Acting

William Fairbanks

Born — Died

1894-05-24 — 1945-04-01

Place of birth

Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

43 titles

From Wikipedia William Fairbanks (May 24, 1894 – April 1, 1945) was an American actor. He appeared in over 65 silent era motion pictures between 1916 and 1928. His first film role was as Capt. Pierre Thierry in the war drama Somewhere in France (1916) starring Louise Glaum and Howard C. Hickman. He was then living at 20 Horizon Avenue in Venice, California, where he registered to vote. He appeared in five movies released in 1917, including his role as Dillon in the drama The Little Brother starring Enid Bennett and William Garwood. He was then living at 115 Dudley Avenue in Venice, where he registered for the draft of World War I. He went on to serve as an ensign in the U.S. Navy. Appeari…

Known for

The Law Rustlers poster
7.0

Phil Stanley (William Fairbanks) and Harry Hartley (Edmond Cobb) are traveling toward Alaska when they come to a town controlled by scoundrels. The leaders of the town banish Phil and Harry, but they refuse to leave and send Glory (Ena Gregory) to summon the sheriff from a neighboring town to assist them. The sheriff comes to Phil's rescue and arrests the town council of scoundrels.

The Law Rustlers

1923

A Fight to the Finish poster
10.0

Directed by B. Reeves Eason. With William Fairbanks, Phyllis Haver, Tom Ricketts, Pat Harmon.

A Fight to the Finish

1925

No artwork available
NR

Reed, a small-time baseball manager in love with Lucille Bascom, takes the blame for a game-fixing scandal to protect her brother, Phil, the team's star pitcher. Disgraced, Reed becomes a reporter and uncovers a plot by the game-fixer, Ward Hastings, and a corrupt wrestler, Butch, to oust Lucille’s father from his mayoral office. After a climactic confrontation where Hastings dies and Reed defeats Butch, Phil confesses, clearing Reed's name. Reed reunites with Lucille and is appointed the town's new police chief.

Catch-As-Catch-Can

1927

Women First poster
7.0

Directed by B. Reeves Eason. With William Fairbanks, Eva Novak, Lydia Knott, Bob Rhodes.

Women First

1924

Speed Mad poster
7.0

Bill Sanford (William Fairbanks), a daredevil race-car driver, is abducted by his main competitor Alan Lawson (Lloyd Whitlock) and his henchmen, on the eve of a race he hopes will win him $5,000. But he escapes his captors and arrives ate the race track just in time to drive his speedster to victory. With the prize money, he saves the father, Charles Hampton (Charles K. French) of his sweetheart Betty Hampton (Edith Roberts) from losing the family.

Speed Mad

1925

Through Thick and Thin poster
7.0

An undercover agent tracks a gang of drug smugglers to their headquarters in Mexico, a nightclub, where he manages to get a job as a bouncer. There he meets and falls for a pretty young woman, whose father happens to be the man the agent suspects of heading the gang.

Through Thick and Thin

1927

Film credits

1920s · 36 titles

The Law Rustlers poster
7.0

Phil Stanley (William Fairbanks) and Harry Hartley (Edmond Cobb) are traveling toward Alaska when they come to a town controlled by scoundrels. The leaders of the town banish Phil and Harry, but they refuse to leave and send Glory (Ena Gregory) to summon the sheriff from a neighboring town to assist them. The sheriff comes to Phil's rescue and arrests the town council of scoundrels.

The Law Rustlers

1923

A Fight to the Finish poster
10.0

Directed by B. Reeves Eason. With William Fairbanks, Phyllis Haver, Tom Ricketts, Pat Harmon.

A Fight to the Finish

1925

No artwork available
NR

Reed, a small-time baseball manager in love with Lucille Bascom, takes the blame for a game-fixing scandal to protect her brother, Phil, the team's star pitcher. Disgraced, Reed becomes a reporter and uncovers a plot by the game-fixer, Ward Hastings, and a corrupt wrestler, Butch, to oust Lucille’s father from his mayoral office. After a climactic confrontation where Hastings dies and Reed defeats Butch, Phil confesses, clearing Reed's name. Reed reunites with Lucille and is appointed the town's new police chief.

