Ronald Colman
with Jean Arthur in Talk of the Town (1942)
Born	Ronald Charles Colman (1891-02-09)9 February 1891 Richmond, Surrey, England, UK
Died	19 May 1958(1958-05-19) (aged 67) Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1914–57
Spouse	Thelma Raye (1920-1934) Benita Hume (1938-1958)

Ronald Charles Colman (9 February 1891 – 19 May 1958) was an English actor.^[1]

Early years[link]

He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, as Roland Charles Colman, the second son and fourth child^[2] of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he discovered he enjoyed acting. He intended to study engineering at Cambridge University, but his father's sudden death from pneumonia in 1907 made this financially impossible.

He became a well-known amateur actor and was a member of the West Middlesex Dramatic Society in 1908-09. He made his first appearance on the professional stage in 1914.

After working as a clerk at the British Steamship Company in the City of London,^[2] he joined the London Scottish Regiment^[3] in 1909 and was among the first of Territorial Army to fight in World War I. During the war, he served with fellow actors Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall, Cedric Hardwicke and Basil Rathbone. On 31 October 1914, at the Battle of Messines^[3], Colman was seriously wounded by shrapnel in his ankle, which gave him a limp that he would attempt to hide throughout the rest of his acting career. He was invalided from the service in 1916.

Career[link]

Theatre[link]

He had sufficiently recovered to appear at the London Coliseum on 19 June 1916, as Rahmat Sheikh in The Maharani of Arakan, with Lena Ashwell; at the Playhouse in December that year as Stephen Weatherbee in Charles Goddard & Paul Dickey's play The Misleading Lady; at the Court Theatre in March 1917 he played Webber in Partnership and at that theatre the following year appeared in Eugène Brieux's play, adapted from the French, Damaged Goods; at the Ambassadors Theatre in February 1918 he played George Lubin in The Little Brother, and during 1918 toured as David Goldsmith in The Bubble.

In 1920, Colman went to America and toured with Robert Warwick in The Dauntless Three, and subsequently toured with Fay Bainter in East is West; at the Booth Theatre, New York, in January 1921 he played the Temple Priest in William Archer's play The Green Goddess, with George Arliss; at the 39th Street Theatre in August 1921 he appeared as Charles in The Nightcap; and in September 1922 he made a great success as Alain Sergyll at the Empire Theatre (New York City) in the hit play La Tendressse.

Film[link]

from the trailer for Random Harvest (1942)

Ronald Colman had first appeared in films in England in 1917 and 1919 for Cecil Hepworth, and subsequently with the old Broadwest Film Company in The Snow of the Desert. While appearing on stage in New York in La Tendress, Director Henry King saw him, and engaged him as the leading man in the 1923 film, The White Sister, opposite Lillian Gish, and was an immediate success. Thereafter Colman virtually abandoned the stage for film. He became a very popular silent film star in both romantic and adventure films, among them The Dark Angel (1925), Stella Dallas (1926), Beau Geste (1927), and The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926). His dark hair and eyes and his athletic and riding ability (he did most of his own stunts until late in his career) led reviewers to describe him as a "Valentino type". He was often cast in similar, exotic roles.^[4] Towards the end of the silents era, Colman was teamed with Hungarian actress Vilma Bánky under Samuel Goldwyn and the two were a popular movie team rivalling Greta Garbo and John Gilbert.

Although he was a huge success in silent films, he was unable to capitalize on one of his chief assets until the advent of the talking picture, "his beautifully modulated and cultured voice",^[5] also described as "a bewitching, finely-modulated, resonant voice".^[6] His first major talkie success was in 1930, when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for two roles — Condemned and Bulldog Drummond. He thereafter appeared in a number of notable films including Raffles, The Masquerader, Clive of India, A Tale of Two Cities in 1935, Under Two Flags, The Prisoner of Zenda and Lost Horizon in 1937, If I Were King in 1938, and The Talk of the Town in 1941. He won the Best Actor Oscar in 1948 for A Double Life. At the time of his death, Colman was contracted by MGM for the lead role in Village of the Damned. However, Colman died and the film became a British production starring George Sanders, who had married Colman's widow, Benita Hume.

Radio and television[link]

Beginning in 1945, Colman made many guest appearances on The Jack Benny Program on radio, alongside his second wife, stage and screen actress Benita Hume. Their comedy work as Benny's next-door neighbors led to their own radio comedy The Halls of Ivy from 1950 to 1952, created by Fibber McGee & Molly mastermind Don Quinn, on which the Colmans played the literate, charming president of a middle American college and his former-actress wife. On 27 September 1950 installment, the audience was treated to a surprise---Colman himself had written the script, poking a little fun at himself at the finish when he himself gave the episode's credits. The Halls of Ivy moved to television from 1954 to 1955.^{[citation needed]}

Death[link]

Ronald Colman died on 19 May 1958, aged 67, from acute emphysema in Santa Barbara, California, and was interred in the Santa Barbara Cemetery. He had a daughter, Juliet, by his second wife.

