Douglas Fairbanks: Film's First Superhero

He was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and its first President.

Superman's physical appearance was modeled on his all-American looks and athletic build.

He co-founded United Artists with Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and D. W. Griffith.

He created the very first film school, at the University of Southern California.

In 1929, he co-hosted the very first Academy Awards.

His portrayal of Zorro directly inspired Bob Kane's creation, Batman.

His 1938 donation of film and memorabilia formed a cornerstone for the Museum of Modern Art collections.

And he was one of the first to embrace both the use of original musical scores for movies and a new innovation called Technicolor (his The Black Pirate was the third movie to be filmed entirely in Technicolor, which was at that time an expensive, time-consuming headache of trial-and-error).

Jean Dujardin in The Artist

(He also served as inspiration for the look of "George Valentin" in the modern-day silent movie, The Artist (which included an actual clip from Fairbanks' film, The Mark of Zorro). The film's star, French actor Jean Dujardin gave a shout-out to Fairbanks in his acceptance speech at the 2012 Academy Awards after winning the Oscar for "Best Leading Actor".)








Fairbanks, in 1915's The Lamb

Born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman, he became Douglas Fairbanks when -- after her divorce from third husband Charles Ullman -- Douglas' mother Ella readopted the surname of her first husband, John Fairbanks. Douglas showed an early proclivity for both the stage and athletics, acting in local theater around Colorado. After school, he made his way to New York and by age 19, he was performing on Broadway, becoming well-known for his acrobatic as well as his dramatic flair.






Fairbanks clowning around with wife Mary Pickford
and best friend Charlie Chaplin

In 1915, he signed his first movie contract, appearing the same year in his first film, The Lamb, directed by D. W. Griffith, and within three years, he would be Hollywood's most popular actor, portraying a series of adventurers and swashbucklers like Zorro, Robin Hood, and D'Artagnan.

He also became known as a proponent of healthy and moral living, penning a series of writings in which he advised his readers that "fresh air and regular daily exercise are absolute necessities" and to "resist everything that tends to make you soft and satisfied...keep in motion and do not accept the benfits of civilization too easily."

"Happiness," he wrote in Laugh and Live, "is findamentally a state of mind, not a state of body...start the morning off with a laugh and you needn't worry about the rest of the day."







Fairbanks holds Chaplin aloft at a
1918 Liberty Bond rally in NYC

Even scandal could not shake the public's love for Fairbanks. In 1918, Fairbanks and actress Mary Pickford (known as "America's Sweetheart" for her many roles as the charming naif) began an affair while on tour to promote the sale of Liberty Bonds for World War I. The couple quietly divorced their respective partners and married in 1920, retreating to Europe for a honeymoon (and to judge the American reaction from a distance).

Fairbanks and Pickford share a private moment
on the set of The Black Pirate

They needn't have worried; not only were they mobbed in England and France by almost uncontrollable crowds, on their return to America they were hailed as the King and Queen of Hollywood. Their movies continued to be highly profitable, and the guest list at their home Pickfair represented the cream of the social, scientific, political, literary, sporting, and artistic worlds.

(Alas, despite what was by all accounts a loving relationship, their union did not last;
they divorced in 1936.)












His age and the advent of talking pictures were great factors in the winding down of Fairbanks career. No longer able to achieve the light-footed athletic feats of his earlier movies, and plagued by heart trouble, Fairbanks' final years were filled with the world travel and adventure he had craved but had been too busy to do for most of his career. His last words, spoken the day after attending a USC-UCLA football game: "I've never felt better."

In 2009, the University of Southern California (thanks to generous donations from George Lucas and several film companies) expanded their School of Cinematic Arts into a 200,000-square-foot complex.

The centerpiece of the complex (built in the neo-Mediterranean style favored in 1929's Hollywood) is a courtyard fountain and bronze statue of Douglas Fairbanks -- beloved fencing sword in one hand, movie script in the other -- and a plaque recognising his contribution to the founding of the school.










Fairbanks instructs a class at USC

Check out Fairbanks and other silent film greats in the library's special display of newly added silent films on DVD and in the PINES catalog.