Fairbanks, Douglas, Sr.

Fairbanks, Douglas, Sr. (b. Douglas Elton Ulman)

(1883–1939) movie actor; born in Denver, Colo. He made his stage debut at age 12. In 1915 he went into films, and in 1920, after divorcing his first wife, he married the popular movie star, Mary Pickford. Swashbuckling hero parts were his specialty, as in The Three Musketeers (1921), Robin Hood (1922), and The Thief of Baghdad (1924), in which he did all his own stunts. Also a producer and screenwriter, he was a cofounder of United Artists (1919). His career dimmed with the arrival of "talkies" and after he and Mary Pickford were divorced in 1936, he married Lady Sylvia Ashley of England.