Awards and honours[link]

He was nominated for four Academy awards: Bulldog Drummond (1929), Condemned (1930), Random Harvest (1942), and A Double Life (1947), for which he won the Academy Award for his role of "Anthony John," an actor playing "Othello" who comes to identify with the character. He also won the Golden Globe award for Best Actor in 1947 for his role in A Double Life. In 2002, Colman's Oscar statuette was sold at auction by Christie's for US$174,500.^[7]

Colman is a recipient of the George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.

Colman has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. and one for television at 1623 Vine Street.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

• Parker, John, editor, Who's Who in the Theatre, 10th edition revised, London, 1947, p. 437.

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ronald Colman

• Ronald Colman at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ronald Colman at the Internet Movie Database
• Ronald Colman at the TCM Movie Database

• http://www.ronaldcolman.com

Belle Bennett
Born	(1891-04-22)April 22, 1891 Milaca, Minnesota
Died	November 4, 1932(1932-11-04) (aged 41) Los Angeles, California
Occupation	stage and screen actress
Spouse	Jack Oaker, William Macy, Fred Windermere

Belle Bennett (April 22, 1891 – November 4, 1932) was a stage and screen actress who started her professional career in vaudeville. She was born in Milaca, Minnesota.

Stage actress[link]

Bennett appeared in circus performances during her childhood. Her father was Billie Bennett, owner of a circus. He trained her to be a trapeze performer after she spent some years in the Sacred Heart Convent in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By age thirteen she was appearing in public. Performances with stock companies led Bennett to Broadway. There she appeared in theatrical productions staged by David Belasco.

Motion pictures[link]

Bennett was cast in numerous minor Hollywood motion pictures like the western film A Ticket to Red Horse Gulch (1914). Then Samuel Goldwyn selected her from among seventy-three actresses for the leading role in Stella Dallas (1925). The film has been ranked as one of the finest movies of all time. While filming the movie her son, sixteen-year-old William Howard Macy, died. Macy had posed as Bennett's brother for some time because of her fear that her employers might find out her true age. She was actually thirty-four rather than twenty-four, which she had claimed to be.

After playing the mother role in Stella Dallas Bennett was typecast for the remainder of her film career. She later appeared in Mother Machree (1928), The Battle of the Sexes (1928), The Iron Mask (1929), Courage (1930), Recaptured Love (1930) and The Big Shot (1931).

Marriages[link]

Bennett was married three times. Jack Oaker, a sailor at the San Pedro, California submarine base, was married to her when she worked with the Triangle Film Corporation, in 1918. Her second husband was William Macy of La Crosse, Wisconsin. She later married film director Fred Windermere.

Illness and death[link]

During a break in her film career Bennett performed in vaudeville at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania theater. She collapsed on stage and was eventually checked into a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania hospital. There she underwent blood transfusions and was able to continue acting briefly. In September 1932 she was rushed by plane from New York following a relapse of cancer which she had been suffering from for two and a half years. She died that November at the age of 41 at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Late in her life Bennett came to believe in the power of prayer. A practitioner of Christian Science influenced her. She is interred in the Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood.

Bennett has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

References[link]

• Los Angeles Times, Found Unconscious, July 25, 1918, Page I10.
• Los Angeles Times, Death Takes Star of Stella Dallas, November 5, 1932, Page A1.

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Belle Bennett

• Belle Bennett at the Internet Movie Database
• Belle Bennett at IBDb.com
• Belle Bennett at AllRovi
• Photos
• Belle Bennett at Find a Grave

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Fairbanks in 1987, by Allan Warren
Born	Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. (1909-12-09)December 9, 1909 New York City, New York
Died	May 7, 2000(2000-05-07) (aged 90) New York City, New York
Cause of death	heart attack
Occupation	Actor, Naval officer
Years active	1916-1997
Spouse	Joan Crawford (m.1929-1933; divorced) Mary Lee Eppling (m.1939-1988) Vera Shelton (m.1991-2000; his death)
Children	Daphne Fairbanks Victoria Fairbanks Melissa Fairbanks
Parents	Douglas Fairbanks, Anna Beth Sully
Military career
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1941–54
Rank	Captain
Unit	Beach Jumpers
Battles/wars	World War II Operation Husky Operation Dragoon
Awards	Legion of Merit, Italian War Cross, Legion d'Honneur, Croix de Guerre, Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Honorary)

Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. KBE (December 9, 1909 – May 7, 2000) was an American actor and a highly decorated naval officer of World War II.

Early life[link]

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was born in New York City as the only child of actor Douglas Fairbanks, and his first wife, Anna Beth Sully. His parents divorced when he was nine years old, and although both remarried, they had no more children.^[1] He lived with his mother in New York, California, Paris and London.^[2]

Hollywood[link]

Fairbanks' father was one of cinema's first icons, noted for such swashbuckling adventure films as The Mark of Zorro, Robin Hood and The Thief of Bagdad. Largely on the basis of his father's name, Fairbanks, Jr. was given a contract with Paramount Pictures at age 14. After making some undistinguished films, he took to the stage, where he impressed his father, his stepmother Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin, who encouraged him to continue with acting.

