Doug Fairbanks Dead at 90

Douglas Fairbanks Jr was a beautiful man. I met Doug only once. It was at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, in the mid 90s. I suppose, yes, I suppose "met" may be too strong a word. I had Doug's books (he had written two delightful autobiographies) and he signed them for me. He also spoke about the old days, and introduced his new, young (compared to him) wife. He stayed to watch 3 of his films with us; The Prisoner of Zenda, The Rage of Paris, and an early silent film of his, the name of which escapes me.

Although the Internet Movie Database lists his height as 6' 1" , I should say it was closer to 5'11", but he was frail and in his 80s and could have lost some of his edge heightwise by then. But mentally he was in top form. Very charming and self-effacing.

He was born Douglas Elton Ulman Fairbanks on December 9, 1909 in New York City. Doug died May 7, 2000 in New York City. His death was reported on the front page of the Times in London and Buckingham Palace expressed its condolences on his demise. He has been interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in the same crypt with father, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.

He married Joan Crawford in 1929 and they were divorced in1933. In 1939 he married Mary Lee Epling Hartford, with whom he had 3 daughters. They were married for nearly a half century, until her death in 1988. Then Doug married Vera Shelton in 1991, that marriage lasted until his death.

Much later he was identified as the so-called headless man pictured naked with the Duchess of Argyll in photographs which emerged at her sensational divorce trial in 1963. He always denied it.

During the Second World War, he served as commando officer and was decorated for bravery. Afterwards, he entered business and helped raise millions of dollars for charity.

Fairbanks was born in New York, but became a dedicated Anglophile, with a London home where he entertained the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. In 1949 he was made an Honorary Knight of the British Empire for his work on behalf of Anglo-American relations. Even at the end of his long life, he was still known as Douglas Fairbanks Junior, because of his famous film star father of the same name.

Doug was a socialite; he was witty, urbane and clever but without ever being cynical or nasty: "I was only saying to the Queen the other day how I hate name dropping..."

His best films include: The Corsican Brothers (1941), Gunga Din (1939), Having Wonderful Time (1938), The Rage of Paris (1938), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), The Narrow Corner (1933), Love Is a Racket (1932), The Dawn Patrol (1930), Little Caesar (1930), A Woman of Affairs (1928) and The Power of the Press (1928). He had a small role in his first film, the only film he made with his father, The Three Musketeers (1921).

"The trouble with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. is that he likes everything he sees - and he sees everything." - Clemence Dane