Fairbanks had come to films after a successful theatrical career, playing the leads in such 1914 Broadway successes as He Comes Up Smiling and The Show Shop. In 1915, Fairbanks signed with Triangle Films at a salary of $2,000 per week and found himself under the wing of D.W. Griffith. With his Victorian sensibilities, the director had no feel for Fairbanks's 20th-century dynamism and the star's first films, THE LAMB (1915) and DOUBLE TROUBLE (1915), traded on his Broadway successes rather than the Fairbanks charm. When Griffith delegated to others the task of molding Fairbanks's screen persona, Fairbanks sought more compatible collaborators. With HIS PICTURE IN THE PAPERS (1916), director-writer John Emerson and writer Anita Loos joined the Fairbanks camp and immediately hit on the right approach. The Loos/Emerson combination created a peppy satire featuring the up-and-at-'em Fairbanks athleticism, a response to the increasing industrialization and encroaching commercialization of the American landscape. The trio continued to mock commercial faddism and celebrity pretensions, with Fairbanks often playing an upper-class dynamo who shows up his fellow aristocrats in such films as THE HALF BREED (1916), AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY (1916), MANHATTAN MADNESS (1916), THE MATRIMANIAC (1916), THE AMERICANO (1917), IN AGAIN, OUT AGAIN (1917), WILD AND WOOLLY (1917), DOWN TO EARTH (1917) and REACHING FOR THE MOON (1917). With THE HABIT OF HAPPINESS (1916) another Fairbanks stalwart, director Allan Dwan, came into the fold; it was also the first film in which Fairbanks revealed his penchant for aphoristic philosophy: "To be happy, you must be enthusiastic; to be enthusiastic, you must be healthy; to be healthy, you must keep your mind and body active."
WW I not only interrupted Fairbanks's career -- he sold Liberty Bonds with his future wife, Mary Pickford -- but its sobering aftermath left Fairbanks feeling that audiences would no longer identify with the anachronistic persona of a carefree aristocrat. In THE NUT (1921) and WHEN THE CLOUDS ROLL BY (1919), Fairbanks introduced elements of the fantastic to contemporary stories. In this way, he was preparing his audience for a shift of scene: the 20s found Fairbanks starring in a series of lavish costume films which placed his pre-war optimist into historical and fairy tale settings. THE MARK OF ZORRO (1920) showed the way with innovative special effects and transcendent production design. In film after film, from THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1921) to ROBIN HOOD (1922), DON Q, SON OF ZORRO (1925), THE BLACK PIRATE (1926) and the summit of Fairbanks fantasy, THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1924), he continued to proclaim his optimism ("Happiness must be earned" is the motto in THIEF). At the same time, Harold Lloyd was making millions in his comedies, which relocated the Fairbanks character from the heights of the aristocracy to the more realistic level of the booming middle class of 20s America. With the stock market crash of 1929, optimism was dealt a death blow, but in his final film, THE PRIVATE LIFE OF DON JUAN (1934), Fairbanks still traded on his old style. In a nation sinking ever deeper into depression, he had become a king with no subjects to follow him.
Fairbanks was married to his second wife, Lady Sylvia Ashley, from 1936 until his death.
Special Award 1939: "Recognizing the unique and outstanding contribution of Douglas Fairbanks, first President of the Academy, to the international development of the motion picture." Winner of this Commemorative Award received a Statuette.
1 Honorary Award