He began his career during the silent film era. He initially played mainly supporting roles in a range of films featuring many of the leading female players of the day: Belle Bennett in Stella Dallas (1925), Esther Ralston in An American Venus (1926) and Pauline Starke in Women Love Diamonds (1927). In the last years of the silent period, he was upped to star billing opposite Loretta Young in several pre-Code films and Joan Crawford in Our Modern Maidens (1929). He supported John Gilbert and Greta Garbo in Woman of Affairs (1929). Progressing to sound, he played opposite Katharine Hepburn in her Oscar-winning role in the film Morning Glory (1933).

With Outward Bound (1930), The Dawn Patrol (1930), Little Caesar (1931), Prisoner of Zenda(1937), and Gunga Din (1939), his movies began to have more commercial success.

Marriages[link]

His first notable relationship was with the actress Joan Crawford, whom he began to date seriously during the filming of Our Modern Maidens. On June 3, 1929, at St Malachy in New York City, Crawford and Fairbanks married. Fairbanks was only 19 and Crawford was four years older.

They went on a delayed honeymoon to England, where he was entertained by Noël Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, Bea Lillie, and Prince George, Duke of Kent. He became active in both society and politics, but Crawford was far more interested in her career and had an affair with Clark Gable. The couple divorced in 1933.

Despite their divorce, Fairbanks was quick to defend Crawford when her adopted daughter Christina Crawford, published Mommie Dearest, a scathing biography of Crawford's personal life. He firmly stated, "The Joan Crawford that I've heard about in Mommie Dearest is not the Joan Crawford I knew back then." A December 2011 eBay auction of a 1977 letter sent by Fairbanks Jr. to Joan Crawford illustrates the fact that the two celebrity ex-spouses remained on friendly terms for the duration of their lives; In the auctioned letter, Fairbanks Jr. mentions that they hadn't met for a drink in over a year.

On April 22, 1939, Fairbanks married Mary Lee Hartford (née Mary Lee Epling), a former wife of Huntington Hartford, the A&P Supermarket heir. They remained together until her death in 1988, and had three daughters: Daphne, Victoria, and Melissa.

On May 30, 1991, Fairbanks wed Vera Lee Shelton, a merchandiser for QVC Network Inc.

World War II[link]

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., "Father of the U.S. Navy Beach Jumpers"

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him a special envoy to South America.

Although celebrated as an actor, Fairbanks was commissioned a reserve officer in the United States Navy at the onset of World War II and assigned to Lord Louis Mountbatten's Commando staff in the United Kingdom.

Having witnessed (and participated in) British training and cross-channel harassment operations emphasizing the military art of deception, Fairbanks attained a depth of understanding and appreciation of military deception then unheard of in the United States Navy. Lieutenant Fairbanks was subsequently transferred to Virginia Beach where he came under the command of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, who was preparing U.S. Naval forces for the invasion of North Africa.

Fairbanks convinced Hewitt of the advantages of such a unit^{[clarification needed]}, then repeated the proposal at Hewett's behest to Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations. King thereupon issued a secret letter on March 5, 1943 charging the Vice Chief of Naval Operations with the recruitment of 180 officers and 300 enlisted men for the Beach Jumper program.

The Beach Jumpers' mission would simulate amphibious landings with a very limited force. Operating dozens of kilometers from the actual landing beaches and utilizing their deception equipment, the Beach Jumpers would lure the enemy into believing that theirs was the principal landing.

United States Navy Beach Jumpers saw their initial action in Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. Throughout the remainder of the war, the Beach Jumpers conducted their hazardous, shallow-water operations throughout the Mediterranean.

For his planning the diversion-deception operations and his part in the amphibious assault on Southern France, Lieutenant Commander Fairbanks was awarded the United States Navy's Legion of Merit with bronze V (for valor), the Italian War Cross for Military Valor, the French Légion d'honneur and the Croix de guerre with Palm, and the British Distinguished Service Cross. Fairbanks was also awarded the Silver Star for valor displayed while serving on PT boats and the National Order of the Southern Cross, conferred by the Brazilian government. Among his other exploits was the sinking of the light cruiser Capriole while in command of a mixed division of American PT Boats and British MGBs.

He was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1949. Fairbanks stayed in the Naval Reserve after the war and ultimately retired a captain in 1954.

Post-war years[link]

Fairbanks with Maureen O'Hara in Sinbad the Sailor (1947)

Fairbanks returned to Hollywood at the conclusion of World War II, but as a confirmed Anglophile, he spent a considerable amount of his time in the United Kingdom, where he was well known in the highest social circles. Between 1954 and 1956 he also made a number of half-hour programs at one of the smaller Elstree film studios as part of a syndicated anthology series for television called Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents.^[3] In the middle 1950s, Fairbanks was a guest star on NBC's The Martha Raye Show. On February 7, 1957, he appeared on NBC's The Ford Show starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. On stage, Fairbanks toured in My Fair Lady in 1968, and in The Pleasure of His Company several times, including tours in the U.S. in 1970–72 and the 1977 Australian production with Stanley Holloway.

