Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Richard Zampella Photographs Douglas Fairbanks Grave in Los Angeles, CA.

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was born in New York City and was the only child of actor Douglas Fairbanks and his first wife, Anna Beth Sully. 

Fairbanks Sr. father was one of cinema's first icons, starring in swashbuckling adventure films such 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. Fairbanks Jr. would be best identified as an actor for: Bound (1930), The Dawn Patrol (1930), Little Caesar (1931), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), and Gunga Din.

Fairbanks Jr. was commissioned a reserve officer in the United States Navy at the onset of World War II and assigned to Lord Mountbatten's Commando staff in the United Kingdom and President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him special envoy to South America. 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 died at the age of 90 of a heart attack and was interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California, in the same tomb as his father (who died in 1939).

– Richard Zampella

September 29, 2015

Hollywood, California