegation to SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation) in 1971.

On 30 May 1991, he married Vera Lee Shelton, with whom he stayed until his death.

He released his autobiographies, 'Salad Days', and 'A Hell of A War', in 1988 and 1993 respectively. He died in 2000 of a heart attack. He is interred in the same crypt as his father.

Fairbanks has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One for film and one for TV.

His estate was auctioned on 13 September 2011 and made half a million dollars.