The College of Arms in London granted Fairbanks a coat of arms symbolising the U.S. and Britain united across the blue Atlantic Ocean by a silken knot of friendship.

In 1982, Fairbanks was awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit for his contribution to the relief of the needy in occupied Germany.

It has been claimed that Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was one of the naked men in the incriminating photos used as evidence in the divorce trial of Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll in 1963.^[4]

Fairbanks was a friend of Laurence Olivier and was among the contributors to a documentary by The South Bank Show called Laurence Olivier: A Life. He was also a close friend of Sir Rex Harrison and was a presenter at Harrison's New York City memorial service.

He wrote his autobiography, The Salad Days, in 1988.^[5]

Death and legacy[link]

Fairbanks died of a heart attack in New York at the age of 90 and is interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California, in the same crypt as his father.

Fairbanks has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6318 Hollywood Boulevard and one for television at 6665 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1969 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Best Dressed List.^[6]

Estate[link]

Fairbanks' estate was auctioned September 13, 2011 by Doyle New York, surpassing estimated proceeds by netting over a half million.

Partial filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. at the Internet Movie Database
• Douglas Fairbanks Jr – Daily Telegraph obituary
• Photographs of Douglas Fairbanks jr.
• Navy Department History entry

Douglas Fairbanks,Sr.
in Private Life of Don Juan (1934)
Born	Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman (1883-05-23)May 23, 1883 Denver, Colorado
Died	December 12, 1939(1939-12-12) (aged 56) Santa Monica, California
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1915–1934
Spouse	Anna Beth Sully (m.1907-1919; divorced) Mary Pickford (m.1920-1936; divorced) Sylvia Ashley (m.1936-1939; his death)
Children	Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (1909–2000)

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer.^[1] He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro.

An astute businessman, Fairbanks was a founding member of United Artists. Fairbanks was also a founding member of The Motion Picture Academy and hosted the first Oscars Ceremony in 1929. With his marriage to Mary Pickford in 1920, the couple became Hollywood royalty and Fairbanks was referred to as "The King of Hollywood",^[2] a nickname later passed on to actor Clark Gable. His career rapidly declined with the advent of the "talkies".

Early life[link]

Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman (spelled "Ulman" by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in his memoirs) in Denver, Colorado, the son of H. Charles Ullman (born September 15, 1833) and Ella Adelaide Marsh (born 1847). He had a half-brother, John Fairbanks, Jr. (born 1873), and a full brother, Robert Payne Ullman (March 13, 1882 – February 22, 1948).

Douglas Fairbanks' father, Hezekiah Charles Ullman (1833–1915), was born in Berrysburg, Pennsylvania. but raised in Williamsport. He was the fourth child in a relatively well-to-do Jewish family of six sons and four daughters. Charles' parents, Lazarus Ullman and Lydia Abrahams, had immigrated to the U.S. in 1830 from Baden Germany. When he was 17, Charles started a small publishing business in Philadelphia. Two years later he left for New York to study law. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1856 and began building a substantial practice. At the onset of the Civil War, Charles joined the Union forces. He engaged in several battles, was wounded, and later became a captain of the 5th Pennsylvania Reserves. Charles left the service in 1864 and returned to his law practice. Subsequently he founded the U.S. Law Association, a forerunner of the American Bar Association.

Charles met Ella Adelaide Marsh (1847–1915) after she married his friend and client John Fairbanks, a wealthy New Orleans sugar mill and plantation owner. The Fairbankses had a son, John, and shortly thereafter John Senior died of tuberculosis. Ella, born into a wealthy southern Catholic family, was overprotected and knew little of her husband's business. Consequently, she was swindled out of her fortune by her husband's partners. Even the efforts of Charles Ullman, acting on her behalf, failed to regain any of the family fortune for her. Distraught and lonely, she met and married a courtly Georgian, Edward Wilcox, who turned out to be an alcoholic. After they had a son, Norris, she divorced Wilcox, and Charles acted as her lawyer in the suit. The pretty southern belle soon became romantically involved with Charles and agreed to move to Denver with him to pursue mining investments. They arrived in Denver in 1881 with her son, John. (Norris was left in Georgia with relatives and was never sent for by his mother.) They were married and had a child, Robert, in 1882, and then a second son, Douglas, a year later. Charles purchased several mining interests in the Rocky Mountains and he re-established his law practice. Charles Ullman abandoned the family when Douglas was five years old, however, and he and his older brother Robert were brought up by their mother, who gave them the family name Fairbanks, after her first husband.

