In this article, let's talk about an American actor,star from the era of silent movies and the founder of the first American Academy of Motion Picture Arts Douglas Fairbanks. We will discuss the biography of this remarkable person, and also we will spend time his career and filmography.
Douglas Fairbanks was born on May 23, 1883 in the cityDenver, Colorado, United States. The boy was brought up in the family of a well-known businessman and lawyer. Since five years Douglas lived with his mother, but his parents were not divorced, they just parted and lived separately.
In his childhood, Douglas Fairbanks was fond of fencing, track and field athletics, horse riding. But most of all he was drawn to the theater. After the young man finished school, he entered Harvard University.
Telling his father about his intentions in the futurebecome an actor, Douglas was deprived of any financial support and was forced to go to Europe with his own money. In Paris, the future actor settled himself as a digger and participated in the construction of the metro. Then he went to England, where he worked as a loader in a London port, after settling down as a sailor on a cargo ship.
In early 1900, Douglas returned to America.There he settled himself as a salesman, and after that he was an employee of the company that was located on Wall Street. But the guy did not forget about the dream of the theater, he kept trying to find an opportunity to get settled there.
In 1902, Douglas Fairbanks fulfilled his dreamand debuted as a theatrical actor on Broadway. After five years, the actor will leave the stage and marry Anne Beth Sally, who will be the heiress of the big business of his family. In the marriage they will have a son - Douglas Fairbanks Jr..
After the birth of his son, the wife of the actorwill go bankrupt. Douglas was forced to return to his acting career. In 1905, he will be one of the guest actors on the filming in the movies from the studio Triangle Pictures. In the same year, Fairbanks will play the main role in the film directed by William Christie Cabannes "Lamb". The film was well received by the public, and our actor was considered to be the hero of romantic comedies.
В 1916 году актер снялся в фильме "Американец", under the scenario of which Douglas with complacency tries to suppress the armed uprising in South America. And in February next year, Fairbanks ceases cooperation with the company Triangle and creates its own called Douglas Fairbanks Film Corporation.
In 1919, the actor divorces his wife andsoon begins a relationship with actress Mary Pickford, later the couple marries. After the first marriage, Douglas tries to get out of the influence of large Hollywood studios and set up his own studio called United Artists, which allowed him to distribute his own films.
In the early 1920s, Douglas Fairbanks releasedown film "The Sign of Zorro", and afterwards on the screen there are such films as "Three Musketeers", "Black Pirate", "Robin Hood" and "Baghdad Thief". The actor is at the peak of his popularity.
In 1927 Fairbanks Douglas, whose photo on thatthe moment was known to all people who connected their lives with the cinema, founded the first American Academy of Cinema Arts. The last film of the silent era with Douglas's participation will be the "Iron Mask".
In 1936, the actor divorced his current wife and married the British model of Sylvia Ashley. The couple will settle in Santa Monica.
Films with Douglas Fairbanks are listed below (in brackets the year of the exit on the screen is registered):
In addition to the above, the actor appeared in such films as "The Lamb", "His picture in the newspapers", "The Riddle of the Flying Fish", "The Taming of the Shrew", "The Baghdad Thief".
During the second marriage, the actor founded the Motion Picture Fund, whose funds were directed to help to needy cinematographers. This fund exists today.
In the credits of the films to which Douglas wrote the script, his name was given at birth - Elton Thomas.
In 1927 Douglas Fairbanks appears in one of the Soviet cartoons called "One of many. "After the famous Soviet director Grigory Alexandrov in honor of the American actor called his son Douglas.
December 12, 1939 it became known that Douglas Fairbanks died from a heart attack. At that time, Fairbanks is 56 years old.
