Fairbanks Jr. dead at 90
Actor, producer, businessman made 75 films
A spokesman for the Frank E. Campbell funeral home said he did not know the cause of death and funeral arrangements had not been finalized.
Fairbanks, an actor, producer, businessman and socialite, was the son of silent film star Douglas Fairbanks. Following in his father’s footsteps, he made 75 films, including “Catherine the Great” (1934), “The Prisoner of Zenda” (1937), “Gunga Din” (1939) and “Sinbad the Sailor” (1947).
His stepmother was America’s Sweetheart, Mary Pickford. His first wife was Joan Crawford and he claimed affairs with Marlene Dietrich and Gertrude Lawrence.
Said to be at home in any surroundings, the debonair Fairbanks became a friend of British royalty after serving under Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten as the first U.S. commander of a British flotilla in WWII. He received an honorary knighthood from King George VI in 1949.
Handsome and athletic, Fairbanks was a logical successor to his father (who died in 1939) in leading romantic and swashbuckling roles during the 1930s and 1940s.
“I never tried to emulate my father. Anyone trying to do that would be a second-rate carbon copy,” he once said. “I was determined to be my own man, although having the Fairbanks name did make it easier to get into an office to see someone.”
Fairbanks was born in New York City on Dec. 9, 1909, the only son of the silent-film actor and his first wife, Anna. He lived with his mother following his parents divorce when he was nine.
Relations with Fairbanks Sr. were strained, as were his mother’s finances, so the 13-year-old Fairbanks jumped at an offer of employment from Paramount Pictures, which was seeking to capitalize on his father’s name.
But “Stephen Steps Out” (1923) was a flop, and he was relegated to smaller parts until the end of the 1920s, when his association with Crawford -- whom he married in 1929 but was divorced from in 1933 -- made him a hotter B.O. property.
He made his stage debut in 1927 in John Van Druten’s “Young Woodley” in Los Angeles and on tour in San Francisco. A year later, he made his debut in talking pictures with “The Barker.”
He played Greta Garbo’s brother in “A Woman of Affairs” (1928) and starred with Crawford in “Our Modern Maidens” (1929). He also appeared with Loretta Young in a series of films, among them “Loose Ankles” (1930), in which he played a gigolo, a role he effectively reprised in “Little Caesar” (1930).
He played Grand Duke Peter in “Catherine the Great,” acted on stage and screen with Gertrude Lawrence and founded his own production company, which proved an expensive mistake.
Back in Hollywood, he reinvigorated his career with “The Prisoner of Zenda” and displayed a flair for comedy in “Having a Wonderful Time” (1938) with Ginger Rogers. He then made a number of action pictures with pro-British overtones.
Fairbanks’ most famous screen roles included Rupert of Hentzau in “The Prisoner of Zenda,” both twins in “The Corsican Brothers” (1941) and “Sinbad the Sailor.”
As his acting career faded -- the roles in his range tended to be taken by John Barrymore, Errol Flynn, William Powell and Cary Grant -- Fairbanks took up film production in Britain.
His company produced television dramas under the title “Douglas Fairbanks Presents,” and he starred in some of them. In the 1950s and ‘60s, he appeared in productions of “My Fair Lady” and “The Pleasure of His Company.” He also partook in a variety of TV specials and guest appearances on shows ranging from “Laugh-In” to “The Love Boat.”
In the 1970s, he moved back to the United States and devoted his time to business interests, guest appearances and public appointments on both sides of the Atlantic.
He was a director and consultant for many international firms and a long-serving member of the executive committee of the Royal Shakespeare Theater in Stratford-on-Avon. He wrote screenplays, short stories and poetry and exhibited paintings and sculpture.
Fairbanks’ last major film was “Ghost Story” (1981), in which he starred alongside Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas and John Houseman.
His final screen part was a guest appearance on TV’s “B.L. Stryker” in 1989.
He published the first volume of his autobiography, “The Salad Days,” in 1988.
In 1939, Fairbanks married Mary Lee Epling Hartford, ex-wife of A&P supermarket heir Huntington Hartford. They had three daughters. Three years after his wife died of cancer in 1988, he married Vera Shelton.
He is survived by his wife and three daughters: Daphne, Victoria and Melissa.
-- From wire services
