| His last words were reportedly, "I have never felt better in my life!" What a way to go out, eh? Looking back at Douglas Fairbanks, you could say he did pretty well for himself. The classic silent films he did, were just that....classic! Etched in the heart of Hollywood forever. Most all of them have been remade, some twice, some thrice, some frice (you get the picture). He was the original, "Double Trouble," "Mask of Zorro," "Robin Hood," "Muskateer," and "Down to Earth," to name a few. His story begins in Denver, Colorado ..... He was born Douglas Elton Ulman, on May 23, 1883. He was just 5 when his parents split, and he was raised by his hard working mother. By age 12, he had entered amature theater. He attended Colorado School of Mines and later went on to Harvard. While in Harvard, he worked in a hardware store and as a clerk in a Wall Street office before appearing on Broadway in 1902. n 1907, Fairbanks married Anna Beth Sully, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist; they had one son, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. They moved to Hollywood in 1915. Not long after, Douglas began working for D.W. Griffith. While working for Griffith, he met a stunningly attractive woman named Mary Pickford. While the two were just aquatences, his marriage to Anna Beth was on a spiral downwards and in 1920 they were divorced. It was then he began to become romantically involved with Mary Pickford. In 1919, he along with D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and Mary Pickford founded United Artists. Thier vision was to create a studio designed to serve the filmmakers, and not the studio heads. One worried studio mogul quipped, "the lunatics have taken charge of the asylum!" Thier vision succeeded though, and United Artists is still operating today with the same basic principles in mind. In 1925, Fairbanks and Pickford bought this elegant house, quaintly called the Pickfair estate at 1143 Summit Drive in Beverly Hills. Before that they had this ranch house, and kept it even after Pickfair Estate was aquired. Fairbanks and Pickford were regarded as "Hollywood Royalty," and they became famous for entertaining at their Beverly Hills estate, Pickfair. He and Pickford separated in 1933 and were divorced in 1936. On March 7, 1936, Fairbanks married his third and last wife, Sylvia Ashley. He lived in retirement with Sylvia at 705 Ocean Front (now Pacific Coast Highway) in Santa Monica, California. He past away peacefully on December 12, 1939 in his sleep of a heart attack at around 12:45 a.m. at his home. His funeral service was held at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather Church at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, where he was placed in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum. His widow, Sylvia, then commissioned an elaborate monument for him in another cemetery, with long rectangular reflecting pool, raised tomb, and classic Greek architecture, and he was removed from Forest Lawn. He is entombed at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood. Visit his grave and leave flowers here! RIP Douglas, and thanks for your contributions!! TRIVIA: One of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) He frequently requested that his name be listed last in the film credits. Pictured on a 20� US commemorative postage stamp in the Performing Arts USA series, issued 23 May 1984. Performed most of the stunts in his films himself. He was an excellent athlete and used his physical abilities to his best advantage. However, there were instances when a stuntman was used (as in the "sliding down the sail" and "swinging through the mast" scenes in The Black Pirate (1926)), as these types of stunts were deemed too risky for the star. |
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| Douglas Fairbanks Hollywood Legend |
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