The Father of the Silent Film Era: the Life Douglas Fairbanks

The Father of the Silent Film Era: The Life Douglas Fairbanks

        If you’ve ever watched any form of a silent film you probably have seen Douglas Fairbanks due to the fact that he has been in 200 plus silent films making him the only silent film actor to have been in 200 plus films. Which is why Douglas Fairbanks is said to be the greatest silent film actor of the silent film era.

Douglas Fairbanks was born May 23, 1883. He was born in Denver, Colorado, Douglas grew up with his mother and his younger sister Savannah Marie Fairbanks. He lived with his mother and his father until he was 3 then his parents went through a tough divorce that then left Douglas and Savannah to live with his mother for the rest of their childhood (biography.com). When he was going through all of his years in grade school he always loved to watch plays and to watch actors preform (biography.com). When he was becoming a freshmen in high school the first class that he chose was to be in theater which didn’t happen because there was a always a strict rule that only upper class students can join theater(biography.com). But he then he started to make small plays with a group of his friends out in his backyard and he had all of his family and friends come over and watch when he did preform them(biography.com). He then joined theater when he became an upper class student in high school (Goessel). Douglas was able to get a full scholarship to the Colorado school for mines at the age of seventeen. When he turned nineteen he moved to New York City where he attended New York school of performing arts. Once he graduated from New York school of performing arts he had his debut in his first show on Broadway which was “Her lord and Master”. His first Broadway show was a success and then got amazing reviews from critics.

Douglas then moved on to get married with his first wife Anna Beth Sully in 1907. His honeymoon was cut short after he went into cardiac arrest due to his high blood pressure and had to have surgery. Soon after he got out of surgery he opened up a business, which prospered for many and helped pay for his hospital bill. His business started to decline after a long period of time, but he then realized that his business wasn’t going to last long and he sold his business. The period he spent after the decline of his business he decided to learn how to paint which helped him coupe with the depression he got from not being on any films or being involved in his business. Douglas made his return to the big screen by being the leading star in the hit film “The Thief of Baghdad” (redirectify.com).  In 1919 he divorced with Anna Beth Sully after finding out that she had an affair with his longtime rival Patrick McGovern (Goessel).  Soon after his divorced with Anna, Douglas worked on multiple films until he was working on the film “Clouds Roll By” is when he met Mary Pickford which they ended up dating for two years (Vance 58). In 1920 Fairbanks and Pickford ended up getting married which was said to be a beautiful scene from a movie. Douglas and Mary were the first celebrity ‘it’ couple. Soon after Douglas and Mary got together they decided to buy a home in Beverly Hills, California where they lived there for many years.

Many years after Douglas made his first screen appearance in “Wild Horse Mesa” his career started to decline. But the highlight of the downfall of his career is that he was the host of the first ever Oscars. Shortly after he hosted the Oscars he went into cardiac arrest for the second time in his life due to his high blood pressure. But due to Douglas’s multiple cardiac arrest Mary filed for a divorce in 1936.  The divorce was finalized in 1937. Soon after his divorce to keep his mind off of it he started up a business in 1937 to help up and coming actors. One of the actors he met was Sylvia Ashely who ended up being his third and final spouse which became official on May 19, 1937. Douglas then had filmed his last movie which ended up being “The Pirate the Life of Don Juan” (encyclopedia.com). Soon after Douglas’s last film he died of cardiac arrest in 1939 at the age of 56.