Early career[link]

Douglas Fairbanks began acting on the Denver stage at an early age, doing amateur theatre. He was in summer stock at the Elitch Gardens Theatre, becoming a sensation in his teens. He attended Denver East High School, and was once expelled for dressing up the campus statues on St. Patrick's Day. He left during his senior year. He said he attended Colorado School of Mines for a term but no record of attendance has been found. An article on the matter recounts a professor once saying Fairbanks was asked to leave because of a prank not long after he began. It is also claimed he attended Harvard University. Fairbanks moved to New York in the early 1900s to pursue an acting career, joining the acting troupe of British actor Frederick Warde who had discovered Fairbanks performing in Denver. He worked in a hardware store and as a clerk in a Wall Street office before his Broadway debut in 1902.

On July 11, 1907 in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, he married Anna Beth Sully, the daughter of wealthy industrialist, Daniel J. Sully. They had one son, Douglas Elton Fairbanks, who later became known as actor "Douglas Fairbanks Jr.". The family moved to Hollywood, California in 1915.

Hollywood[link]

D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin (seated) and Douglas Fairbanks at the signing of the contract establishing United Artists motion picture studio in 1919. Lawyers Albert Banzhaf (left) and Dennis F. O'Brien (right) stand in the background.

Fairbanks signed a contract with Triangle Pictures in 1915 and began working under the supervision of D.W. Griffith. His first film was titled The Lamb, and in the film, he debuted his remarkable athletic abilities that would gain wide attention among theatre audiences.^[3]

His athleticism was not appreciated by Griffith, however, and he was brought to the attention of Anita Loos and John Emerson, who wrote and directed many of his early romantic comedies. In 1916, Fairbanks established his own company, the Douglas Fairbanks Film Corporation,^[4] and would soon get a job at Paramount.^[4] By 1918, Fairbanks was Hollywood's most popular actor;^[5] within eighteen months of his arrival, Fairbanks' popularity and business acumen raised him up to be the third highest paid.

Fairbanks speaking in front of a crowd at a 1918 war bond drive in New York City

Fairbanks met actress Mary Pickford at a party in 1916 and they began an affair. In 1917, the couple joined Fairbanks' friend Charlie Chaplin^[3] selling war bonds by train across the U.S. Pickford and Chaplin were then the two highest paid film stars in Hollywood. To curtail these stars' astronomical salaries, the large studios attempted to monopolise distributors and exhibitors.

Sully was granted a divorce from Fairbanks in late 1918, the judgement being finalized in early 1919.

To avoid being controlled by the studios and to protect their independence, Fairbanks, Pickford, Chaplin, and D. W. Griffith formed United Artists in 1919, which created their own distributorships and gave them complete artistic control over their films and the profits generated. The company was kept solvent in the years immediately after its formation largely from the success of Fairbanks' films.

The Mark of Zorro

Fairbanks was determined to have Pickford become his wife, but she was still married to actor Owen Moore. He finally gave her an ultimatum. She then obtained a fast divorce in the small Nevada town of Minden, Nevada, on March 2, 1920. Fairbanks leased the Beverly Hills mansion Grayhall and was rumoured to have used it during his courtship of Pickford.

The couple married on March 28, 1920. Pickford's divorce from Moore was contested by Nevada legislators, however, and the dispute was not settled until 1922. Even though the lawmakers objected to the marriage, the public went wild over the idea of "Everybody's Hero" marrying "America's Sweetheart". They were greeted by large crowds in London and Paris during their European honeymoon, becoming Hollywood's first celebrity couple.

During the years they were married, Fairbanks and Pickford were regarded as "Hollywood Royalty," famous for entertaining at their Beverly Hills estate, Pickfair.

Douglas Fairbanks in the title role in Robin Hood (1922).

By 1920, Fairbanks had completed twenty-nine films (twenty-eight features and one two-reel short), which showcased his ebullient screen persona and athletic ability. By 1920, he had the inspiration of staging a new type of adventure-costume picture, a genre that was then out of favor with the public; Fairbanks had previously been a comic in his other films.^[2] In The Mark of Zorro, Fairbanks combined his appealing screen persona with the new adventurous, costume element. It was a smash success and parlayed the actor into the rank of superstar. For the remainder of his career in silent films, he continued to produce and star in ever more elaborate, impressive costume films, such as The Three Musketeers (1921), Douglas Fairbanks as Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), The Black Pirate (1926, the first full-length Technicolor film), and The Gaucho (1927). Fairbanks spared no expense and effort in these films, which established the standard for all future swashbuckling films.

In 1921, he, Pickford, Chaplin, and others, helped to organize the Motion Picture Fund to assist those in the industry who could not work, or were unable to meet their bills.

During the first ceremony of its type, he and Pickford placed their hand and foot prints in wet cement at the newly opened Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on April 30, 1927. Fairbanks was elected first President of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences that same year, and he presented the first Academy Awards at the Roosevelt Hotel. Fairbanks also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7020 Hollywood Boulevard.

