Douglas Fairbanks, Jr: Difference between revisions

From Robin's SM-201 Website
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(Created page with "{{notoc}} <!--{{Infobox actor | name = Douglas Fairbanks | image = Douglas Fairbanks.jpg | imagesize = 200px | caption = Douglas Fairbanks | birthname = Douglas Elton Thomas U...")
 
m (Robinr78 moved page Douglas Fairbanks Jr to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr)
 
(28 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{notoc}}
{{header}}
<!--{{Infobox actor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairbanks, Douglas Jr}}
| name = Douglas Fairbanks
{{Infobox person
| image = Douglas Fairbanks.jpg
| name         = Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
| imagesize = 200px
| honorifics    = [[DSC]] [[KBE]] [[OStJ]]
| caption = Douglas Fairbanks
| image         = CDRFairbanks.jpg
| birthname = Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman
| imagesize     = 250px
| birthdate = {{dob|1883|5|23|mf=y}}
| birthname     = Douglas Elton Ulman Fairbanks
| birthplace = Denver, Colorado, {{USA}}
| birthdate     = {{dob|1909|12|9|mf=y}}
| deathdate = {{dod|1939|12|12|1883|5|23}}
| birthplace   = New York City, New York
| deathplace = Santa Monica, California, {{USA}}
| deathdate     = {{dod|2000|5|7|1909|12|9|mf=y}}
| spouse = Anna Beth Sully (1907-1919) <br> [[Mary Pickford]] (1920-1936) <br> Edith Louise Sylvia Hawkes (1936-1939)
| deathplace   = New York City, New York
}}{{shp|emh=1}}-->
| deathcause    = Heart attack
'''Douglas Fairbanks''' (May 23, 1883 - December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer, who became noted for his swashbuckling roles in silent movies such as ''The Mark of Zorro'' (1920), ''The Three Musketeers'' (1921), ''Robin Hood'' (1922), ''The Thief of Bagdad'' (1924) and ''The Black Pirate'' (1926).
| spouse       = [[Joan Crawford]] (1929-1933) <br> Mary Lee Eppling (1939-1988) <br> Vera Shelton (1991-2000)
}}{{shp|rpm=1|emh=1|msh=1|bah=|etv=|bur=|pin=|sph=|show=|wwii=1|yank=}}


== Early life ==
'''Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr.''', [[KBE]] (Order of the British Empire), [[DSC]] (Distinguished Service Cross), [[OStJ]] (Sovereign Military Order of Malta) ({{star}}December 9, 1909 - {{dag}}May 7, 2000) was an American actor and a highly decorated United States naval officer of World War II.


He was born Douglas Elton Ullman in Denver, Colorado, the son of Hezekiah Charles Ullman (born September 1833) and Ella Adelaide Marsh (born 1850). His half-brother was John Fairbanks (born 1873); and his full brother was Robert Payne Ullman (March 13, 1882-February 22, 1948).


Fairbanks's father, who was born in Pennsylvania to a Jewish family, was a prominent New York attorney. His mother (a Roman Catholic) was born in New York, and was previously married to a man named John Fairbanks, who left her a widow. She then married a man named Wilcox, who turned out to be abusive. Her divorce was handled by Ullman, whom she later married.
==Birth==
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was born in New York City, the son of actor Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and his first wife, Anna Beth Sully. His parents divorced when he was ten years old. He lived with his mother in California, Paris, and London.


In about 1881, Charles Ullman purchased several mining interests in the Rocky Mountains and relocated the family to Denver, where he re-established his law practice. Ullman abandoned the family when Douglas was five years old, and he and Robert were raised by their mother, Cheese.
==Hollywood==
== Stage career ==
Largely on the basis of his name, he was given a contract at age fourteen with [[Paramount Pictures]]. After making some undistinguished films, he took to the stage, where he impressed his father, his step-mother [[Mary Pickford]], and Charlie Chaplin, who encouraged him to continue with acting.
Douglas Fairbanks began acting on the Denver stage at an early age, doing amateur theatre. He was in summer stock at the Elitch Gardens Theatre, becoming a sensation in his teens. He attended East Denver High School, and was once expelled for dressing up the campus statues on St. Patrick's Day. He left during his senior year. He said he attended Colorado School of Mines, then Harvard University for a term. No record of attendance has been located, but an article about whether or not he attended Mines recounts a professor once saying Fairbanks was asked to leave because of a prank not long after he began.


