Douglas Elton Fairbanks Jr. was born in New York City. He was the only child of actor Douglas Fairbanks and Anna Beth Sully, the daughter of wealthy industrialist Daniel J. Sully. Fairbanks' father was one of cinema's first icons, and his father was noted for such swashbuckling adventure films as The Mark of Zorro, Robin Hood, and The Thief of Bagdad. The younger Fairbanks supposedly had small roles in his father's films American Aristocracy (1916) and The Three Musketeers (1921). His parents divorced when he was nine years old, and both remarried. He lived with his mother in New York, California, Paris, and London.
Fairbanks began his education at the exclusive Hollywood School for Boys in Los Angeles. After his mother and stepfather moved to New York, he attended the Bovee School, a private grammar school for boys. While attending Bovee, he was also enrolled in an after-school drill academy called Knickerbocker Greys, which he attended for a year. Moving back to California, he attended Harvard Military School, followed by studies at Polytechnic School in Pasadena. When he moved to France, with his mother, Fairbanks attended Lycée Janson-de-Sailly.
Largely on the basis of his father's name, in May 1923, Fairbanks Jr. was given a contract with Paramount Pictures at age 13, at $1,000 a week for three years. He was signed by Jesse L. Lasky, who said the junior Fairbanks "is the typical American boy at his best" and said he was to be featured in a film about Tom Sawyer.
"I do not think it is the right thing for the boy to do", said his father. "I want to see him continue his education. He is only 13 years old." The young actor arrived in Hollywood in June 1923 and was mobbed, according to press and Hollywood publicity.
Tom Sawyer was never made, instead, Fairbanks Jr. appeared in Stephen Steps Out (1923). The film is "Lost". Paramount gave him supporting roles in The Air Mail (1925) and Wild Horse Mesa (1925). Fairbanks, continued to work in films, but was unsure of any firm direction, in 1928, he is reported as saying "I don't want to be just a young, blond leading man with an aquiline nose and shiny white teeth." His new wife, Joan Crawford, was sure he had a future, and seemed to help him build his confidence.
David O. Selznick offered him the role of Rupert of Hentzau in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). He had been reluctant to accept the role, but his father urged him to do it, saying it was "actor proof". The movie was a big success. In December 1937, he signed a nonexclusive contract with RKO to make two films a year for five years, at a reported $75,000 a film. RKO used him as Irene Dunne's leading man in Joy of Living (1938). At Universal, he was Danielle Darrieux's co-star in The Rage of Paris (1938) and Ginger Rogers's in RKO's Having Wonderful Time (1938). Selznick used him again in The Young in Heart (1938) with Janet Gaynor.
Fairbanks then had his biggest-ever hit with RKO's Gunga Din (1939), alongside Cary Grant and Victor McLaglen. He began to work increasingly in action/adventure films: The Sun Never Sets (1939) at Universal; Rulers of the Sea (1939) at Paramount; Green Hell (1940) for James Whale at Universal, a flop; and Safari (1940) at Paramount. He had a change of pace when he starred in and co-produced Angels Over Broadway (1940), written and directed by Ben Hecht at Columbia. His last film before enlisting was The Corsican Brothers (1941), a swashbuckler made as a tribute to Fairbanks' father. Fairbanks did not have faith in the film while it was being filmed ("I thought we were cutting corners"), but it was a huge success.
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him special envoy to South America. Fairbanks served on the cruiser USS Wichita during the disastrous Convoy PQ 17 operation. Fairbanks was commissioned as a reserve officer in the United States Navy when the United States entered World War II, and was assigned to Lord Mountbatten's commando staff in the United Kingdom.
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 a military deception unit, then repeated the proposal at Hewitt'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 Jumpers program.
The Beach Jumpers' mission would simulate amphibious landings with a very limited force. Operating miles from the actual landing beaches and using 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. For 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 in 1942, made an Officer of the National Order of the Southern Cross, conferred by the Brazilian government.
