Douglas Fairbanks: The King of the Swashbucklers Who Invented the Movie Hero

Before the action hero had a name, Douglas Fairbanks was already leaping, fencing and smiling his way across the screen, and then he helped to build the studio system that let artists control their own work.

The king of the swashbucklers who invented the movie hero — the first Zorro, the first great Robin Hood, and the man who gave artists control of their own films.

Douglas Fairbanks was an American actor and filmmaker, one of the first and greatest of the swashbuckling screen heroes. He co-founded United Artists in 1919, was a founding member of the Motion Picture Academy, and hosted the first Academy Awards in 1929.

At a Glance

• Born: Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman, 23 May 1883, Denver, Colorado, U.S.; died 12 December 1939, Santa Monica, California, aged 56
• Years active: 1899–1934
• Breakthrough: The Lamb (1915); The Mark of Zorro (1920)
• Genre/era: Comedy, adventure, swashbuckler — silent film
• Signature roles: Don Diego Vega / Zorro in The Mark of Zorro, D’Artagnan in The Three Musketeers, Robin Hood in Robin Hood, Ahmed in The Thief of Bagdad, The Black Pirate in The Black Pirate

The Biography

Denver to Broadway

Douglas Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman on 23 May 1883 in Denver, Colorado, the son of Hezekiah Charles Ullman, an attorney and a captain in the Union forces during the Civil War, and Ella Adelaide Marsh. His father left the family when Douglas was five. He started acting from an early age and established himself as an accomplished stage actor on Broadway by the late 1890s, appearing in productions including A Case of Frenzied Finance (1905).

Fairbanks grew up with the stage, and his birth surname is also spelled Ulman in some sources, a variant worth noting. He worked in theatre, including on Broadway, where his athletic energy and optimistic charm made him a popular leading man. When he moved to films in the 1910s, he brought that stage athleticism with him, and audiences responded at once.

Hollywood and the comedies

Fairbanks made his first film, The Lamb, in 1915, under the direction of D. W. Griffith, and in 1917 became head of his own producing company. He quickly became one of the most popular and highest-paid actors in Hollywood, first as a comedic actor — an ebullient, athletic screen persona — and by 1920 he had completed twenty-nine films.

Fairbanks’s early screen comedies showed a young man who could run, climb and laugh his way out of trouble. By the end of the decade, he was turning that energy into large-scale adventure, and in 1920 The Mark of Zorro set the pattern for the swashbucklers that followed.

United Artists

In 1919, to avoid being controlled by the studios and to protect their independence, Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and D. W. Griffith formed United Artists, which created their own distributorship and gave them complete artistic control over their films and the profits they generated. Fairbanks married Pickford in 1920, and the couple came to be regarded as Hollywood royalty. He was also a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and hosted the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929. He was also the first president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The swashbuckler

Fairbanks moved into the adventure genre with The Mark of Zorro (1920), in which he played the first masked vigilante Zorro, and found further success in The Three Musketeers (1921), Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), The Black Pirate (1926), The Gaucho (1927) and The Iron Mask (1929). He spared no expense or effort on these films, which established the standard for all future swashbuckling films. He costarred with Pickford in The Taming of the Shrew (1929); his final film was The Private Life of Don Juan (1934). He publicly announced his retirement from acting in 1936 but continued as a producer. He died of a heart attack in his sleep in Santa Monica on 12 December 1939, aged 56.

His silent adventures, including The Three Musketeers (1921), Robin Hood (1922) and The Thief of Bagdad (1924), were among the most spectacular films of their time, built around Fairbanks’s own stunts, fencing and leaps.

Talking pictures were less kind to his style, and his last leading film was The Private Life of Don Juan (1934). Fairbanks died in 1939, but the action hero he invented, athletic, smiling and apparently fearless, has never left the screen.

Oldies Music Timeline

• 23 May 1883 — Born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman, Denver, Colorado.
• 1905 — Appears on Broadway in A Case of Frenzied Finance.
• 1915 — Film debut, The Lamb.
• 1917 — Becomes head of his own producing company.
• 1919 — Co-founds United Artists with Pickford, Chaplin and Griffith.
• 1920 — The Mark of Zorro; marries Mary Pickford.
• 1921 — The Three Musketeers.
• 1922 — Robin Hood.
• 1924 — The Thief of Bagdad.
• 1926 — The Black Pirate.
• 1929 — The Iron Mask; The Taming of the Shrew; hosts the first Academy Awards.
• 1934 — The Private Life of Don Juan; his final film.
• 1936 — Announces his retirement from acting.
• 12 December 1939 — Dies in Santa Monica, aged 56.

Signature Roles

• The Lamb (1915) — Gerald
• The Mark of Zorro (1920) — Don Diego Vega / Zorro
• The Three Musketeers (1921) — D’Artagnan
• Robin Hood (1922) — Robin Hood
• The Thief of Bagdad (1924) — Ahmed
• Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925) — Don Cesar de Vega / Zorro
• The Black Pirate (1926) — The Black Pirate
• The Gaucho (1927) — The Gaucho
• The Iron Mask (1929) — D’Artagnan
• The Taming of the Shrew (1929) — Petruchio

Why They Matter

• The first Zorro: The Mark of Zorro (1920) practically invented the masked hero on screen.
• The swashbuckler: Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and The Black Pirate (1926) set the standard for adventure films.
• Co-founder of United Artists (1919) and a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; host of the first Academy Awards (1929).
• One of the most popular and highest-paid actors in Hollywood, who performed his own athletic stunts.
• With Mary Pickford, he formed Hollywood’s first royal couple, at Pickfair.

Sources

• Wikipedia, “Douglas Fairbanks” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Fairbanks
• Britannica, “Douglas Fairbanks” — https://www.britannica.com/biography/douglas-fairbanks
• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, oscars.org — https://www.oscars.org