His last silent film was the lavish The Iron Mask (1929), a sequel to 1921's The Three Musketeers which included an introductory prologue spoken by Fairbanks. While Fairbanks had flourished in the silent genre, the restrictions of early sound films dulled his enthusiasm for film-making. Also, his athletic abilities and general health began to decline, in part due to years of heavy chain-smoking. Hollywood panicked by the impending arrival of the talkies. On 29 March, 1929 at the bungalow of Pickford at United Artists brought together Pickford, Fairbanks, Charles Chaplin, Norma Talmadge, Gloria Swanson, John Barrymore, D.W. Griffith and Dolores del Rio to speak on the radio show The Dodge Brothers Hour to prove he could meet the challenge of talking movies. ^[6]

He and Pickford chose to make their first talkie as a joint venture, playing Petruchio and Kate in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (1929). This film, and his subsequent sound films, were poorly received by Depression era audiences. The last film he acted in was the British production The Private Life of Don Juan (1934), after which he retired from acting.

Final years[link]

Fairbanks' tomb at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Fairbanks and Pickford separated in 1933, after he began an affair with Sylvia, Lady Ashley. They divorced in 1936, with Pickford keeping the Pickfair estate. Within months Fairbanks and Ashley were married in Paris.

He continued to be marginally involved in the film industry and United Artists, but his later years lacked the intense focus of his film years. His health continued to decline, and in his final years he lived at 705 Ocean Front (now Pacific Coast Highway) in Santa Monica, California, although much of his time was spent traveling abroad with Sylvia.

In December 1939, at 56, Fairbanks had a heart attack in his sleep and died a day later at his home in Santa Monica. By some accounts^{[citation needed]}, he had been obsessively working out against medical advice, trying to regain his once-trim waistline. Fairbanks's famous last words were, "I've never felt better."^[7] His funeral service was held at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather Church in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery where he was placed in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum. He was deeply mourned and honored by his colleagues and fans for his contributions to the film industry and Hollywood.

Two years following his death, he was removed from Forest Lawn by his widow, who commissioned an elaborate marble monument for him featuring a long rectangular reflecting pool, raised tomb, and classic Greek architecture in Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. The monument was dedicated in a ceremony held in October 1941, with Fairbanks' close friend Charles Chaplin reading a remembrance. The remains of his son, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., were also interred here upon his death in 2000.

Legacy[link]

Reissue poster for 1916 cocaine comedy

In 1998, a group of Fairbanks fans started the Douglas Fairbanks Museum in Austin, Texas. The museum building was temporarily closed for mold remediation and repairs in February 2010.^[8] Plans and fundraising efforts are underway to re-open the museum to the public. In the meantime an online virtual museum project makes parts of the collections and past exhibits available for viewing on the museum's website.^[9]

In 2002, AMPAS opened the "Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study" located at 333 S. La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The building houses the Margaret Herrick Library.^[10]

On January 24, 2009, AMPAS opened an exhibition at their Fourth Floor Gallery dedicated to Fairbanks titled, "Douglas Fairbanks: The First King of Hollywood". The exhibit featured costumes, props, pictures, and documents from his career and personal life. The exhibit ran until April 2009.^[11] In addition to the exhibit, AMPAS screened Thief of Bagdad and The Iron Mask in March 2009. Recently, due to his involvement with the USC Fencing Club, a bronze statue of Fairbanks was erected in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Courtyard of the new School of Cinematic Arts building on the University of Southern California campus. Fairbanks was a key figure in the film school's founding in 1929, and in its curriculum development.

The 2011 film The Artist was loosely based on Fairbanks, with the film's lead portraying Zorro in a silent movie featuring a scene from the Fairbanks version. While thanking the audience in 2012 for a Golden Globe award as Best Actor for his performance in the film, actor Jean Dujardin added, "As Douglas Fairbanks would say," then moved his lips silently as a comedic homage. When Dujardin accepted the 2012 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Fairbanks was cited at length as the main inspiration for Dujardin's performance in The Artist.

Filmography[link]

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Takeichi Nishi

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Douglas Fairbanks

• Douglas Fairbanks at the Internet Movie Database
• Douglas Fairbanks at the Internet Broadway Database
• The Douglas Fairbanks Museum
• AFI Catalog Silent Films entry for Douglas Fairbanks
• Works by Douglas Fairbanks at Project Gutenberg
• Douglas Fairbanks(exclusively a stage star in 1910); PeriodPaper.com

Ernst Lubitsch
Born	Ernst Lubitsch (1892-01-28)January 28, 1892 Berlin, Germany
Died	November 30, 1947(1947-11-30) (aged 55) Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupation	Director, Actor, Writer, Producer
Years active	1914–48
Spouse	Helene Kraus (1922–1930) Vivian Gaye (1935–1944)

Ernst Lubitsch (January 28, 1892 – November 30, 1947)^[1] was a German American^[2] film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch."

In 1947 he received an Honorary Academy Award for his distinguished contributions to the art of the motion picture, and he was nominated three times for Best Director.

