Douglas Fairbanks was raised by his southern mother who had separated from his father, an attorney, when he was five. He began amateur theater at age 12 and continued while attending the Colorado School of Mines. In 1900 they moved to New York. He attended Harvard, traveled to Europe, worked on a cattle freighter, in a hardware store and as a clerk on Wall Street. He made his Broadway debut in 1902 and five years later left theater to marry an industrialist's daughter. He returned when his father-in-law went broke the next year. In 1915 he went to Hollywood and worked under a reluctant D.W. Griffith. The following year he formed his own production company. During a Liberty Bond tour with Charles Chaplin he fell in love with Mary Pickford with whom he, Chaplin and Griffith had formed United Artists in 1919. He made very successful early social comedies, then highly popular swashbucklers during the 'twenties. The owners of Hollywood's Pickfair Mansion separated in 1933 and divorced in 1936. In March of that year he married an ex-chorus girl and retired from acting.
Reaching for the Moon (1930): $300,000
The Iron Mask (1929): $40,000
The Lamb (1915): $2,000/week

Uncle of Lucile Fairbanks Born at 9:0am-LMT- (MST) One of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Performed most of the stunts in his films himself. He was an excellent athlete and used his physical abilities to his best advantage. However, there were instances when a stuntman was used (as in the "sliding down the sail" and "swinging through the mast" scenes in The Black Pirate), as these types of stunts were deemed too risky for the star. Interred at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery (now called Hollywood Forever), Hollywood, California, USA. He frequently requested that his name be listed last in the film credits. Brother of Robert Fairbanks. Brother-in-law of Lottie Pickford and Jack Pickford. Father-in-law of Joan Crawford. Father of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Pictured on a 20¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the Performing Arts USA series, issued 23 May 1984. Son-in-law of Charlotte Smith. Was Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel's basis for the overall physical look of Superman. The Hollywood mansion he and Mary Pickford owned was called Pickfair. Hosted the very first Academy Awards in 1929 alongside William C. de Mille First president of the AMPAS from 1927 to 1929 His last words were "Never felt better". Founder of United Artists along with Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin and D. W. Griffith. Suffered from depression as a child. According to legend, the thing that sparked his interest in acting occurred when he fell off the roof as a young child and hurt himself. Good friend of Charles Chaplin. During his European honeymoon with Mary Pickford, the couple was greeted by crowds of up to 300,000 people in London and Paris, which made them Hollywood's first celebrity couple. Son of Hezekiah Charles Ullman, a New York attorney, and Ella Adelaide Marsh, who previously was married to a man named John Fairbanks. Ullman left the family when Douglas was five years old. Lived in retirement with Sylvia Ashley at 705 Ocean Front (now Pacific Coast Highway) in Santa Monica, California. Among those in attendance at his funeral in 1939 were Viola Dana, Antonio Moreno, Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman and May McAvoy.