He moved to New York in the early 1900s to pursue an acting career, joining the acting troupe of British actor Frederick Warde who had discovered Fairbanks performing in Denver. He worked in a hardware store and as a clerk in a Wall Street office before his Broadway debut in 1902.
He began his career during the silent era. He was exceptionally handsome and initially  played mainly supporting roles in a range of films featuring many of the leading female players of the day, [[Belle Bennett]] in ''Stella Dallas'' (1925), [[Esther Ralston]] in ''An American Venus'' (1926) and [[Pauline Starke]] in ''Women Love Diamonds'' (1927). In the last years of the silent period he was upped to star billing opposite [[Loretta Young]] in several pre-Code films, and [[Joan Crawford]] in ''Our Modern Maidens'' (1929). He supported John Gilbert and Greta Garbo in ''Woman of Affairs'' (1929).  Progressing to sound, he played opposite [[Katharine Hepburn]] in her Oscar-winning role in the film ''Morning Glory'' (1933).


On July 11, 1907 in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, he married Anna Beth Sully, the daughter of wealthy industrialist, Daniel J. Sully. They had one son, Douglas Elton Fairbanks (actor [[Douglas Fairbanks Jr]]., who was born on December 9, 1909 and who died on May 7, 2000). The family moved to Hollywood in 1915.
With ''Outward Bound'' (1930), ''The Dawn Patrol'' (1930), ''Little Caesar'' (1931), and ''Gunga Din'' (1939), his movies began to have more commercial success.


== Motion Pictures ==
==Marriages==
Fairbanks signed a contract with Triangle Pictures in 1915 and began working under the supervision of [[D.W. Griffith]]. His athletic abilities were not appreciated by Griffith, however, and he was brought to the attention of Anita Loos and John Emerson, who wrote and directed many of his early romantic comedies.
His first notable relationship was with the actress [[Joan Crawford]], whom he began to seriously date during the filming of their film ''Our Modern Maidens''. On June 3, 1929, at City Hall in New York City, Crawford and Fairbanks married. He was technically underage, so one year was added to his birth (giving him 1908 as his year of birth), and Crawford shed three years from her age, which would remain shed until long after her death, giving her the same year of birth that Fairbanks had created for himself, 1908.


He met actress and businesswoman [[Mary Pickford]] at a party in 1916 and they began having an affair. In 1917, they, along with '''Charlie Chaplin''', traveled across the U.S. by train selling war bonds. Pickford and Chaplin were then the two highest paid movie stars in Hollywood. Fairbanks set up his own production company, the Douglas Fairbanks Film Corporation. Within eighteen months of his arrival, Fairbanks' popularity and business acumen raised him up to be the third highest paid. To curtail these stars' astronomical salaries, the large studios attempted to monopolize the distributors and exhibitors.
They went on a delayed honeymoon to England, where he was entertained by Noel Coward and George, Duke of Kent. He became active in both society and politics, but Crawford was far more interested in her career and her new affair with [[Clark Gable]]. The couple divorced in 1933.  


On December 1, 1918 in New Rochelle, New York, Sully won an interlocutory decree of divorce from Fairbanks, as well as custody of their son. The record of testimony referred to the co-respondent as "an unknown woman." The decree was made final March 5, 1919.
Despite their divorce, Fairbanks and Crawford maintained a good relationship. In his later years, Fairbanks was quick to defend Crawford when her adopted daughter Christina Crawford, published ''Mommie Dearest'', a scathing biography of Crawford's personal life. He firmly stated, "The [[Joan Crawford]] that I've heard about in ''Mommie Dearest'' is not the [[Joan Crawford]] I knew back when."


To avoid being controlled by the studios and to protect their independence, Fairbanks, Pickford, Chaplin, and D. W. Griffith formed [[United Artists]] in 1919, which created their own distributorships and gave them complete artistic control over their movies and the profits generated. The company was kept solvent in the years immediately after its formation largely from the success of Fairbanks' films.
On April 22, 1939, he married Mary Lee Hartford (né e Mary Lee Epling), a former wife of George Huntington Hartford, the Atlantic &amp; Pacific Tea Company heir.