Life and career[link]

Lubitsch was born in Berlin, the son of Anna (née Lindenstaedt) and Simon Lubitsch (Russian: Любич), a tailor. His family was Ashkenazi Jewish, his father born in Grodno and his mother from Wriezen-on-the-Oder, outside Berlin.^[3][4] He turned his back on his father's tailoring business to enter the theater, and by 1911, he was a member of Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater. He made his film debut the following year as an actor, but he gradually abandoned acting to concentrate on directing.

Weimar years (1918-1922)[link]

In 1918, he made his mark as a serious director with Die Augen der Mumie Ma (The Eyes of the Mummy), starring Pola Negri. Lubitsch alternated between escapist comedies and large-scale historical dramas, enjoying great international success with both. His reputation as a grand master of world cinema reached a new peak after the release of his spectacles Madame Du Barry (retitled Passion, 1919) and Anna Boleyn (Deception, 1920). Both of these films found American distributorship by early 1921. They, along with Lubitsch's Carmen (released as Gypsy Blood in the U.S. in 1921) were selected by The New York Times on its list of the 15 most important movies of 1921.

With glowing reviews under his belt, and American money flowing his way, Lubitsch formed his own production company and set to work on the high-budget spectacular The Loves of Pharaoh (1921). Lubitsch sailed to the United States for the first time in December 1921 for what was intended as a lengthy publicity and professional factfinding tour, scheduled to culminate in the February premiere of Pharaoh. However, with World War I still fresh, and with a slew of German "New Wave' releases encroaching on American movie workers' livelihoods, Lubitsch was not gladly received. He cut his trip short after little more than three weeks and returned to Germany. But he had already seen enough of the American film industry to know that its resources far outstripped the spartan German companies.

Career in Hollywood[link]

Lubitsch finally left Germany for Hollywood in 1922, contracted as a director by Mary Pickford. He directed Pickford in the film Rosita; the result was a critical and commercial success, but director and star clashed during its filming, and it ended up as the only project that they made together. A free agent after just one American film, Lubitsch was signed to a remarkable three-year, six-picture contract by Warner Brothers that guaranteed the director his choice of both cast and crew, and full editing control over the final cut.

Settling in America, Lubitsch established his reputation for sophisticated comedy with such stylish films as The Marriage Circle (1924), Lady Windermere's Fan (1925), and So This Is Paris (1926). But his films were only marginally profitable for Warner Brothers, and Lubitsch's contract was eventually dissolved by mutual consent, with MGM-Paramount buying out the remainder. His first film for MGM, The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927), was well regarded, but lost money.

Lubitsch seized upon the advent of talkies to direct musicals. With his first sound film, The Love Parade (1929), starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, Lubitsch hit his stride as a maker of worldly musical comedies (and earned himself another Oscar nomination). The Love Parade (1929), Monte Carlo (1930), and The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) were hailed by critics as masterpieces of the newly emerging musical genre. Lubitsch served on the faculty of the University of Southern California for a time.

His next film was a romantic comedy, written with Samson Raphaelson, Trouble in Paradise (1932). Later described (approvingly) as "truly amoral" by critic David Thomson, the cynical comedy was popular both with critics and with audiences. But it was a project that could only have been made before the enforcement of the Production Code, and after 1935, Trouble in Paradise was withdrawn from circulation. It was not seen again until 1968. The film was never available on videocassette and only became available on DVD in 2003.

Writing about Lubitsch's work, critic Michael Wilmington observed:

At once elegant and ribald, sophisticated and earthy, urbane and bemused, frivolous yet profound. They were directed by a man who was amused by sex rather than frightened of it-- and who taught a whole culture to be amused by it as well.

Capture from The Merry Widow trailer, 1934

Whether with music, as in MGM's opulent The Merry Widow (1934) and Paramount's One Hour with You (1932), or without, as in Design for Living (1933), Lubitsch continued to specialize in comedy. He made only one other dramatic film, the antiwar Broken Lullaby (also known as The Man I Killed, 1932).

In 1935, he was appointed Paramount's production manager, thus becoming the only major Hollywood director to run a large studio. Lubitsch subsequently produced his own films and supervised the production of films of other directors. But Lubitsch had trouble delegating authority, which was a problem when he was overseeing sixty different films. He was fired after a year on the job, and returned to full-time moviemaking. In 1936, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

On July 27, 1935 he married British actress Vivian Gaye. They had one daughter, Nicola Lubitsch, on October 27, 1938. When war was declared in Europe, Vivian Lubitsch and her daughter were staying in London. Vivian sent her baby daughter, accompanied by her nursemaid, Consuela Strohmeier, to Montreal aboard the Donaldson Atlantic Line's SS Athenia, which was sunk by a German submarine on September 3, 1939 with a loss of 118 passengers. The child and the nurse survived.

In 1939, Lubitsch moved to MGM, and directed Greta Garbo in Ninotchka. Garbo and Lubitsch were friendly and had hoped to work together on a movie for years, but this would be their only project. The film, co-written by Billy Wilder, is a satirical comedy in which the famously serious actress' laughing scene was heavily promoted by studio publicists with the tagline "Garbo Laughs!"

