Douglas Fairbanks

I am a Legendary Motion Picture Actor (I am sure you already know that!). I was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ulman in Denver, Colorado on May 23, 1883. My father was a prominent New York attorney who had mining interests in the Rocky Mountains and relocated to Denver in 1880. My father loved the theatre and and took me and my brother, Robert, to the theatre, sometimes taking us backstage to meet the cast. My first memories as a child were happy ones but soon that would all change. My father was an alcoholic and his drinking increased after he moved out West. He soon abandoned the family and went back to New York. I was only 5 when my father left, but I was devastated. Watching alcohol destroy my father's life made me abstain from alcohol for most of my life. By the time I was eleven, I took to the stage, doing amateur theatre in the Denver area. By my teens I had become an actor in high demand. For that reason, I dropped out of high school, never finishing my senior year. Not much of a regret (I was getting a lot of Tail if you know what I mean!) In 1900, I moved to New York seeking fame on Broadway. I took odd jobs until my debut in 1902 as Florio in The Duke's Jester. In 1907, I married Anna Beth Sully, and we had a son in 1909, named after myself (natch). I struggled to make a living on the stage and I could hardly provide for Beth and our son. In 1914, I signed with the Triangle Film Corporation and arrived in Hollywood in 1915. By the late teens, I was such a popular actor that I was able to form my own production company. In 1917, while on a War Bonds tour with Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin I fell madly in love with Mary. Our romance was one of Hollywood's best kept secrets, as the both of us were married at the time. In 1920, we divorced their partners and got married. I also released my first action film, The Mark of Zorro and it was a tremendous success. By 1927, I knew that my time at the top was coming to a close. At 44 years old, I could no longer take the roles of swashbuckler or romantic hero. I then focused my attention on furthering the motion picture industry. I still found time to make films during this period, such as The Gaucho (1927), The Iron Mask (1928), and Reaching for the Moon (1931). Mary and I also made one picture together, Taming of the Shrew in 1929. The film was a disaster. This signaled the end of our marriage and we were divorced in 1936. Within months, I married my longtime mistress Lady Sylvia Ashley. My health had also began to fail me and I began to experience heart problems. The final years of my life were spent in quiet retirement at my home in Santa Monica. On December 12, 1939, I died in my sleep of a heart attack at the age of 56.