Fairbanks was determined to have Pickford become his wife, but she was still married to actor Owen Moore. They were both concerned about bad publicity and the effect it could have on the moviegoing public, who might boycott their efforts at the theater should they marry each other. He finally gave her an ultimatum. She then obtained a fast divorce in the small Nevada town of '''Minden''' on March 2, 1920. Fairbanks leased the Beverly Hills mansion Grayhall and was rumoured to have used it during his courtship of Pickford. (Grayhall was subsequently owned by, among others, the financier Bernard Cornfeld.)
Douglas and Mary Lee had three daughters, Daphne, Victoria and Melissa. They were happily married for nearly fifty years, until Mary Lee died in 1988.


The couple were married March 28, 1920, by the pastor of Temple Baptist Church, at his residence on West Fourth Street in Los Angeles. Pickford's divorce from Moore was contested by Nevada legislators, however, and the dispute was not settled until 1922. Even though the lawmakers objected to the marriage, the public went wild over the idea of "Everybody's Hero" marrying "America's Sweetheart." The couple was greeted by crowds of up to 300,000 people in London and Paris during their European honeymoon, becoming '''Hollywood's first celebrity marriage.'''
[[Image:LTFairbanks.jpg|thumb|Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., "Father of the U.S. Navy Beach Jumpers"]]
==World War II==
In 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed him a special envoy to South America.  


During the years they were married, Fairbanks and Pickford were regarded as "Hollywood Royalty," and they were famous for entertaining at their Beverly Hills estate, '''Pickfair'''. Sir Harry Lauder's nephew, Matt Lauder, jr., (1899-1972), a professional golfer whose father had a property at Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, taught Fairbanks to play golf.
Although celebrated as an actor, Fairbanks most enduring legacy was a well-kept secret for decades. At the onset of World War II, [[Fairbanks and the Navy|Fairbanks]] was commissioned a reserve officer in the U.S. Navy and assigned to Lord Mountbatten's Commando staff in England.


By 1920, Fairbanks had completed twenty-nine films (twenty-eight features and one two-reel short), which showcased his ebullient screen persona and athletic ability. By 1920, he had the inspiration of staging a new type of adventure-costume picture, a genre that was then out of favor with the public. In the ''The Mark of Zorro'', Fairbanks combined his appealing screen persona with the new adventureous, costume element. It was a smash success and parlayed the actor into the rank of superstar. For the remainder of his career in silent films, he continued to produce and star in ever more elaborate, impressive costume movies. Fairbanks spared no expense and effort in these films, which established the standard for all future swashbucking films.
Having witnessed (and participated in) British training and cross-channel harassment operations emphasizing the military art of deception, Fairbanks attained a depth of understanding and appreciation of military deception then unheard of in the United States Navy. Lieutenant Fairbanks was subsequently transferred to Virginia Beach where he came under the command of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, who was preparing U.S. Naval forces for the invasion of North Africa.


In 1921, he, Pickford, Chaplin, and others, helped to organize the Motion Picture Fund to assist those in the industry who could not work, or were unable to meet their bills.
Fairbanks was able to convince Hewitt of the advantages of such a unit, and Admiral Hewitt soon took Fairbanks to Washington, D.C. to sell the idea to the Chief of Naval Operations, ADM Ernest King.  Fairbanks succeeded and ADM King issued a secret letter on 5 March 1943 charging the Vice Chief of Naval Operations with the recruitment of 180 officers and 300 enlisted men for the Beach Jumper program.


During the first ceremony of its type, he and Pickford placed their hand and foot prints in wet cement at the newly opened '''Grauman's Chinese Theatre''' in Hollywood on April 30, 1927. Fairbanks was elected first President of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences that same year, and he hosted the first Academy Awards presentation (then held as a banquet, rather than today's big ceremony). Fairbanks' also has a star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]] at 7020 Hollywood Boulevard.
The Beach Jumpers mission would simulate amphibious landings with a very limited force. Operating dozens of kilometers from the actual landing beaches and utilizing their deception equipment, the Beach Jumpers would lure the enemy into believing that theirs was the location of the amphibious beach landing, when in fact the actual amphibious landing would be conducted at another location.  Even if the enemy was less than 100-percent convinced of the deception, the uncertainty created by the operations could conceivably delay enemy reinforcement of the actual landing area by several crucial hours.


