Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks Filmography
Douglas Fairbanks Gallery

Some of the great moments of the silent screen were provided by "Doug" sliding down the sail in "The Black Pirate" or the flying carpet in "The Thief Of Bagdad" and the death scene at the climax of "The Iron Mask" all were classic Fairbanks. Dougs larger than life personality together with a costume were irresistable.
Douglas Fairbanks was born in Denver USA in May 1883 and started acting in the theatre, he was a very successful as a Broadway star and graduated to movies in 1915. Starting out with DW Griffith, who did not really rate Doug very highly, his first film was "The Lamb" (1915) and over the next five years he made dozens of films, usually to the same formula, downtrodden hero, lots of stunts, Doug gets the girl.

In 1919 he formed United Artists with Pickford, Griffith and Chaplin, this gave Doug full control over his own productions. IN 1920 Doug married Mary Pickford and they became Hollywoods dream couple. In the same year he made the best decision of his career making "The Mark Of Zorro" his first costume movie, little did Doug know that this would set the pattern for the rest of his career. The films that followed made Douglas Fairbanks a legend. "The Three Musketeers" (1921) "Robin Hood" (1922) "The Thief Of Bagdad" (1924) and "The Black Pirate" (1926) shot in two strip technicolor. Doug made his last silent film in 1929 "The Iron Mask " his sequel to "The Three Musketeers" with its poignant and ironic ending signified the end of the silent film era and the end of Dougs stardom.
He made "The Taming Of The Shrew" (1929) with wife Mary Pickford, then over the next few years travelled the world without Mary. This led to the inevitable breakup of the marriage and they were divorced in 1936. Mary married Charles "Buddy" Rogers her co-star in My Best Girl and Doug married Sylvia Ashley. Douglas Fairbanks died in December 1939. Thanks to Kino Video all of his major films can again be seen on excellent prints, including all of his costume films.