Among his other exploits was the sinking of the corvette UJ-6083 (formerly the Regia Marina Gabbiano-class Capriolo) while in command of a mixed division of American PT boats and British assorted other small craft. Fairbanks stayed in the US Naval Reserve after the war, and ultimately retired as a captain in 1954. In 1982, Fairbanks was awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit for his contribution to the relief of the needy in occupied Germany.
Fairbanks returned to Hollywood at the conclusion of World War II. He spent two years finding a comeback vehicle, and picked Sinbad the Sailor (1947), which was not a big hit. He followed it with The Exile (1947), another swashbuckler, which Fairbanks wrote and produced; it was directed by Max Ophüls. The film was the first of three independent films Fairbanks was to produce – the others being a big screen version of Terry and the Pirates, and a film called Happy Go Lucky.
He thought his career would be revived by That Lady in Ermine with Betty Grable, but director Ernst Lubitsch died during production and was replaced by Otto Preminger; the resulting film was not a success, and Fairbanks Jr., believes this cost his career momentum. Fairbanks tried another swashbuckler with his own company, entitled The Fighting O'Flynn (1949).
As a confirmed Anglophile, Fairbanks spent much time in the United Kingdom post World War II, where he was well known in the highest social circles. He was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1949. In 1950 he purchased a house, "The Boltons," in Mayfair, London which became his primary residence until he sold it in 1973 to move to Florida.
The College of Arms in London granted Fairbanks a coat of arms symbolizing the U.S. and Britain united across the blue Atlantic Ocean by a silken knot of friendship. He used a version of this coat of arms for his bookplates.
Fairbanks starred in the British thriller State Secret (1950), written and directed by Sidney Gilliat, and a comedy for director Val Guest, Mr Drake's Duck (1951). 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 Presents. Also during the 1950s, Fairbanks appeared as himself on episodes of a number of American television shows, such as Your Show of Shows, The Ford Show, The Steve Allen Plymouth Show, and What's My Line?. He co-produced the films The Silken Affair (1957) and Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958). He guest-starred on shows such as Route 66, The DuPont Show of the Week, The United States Steel Hour, The Red Skelton Hour, Dr. Kildare, and ABC Stage 67. He played King Richard in a TV musical The Legend of Robin Hood (1968).
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, David Langton, Carole Ray- and Christine Amore. He appeared in some TV movies and TV series, including The Crooked Hearts (1972), The Hostage Tower (1980), and The Love Boat. His last feature film was Ghost Story (1981). His last TV roles were in the mini series Strong Medicine (1987) and the TV series B.L. Stryker. He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1989.
In his personal life, his first notable relationship was with the actress Joan Crawford, whom he began to date during the filming of Our Modern Maidens. Fairbanks and Crawford married on June 3, 1929, at the "Actors Chapel", St. Malachy in midtown Manhattan, although neither was Catholic. Fairbanks was only 19; Crawford was several years older. Their witnesses were his mother, Beth Sully, and actor Jack Whiting, who were married themselves a few weeks later. Despite their divorce, Fairbanks was always a defendant for Crawford. Never speaking ill of her in any way, ever.
On April 22, 1939, Fairbanks married Mary Lee Hartford (née Mary Lee Epling), a former wife of Huntington Hartford, the A&P supermarket heir. He remained devoted to her until her death in 1988. They had three daughters: Daphne, Victoria, and Melissa, and eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. On May 30, 1991, Fairbanks married Vera Lee Shelton, a merchandiser for QVC Network Inc., they remained married until his death.
He wrote his autobiography The Salad Days in 1988. In addition, Fairbanks wrote a chronicle of his experiences during the Second World War, A Hell of a War, published in 1993. He was supposedly working on a third volume of his autobiographies, continuing his life after the war, but nothing has become of them since his death.
On the morning of May 7, 2000, Fairbanks died at the age of 90 of a heart attack and is interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California, in the same tomb as his father.
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