His last silent film was ''The Iron Mask'' (1929). Although Fairbanks flourished in the silent film genre, the restrictions of early sound films dulled his enthusiasm for movie-making. Also, his athletic abilities and general health began to decline at this time, in part due to years of heavy chain-smoking. He and Pickford chose to make their first talkie as a joint venture, playing Petruchio and Kate in Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew'' (1929). This film, and his subsequent sound films, were poorly received by the public. The last movie he acted in was the British production ''The Private Life of Don Juan'' (1934), after which he retired from acting.
U.S. Navy Beach Jumpers saw their initial action in Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. Throughout the remainder of the war, the Beach Jumpers conducted their hazardous, shallow-water operations throughout the Mediterranean.


== Final Years ==
For his planning the diversion-deception operations and his part in the amphibious assault on Southern France, Lieutenant Commander Fairbanks was awarded the U.S. Navy's Legion of Merit with bronze V (for valor), the Italian War Cross for Military Valor, the French Legion d'Honneur and the Croix de Guerre with Palm, and the British Distinguished Service Cross.  Fairbanks was also awarded the Silver Star for valor displayed while serving on PT boats. 


After he began an affair with Lady Sylvia Ashley, Fairbanks and Pickford separated in 1933. Fairbanks, Sr. and Mary Pickford divorced in 1936, with her keeping Pickfair. On March 7, 1936, in Paris, France, he and Ashley were married.
He was made an Honorary Order of the British Empire '''Knight Commander of the British Empire ''' (KBE) in 1949.


He continued to be marginally involved in motion picture industry and [[United Artists]], but his later years lacked the intense focus of his film years. His health continued to decline, and in his final years he resided at 705 Ocean Front (now Pacific Coast Highway) in Santa Monica, California, although much of his time was spent traveling abroad with Sylvia.
It is not a stretch to say that Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was the father of the United States Navy's Information Operations. As for the Beach Jumpers, they changed names several times in the decades following World War II, expanded their focus, and are currently known as the Navy Information Operations Command.  Fairbanks stayed in the Naval Reserve after the war and ultimately retired as a captain in 1954.


In December, 1939, at 56, Fairbanks had a heart attack in his sleep and died a day later at his home in Santa Monica. By some accounts, he had been obsessively working-out against medical advice, trying to regain his once-trim waistline. Fairbanks famous last words were "I've never felt better." His funeral service was held at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather Church at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, where he was placed in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum.
Many of the Navy's most important information operations since World War II remain classified, but it is clear that the U.S. military retains its interest in this art of war.


He was deeply mourned and honored by his colleagues and fans for his contributions to the film industry and Hollywood. Two years following his death, he was removed from Forest Lawn by his widow, who commissioned an elaborate marble monument for him, with long rectangular reflecting pool, raised tomb, and classic Greek architecture, at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The remains of his son Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. were also interred here upon his death in 2000.
{{sa1|Fairbanks and the Navy}}


There is a witty reference to him in the David Lean film ''A Passage to India'' (set in Edwardian India) in which one of the characters performs acrobatic feats on the side of a train calling, "I am Douglas Fairbanks!"
==Post-war years==
[[Image:CDRFairbanks.jpg|thumb|150px]]
Fairbanks, Jr. returned to Hollywood at the conclusion of World War II and enjoyed success as host of the ''Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Theater'' in the early years of television. 
 
Fairbanks was a confirmed Anglophile and spent a good deal of his time in Britain, where he was well known in the highest social circles.  The College of Arms in London granted Fairbanks a coat of arms symbolising the U.S. and Britain united across the blue Atlantic Ocean by a silken knot of friendship.
 
He died of a heart attack in New York at the age of 90. He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California, in the same crypt as his father.
 
==Legacy==
Fairbanks has two stars on the {{lc1|Hollywood Walk of Fame}}, one for motion pictures at 6318 Hollywood Boulevard and one for television at 6665 Hollywood Boulevard.
 
==Trivia==
* It has been claimed that Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was one of the naked men in the incriminating photos which were used as evidence in the divorce trial of '''Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll''' in 1963. <!-- Warren Hoge, "London Journal: A Sex Scandal of the 60's, Doubly Scandalous Now," The New York Times, 16 August 2000. -->
* He was good friends with legendary English stage and screen actor Sir Laurence Olivier, and was one of the contributors to a [[documentary]] of Olivier's life ''The South Bank Show'' '''Laurence Olivier: A Life'''.
 