In 1940, he directed The Shop Around the Corner, an artful comedy of cross purposes. The film reunited Lubitsch with his Merry Widow screenwriter Raphaelson, and starred James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as a pair of bickering co-workers in Budapest, each unaware that the other is their secret romantic correspondent. David Thomson wrote of it:

The Shop Around the Corner... is among the greatest of films... This is a love story about a couple too much in love with love to fall tidily into each other's arms. Though it all works out finally, a mystery is left, plus the fear of how easily good people can miss their chances. Beautifully written (by Lubitsch's favorite writer, Samson Raphaelson), Shop Around the Corner is a treasury of hopes and anxieties based in the desperate faces of Stewart and Sullavan. It is a comedy so good it frightens us for them. The cafe conversation may be the best meeting in American film. The shot of Sullavan's gloved hand, and then her ruined face, searching an empty mail box for a letter is one of the most fragile moments in film. For an instant, the ravishing Sullavan looks old and ill, touched by loss.

Biographer Scott Eyman attempted to characterize the famed "Lubitsch touch":

With few exceptions Lubitsch's movies take place neither in Europe nor America but in Lubitschland, a place of metaphor, benign grace, rueful wisdom... What came to preoccupy this anomalous artist was the comedy of manners and the society in which it transpired, a world of delicate sangfroid, where a breach of sexual or social propriety and the appropriate response are ritualized, but in unexpected ways, where the basest things are discussed in elegant whispers; of the rapier, never the broadsword... To the unsophisticated eye, Lubitsch's work can appear dated, simply because his characters belong to a world of formal sexual protocol. But his approach to film, to comedy, and to life was not so much ahead of its time as it was singular, and totally out of any time.

Lubitsch went independent to direct That Uncertain Feeling (1941, a remake of his 1925 film Kiss Me Again), and the dark anti-Nazi farce To Be or Not to Be (1942), which was Jack Benny's only major screen success and Carole Lombard's last picture.

Later career[link]

Lubitsch spent the balance of his career at 20th Century Fox, but a heart condition curtailed his activity, and he spent much of his time in supervisory capacities. It has been claimed that the last picture made by the director with his distinctive "touch" was Heaven Can Wait (1943), another Raphaelson collaboration. The film is about Henry Van Cleve (played by Don Ameche) who presents himself at the gates of Hell to recount his life and the women he has known from his mother onwards, concentrating on his happy but sometimes difficult 25 years of marriage to Martha (Gene Tierney).

After Heaven Can Wait, Lubitsch worked with Edwin Justus Mayer on the scripting process of A Royal Scandal (1945), a remake of Ernst Lubitsch's silent film A Forbidden Paradise. Mayer wrote the screenplay for A Royal Scandal, and had worked with Lubitsch on To Be or Not to Be (1942). The script of A Royal Scandal (1945) was written and prepared under Ernst Lubitsch, and he was the original director of this film, and directed the rehearsals. He became ill during shooting, so Lubitsch hired Otto Preminger to do the rest of the shooting. But A Royal Scandal is considered "a Lubitsch picture." After A Royal Scandal, Ernst Lubitsch regained his health, and directed Cluny Brown (1946), with Charles Boyer and Jennifer Jones.

In March 1947, Lubitsch was awarded a Special Academy Award for his "25-year contribution to motion pictures". Presenter Mervyn LeRoy, calling Lubitsch "a master of innuendo", described some of his attributes as a filmmaker: "He had an adult mind and a hatred of saying things the obvious way." Lubitsch was the subject of several interviews at that time, and consistently cited The Shop Around the Corner as his favorite of his films. Considering his overall career, he mused, "I made sometimes pictures which were not up to my standard, but then it can only be said about a mediocrity that all his works live up to his standard."

He died later that year in Hollywood of a heart attack, his sixth.^[5] His last film, That Lady in Ermine with Betty Grable, was completed by Otto Preminger and released posthumously in 1948.

Leaving Lubitsch's funeral, Billy Wilder ruefully said, "No more Lubitsch." William Wyler responded, "Worse than that. No more Lubitsch pictures." Wilder had a sign over his office door, which read "How would Lubitsch do it?". He has a Star on the Walk of Fame at 7040 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, California.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Bourget, J.-L. & O'Neil, E.: Lubitsch o la sátira romántica - Lubitsch: Satire and Romance, Festival Internacional de cine de San Sebastián and Filmoteca Española, San Sebastián/Madrid, Spain, 2006 (bilingual edition, originally published in French, 1987.)
• Eyman, Scott: Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1993. ISBN 0-671-74936-6
• Weinberg, Herman G.: The Lubitsch Touch: a Critical Study, New York, Dutton, c1968.

External links[link]

• The Cinema of Ernst Lubitsch
• Ernst Lubitsch at the Internet Movie Database
• Ernst Lubitsch at Find a Grave
• Photographs and bibliography