==Filmography==
<div style='-moz-column-count:3; column-count:3;'>
*''American Aristocracy'' (1916)
*''The Three Musketeers'' 1921)
*''Stephen Steps Out'' (1923)
*''The Air Mail'' (1925)
*''Wild Horse Mesa'' (1925)
*''Stella Dallas'' (1925)
*''The American Venus'' (1926)
*''Padlocked'' (1926)
*''Broken Hearts of Hollywood'' (1926)
*''Man Bait'' (1927)
*''Women Love Diamonds'' (1927)
*''Is Zat So?'' (1927)
*''A Texas Steer'' (1927)
*''Dead Man's Curve'' (1928)
*''Modern Mothers'' (1928)
*''The Toilers'' (1928)
*''The Power of the Press'' (1928)
*''The Barker'' (1928)
*''A Woman of Affairs'' (1928)
*''Hollywood Snapshots #11'' (1929) (short subject)
*''The Forward Pass'' (1929)
*''The Jazz Age'' (1929)
*''Our Modern Maidens'' (1929)
*''Little Caesar'' (1931)
*''Catherine the Great'' (1934)
*''The Amateur Gentleman'' (1936)
*''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937)
*''Joy of Living'' (1938)
*''The Rage of Paris'' (1938)
*''Having Wonderful Time'' (1938)
*''Gunga Din'' (1939)
*''Green Hell'' (1940)
*''Angels Over Broadway'' (1940)
*''Sinbad the Sailor'' (1947)
*''The Exile'' (1947)
*''Ghost Story'' (1981)
</div>
==References==


==Filmography ==
For a complete list, see "The Internet Movie Database" - {{imdb|0001196}}
<!--
==External links==
==External links==
* {{gutenberg author| id=Douglas+Fairbanks | name=Douglas Fairbanks}}
*{{Imdb query|Douglas+Fairbanks+Jr}}
* {{imdb|0001196}}
 
* [http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/SearchResult.aspx?s=1&amp;Type=PN&amp;Tbl=&amp;CatID=DATABIN_CAST&amp;ID=41378&amp;searchedFor=Douglas_Fairbanks_&amp;SortType=ASC&amp;SortCol=RELEASE_YEAR AFI Catalog Silent Films entry for Douglas Fairbanks]
* [http://www.amiannoying.com/view.aspx?ID=13132 AmIannoying.com entry]
* [http://www.silentgents.com/PFair.html Douglas Fairbanks photos at Silent Ladies &amp; Gents]
* [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=1369 Photographs of Douglas Fairbanks jr.]
* [http://www.alumnifriends.mines.edu/fun_stuff/fairbanks/default.htm Did Douglas Fairbanks Attend Mines?]
* [http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/fairbanks_douge.htm Navy Department History entry]
* [http://www.thebeverlyhillscourier.com/07252003/estate.htm Article about Grayhall, Beverly Hills mansion leased by Fairbanks]
 
* [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=737 Photographs of Douglas Fairbanks]
{{pn}}
{{wikiref}}
 
-->
You are probably asking yourself, "Why is there an article Doug Fairbanks Jr on SM-201?"
{{biofooter}}
 
You have, no doubt seen the US Army and the Marines storming ashore at Anzio in Italy and Normandy in France during WWII. At Normandy, they landed on Omaha, Gold, and Juno beaches as the first ashore. How did they know it was Omaha beach? There was a sign there saying "Omaha Beach". Those signs were put there by a team of intrepid men known as Amphibious Alpha, Amphibious Bravo, etc. My father was one of those sailors attached to '''Amphibious Roger''', and his Commanding Officer was Doug Fairbanks Jr.
 
My father and Doug stayed in touch after the war and we visited both [[Pickfair]] and [[San Simeon]] on several occasions in the late '40s and early '50s.
 
{{sa|Fairbanks and the Navy}}
{{footer}} [[Category:WWII]]

Latest revision as of 17:29, 21 March 2024


Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
CDRFairbanks.jpg
Background information
Born as: Douglas Elton Ulman Fairbanks
Born Dec 9, 1909
New York City, New York
Died May 7, 2000 - age  91
New York City, New York
Heart attack
Spouse(s): Joan Crawford (1929-1933)
Mary Lee Eppling (1939-1988)
Vera Shelton (1991-2000)
This article is part of
"Robin's Personal Memories Project"
"The Early Movie History Project"
Click here for Early Movie History category page
"The Movie Star History Project"
Click here for Movie Star category page
"The WWII History Project"
Click here for World War II History category page
Click here for Special History Projects information

Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr., KBE (Order of the British Empire), DSC (Distinguished Service Cross), OStJ (Sovereign Military Order of Malta) (✦December 9, 1909 - †May 7, 2000) was an American actor and a highly decorated United States naval officer of World War II.


Birth

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was born in New York City, the son of actor Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and his first wife, Anna Beth Sully. His parents divorced when he was ten years old. He lived with his mother in California, Paris, and London.

Hollywood

Largely on the basis of his name, he was given a contract at age fourteen with Paramount Pictures. After making some undistinguished films, he took to the stage, where he impressed his father, his step-mother Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin, who encouraged him to continue with acting.

He began his career during the silent era. He was exceptionally handsome and initially played mainly supporting roles in a range of films featuring many of the leading female players of the day, Belle Bennett in Stella Dallas (1925), Esther Ralston in An American Venus (1926) and Pauline Starke in Women Love Diamonds (1927). In the last years of the silent period he was upped to star billing opposite Loretta Young in several pre-Code films, and Joan Crawford in Our Modern Maidens (1929). He supported John Gilbert and Greta Garbo in Woman of Affairs (1929). Progressing to sound, he played opposite Katharine Hepburn in her Oscar-winning role in the film Morning Glory (1933).

With Outward Bound (1930), The Dawn Patrol (1930), Little Caesar (1931), and Gunga Din (1939), his movies began to have more commercial success.

Marriages

His first notable relationship was with the actress Joan Crawford, whom he began to seriously date during the filming of their film Our Modern Maidens. On June 3, 1929, at City Hall in New York City, Crawford and Fairbanks married. He was technically underage, so one year was added to his birth (giving him 1908 as his year of birth), and Crawford shed three years from her age, which would remain shed until long after her death, giving her the same year of birth that Fairbanks had created for himself, 1908.

They went on a delayed honeymoon to England, where he was entertained by Noel Coward and George, Duke of Kent. He became active in both society and politics, but Crawford was far more interested in her career and her new affair with Clark Gable. The couple divorced in 1933.

Despite their divorce, Fairbanks and Crawford maintained a good relationship. In his later years, Fairbanks was quick to defend Crawford when her adopted daughter Christina Crawford, published Mommie Dearest, a scathing biography of Crawford's personal life. He firmly stated, "The Joan Crawford that I've heard about in Mommie Dearest is not the Joan Crawford I knew back when."

On April 22, 1939, he married Mary Lee Hartford (né e Mary Lee Epling), a former wife of George Huntington Hartford, the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company heir.

Douglas and Mary Lee had three daughters, Daphne, Victoria and Melissa. They were happily married for nearly fifty years, until Mary Lee died in 1988.

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., "Father of the U.S. Navy Beach Jumpers"

World War II

In 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed him a special envoy to South America.

Although celebrated as an actor, Fairbanks most enduring legacy was a well-kept secret for decades. At the onset of World War II, Fairbanks was commissioned a reserve officer in the U.S. Navy and assigned to Lord Mountbatten's Commando staff in England.

Having witnessed (and participated in) British training and cross-channel harassment operations emphasizing the military art of deception, Fairbanks attained a depth of understanding and appreciation of military deception then unheard of in the United States Navy. Lieutenant Fairbanks was subsequently transferred to Virginia Beach where he came under the command of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, who was preparing U.S. Naval forces for the invasion of North Africa.

Fairbanks was able to convince Hewitt of the advantages of such a unit, and Admiral Hewitt soon took Fairbanks to Washington, D.C. to sell the idea to the Chief of Naval Operations, ADM Ernest King. Fairbanks succeeded and ADM King issued a secret letter on 5 March 1943 charging the Vice Chief of Naval Operations with the recruitment of 180 officers and 300 enlisted men for the Beach Jumper program.

The Beach Jumpers mission would simulate amphibious landings with a very limited force. Operating dozens of kilometers from the actual landing beaches and utilizing their deception equipment, the Beach Jumpers would lure the enemy into believing that theirs was the location of the amphibious beach landing, when in fact the actual amphibious landing would be conducted at another location. Even if the enemy was less than 100-percent convinced of the deception, the uncertainty created by the operations could conceivably delay enemy reinforcement of the actual landing area by several crucial hours.

U.S. Navy Beach Jumpers saw their initial action in Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. Throughout the remainder of the war, the Beach Jumpers conducted their hazardous, shallow-water operations throughout the Mediterranean.

For his planning the diversion-deception operations and his part in the amphibious assault on Southern France, Lieutenant Commander Fairbanks was awarded the U.S. Navy's Legion of Merit with bronze V (for valor), the Italian War Cross for Military Valor, the French Legion d'Honneur and the Croix de Guerre with Palm, and the British Distinguished Service Cross. Fairbanks was also awarded the Silver Star for valor displayed while serving on PT boats.

He was made an Honorary Order of the British Empire Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) in 1949.

It is not a stretch to say that Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was the father of the United States Navy's Information Operations. As for the Beach Jumpers, they changed names several times in the decades following World War II, expanded their focus, and are currently known as the Navy Information Operations Command. Fairbanks stayed in the Naval Reserve after the war and ultimately retired as a captain in 1954.

Many of the Navy's most important information operations since World War II remain classified, but it is clear that the U.S. military retains its interest in this art of war.

See also Fairbanks and the Navy

Post-war years

CDRFairbanks.jpg

Fairbanks, Jr. returned to Hollywood at the conclusion of World War II and enjoyed success as host of the Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Theater in the early years of television.

Fairbanks was a confirmed Anglophile and spent a good deal of his time in Britain, where he was well known in the highest social circles. The College of Arms in London granted Fairbanks a coat of arms symbolising the U.S. and Britain united across the blue Atlantic Ocean by a silken knot of friendship.

He died of a heart attack in New York at the age of 90. He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California, in the same crypt as his father.

Legacy

Fairbanks has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6318 Hollywood Boulevard and one for television at 6665 Hollywood Boulevard.

Trivia

  • It has been claimed that Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was one of the naked men in the incriminating photos which were used as evidence in the divorce trial of Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll in 1963.
  • He was good friends with legendary English stage and screen actor Sir Laurence Olivier, and was one of the contributors to a documentary of Olivier's life The South Bank Show Laurence Olivier: A Life.

Filmography

  • American Aristocracy (1916)
  • The Three Musketeers 1921)
  • Stephen Steps Out (1923)
  • The Air Mail (1925)
  • Wild Horse Mesa (1925)
  • Stella Dallas (1925)
  • The American Venus (1926)
  • Padlocked (1926)
  • Broken Hearts of Hollywood (1926)
  • Man Bait (1927)
  • Women Love Diamonds (1927)
  • Is Zat So? (1927)
  • A Texas Steer (1927)
  • Dead Man's Curve (1928)
  • Modern Mothers (1928)
  • The Toilers (1928)
  • The Power of the Press (1928)
  • The Barker (1928)
  • A Woman of Affairs (1928)
  • Hollywood Snapshots #11 (1929) (short subject)
  • The Forward Pass (1929)
  • The Jazz Age (1929)
  • Our Modern Maidens (1929)
  • Little Caesar (1931)
  • Catherine the Great (1934)
  • The Amateur Gentleman (1936)
  • The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
  • Joy of Living (1938)
  • The Rage of Paris (1938)
  • Having Wonderful Time (1938)
  • Gunga Din (1939)
  • Green Hell (1940)
  • Angels Over Broadway (1940)
  • Sinbad the Sailor (1947)
  • The Exile (1947)
  • Ghost Story (1981)

References

External links

A Personal Note from Robin

You are probably asking yourself, "Why is there an article Doug Fairbanks Jr on SM-201?"

You have, no doubt seen the US Army and the Marines storming ashore at Anzio in Italy and Normandy in France during WWII. At Normandy, they landed on Omaha, Gold, and Juno beaches as the first ashore. How did they know it was Omaha beach? There was a sign there saying "Omaha Beach". Those signs were put there by a team of intrepid men known as Amphibious Alpha, Amphibious Bravo, etc. My father was one of those sailors attached to Amphibious Roger, and his Commanding Officer was Doug Fairbanks Jr.

My father and Doug stayed in touch after the war and we visited both Pickfair and San Simeon on several occasions in the late '40s and early '50s.

See also [ Fairbanks and the Navy ]

Chain-09.png
Jump to: Main Page • Micropedia • Macropedia • Icons • Time Line • History • Life Lessons • Links • Help
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root
Retrieved from "http://www.sm-201.org/a/index.php?title=Douglas_Fairbanks,_Jr&oldid=101739"