Catch-As-Catch-Can

1927

Women First poster
7.0

Directed by B. Reeves Eason. With William Fairbanks, Eva Novak, Lydia Knott, Bob Rhodes.

Women First

1924

Speed Mad poster
7.0

Bill Sanford (William Fairbanks), a daredevil race-car driver, is abducted by his main competitor Alan Lawson (Lloyd Whitlock) and his henchmen, on the eve of a race he hopes will win him $5,000. But he escapes his captors and arrives ate the race track just in time to drive his speedster to victory. With the prize money, he saves the father, Charles Hampton (Charles K. French) of his sweetheart Betty Hampton (Edith Roberts) from losing the family.

Speed Mad

1925

Through Thick and Thin poster
7.0

An undercover agent tracks a gang of drug smugglers to their headquarters in Mexico, a nightclub, where he manages to get a job as a bouncer. There he meets and falls for a pretty young woman, whose father happens to be the man the agent suspects of heading the gang.

Through Thick and Thin

1927

Spoilers of the West poster
7.0

A soldier falls in love with a beautiful settler who has refused his order to leave American Indian land.

Spoilers of the West

1927

Under the Black Eagle poster
5.0

A German Shepherd Dog and the people he loves are entangled in World War One.

Under the Black Eagle

1928

What Women Love poster
7.0

Purity League father can't restrain his adventurous daughter from parading around in scanty bathing suits. Willy must learn how to fight in order to win her heart.

What Women Love

1920

Fighting Youth poster
NR

Dick Covington is a society athlete who is quick with his fists. His fiancée, Jean Manley, hates his fighting and convinces him to stop. But then his rival tricks him into accepting an offer to fight Murdering Mooney at a charity show. At first Jean is chagrined, but when the rival insults her, she is anxious for Covington to beat his opponent.

Fighting Youth

1925

Spawn of the Desert poster
9.0

Guiding two covered wagons along a desert trail, Duke Steele meets and befriends Sam Le Saint, a mysterious hermit who is searching for a former partner who destroyed his home and ran away with his wife and infant daughter eighteen years earlier. Later, the two men ride into a mining camp controlled by Silver Sleed, who runs a gambling place. Duke is smitten by beautiful young Nola "Luck" Sleed, and learns that she is the gambler's daughter. Silver Sleed also happens to be the man that Sam Le Saint is searching for. Sam, who is dying, kills Sleed, and Duke learns that Luck is Sam's long-lost daughter.

Spawn of the Desert

1923

No artwork available
7.0

Secret Service agent Jerry Blaine is hot on the trail of a gang of jewel thieves, Jerry briefly poses as a crook himself to gain the gang's confidence.

One Chance in a Million

1927

Sheriff of Sun Dog poster
10.0

Small town sheriff "Silent" Davidson tries to protect aging sheep rancher Scott Martin and his daughter, Jean, from the predations of local cattlemen. Head cattleman Pete Kane and banker Jeff Sedley ambush the old man and frame the sheriff for his murder, but Scott is only badly wounded. Recovering consciousness, he tells Jean who the real culprits are. However, Kane seizes and imprisons her. Ultimately, Silent breaks out of jail, finds and frees Jean from her bonds, proves his innocence, and brings Kane and Sedley to justice. Naturally, he wins Jean's heart.

Sheriff of Sun Dog

1922

No artwork available
10.0

After Rex leaves his father to follow his dream of being a professional boxer, he becomes the trainer at a women's gym owned by his girlfriend.

The Winning Wallop

1926

Racing for Life poster
9.0

Jack Grant agrees to drive in the big race in order to save his brother Carl from being charged with embezzlement.

Racing for Life

1924

The Down Grade poster
7.0

Ted Lanning works for his father's railroad company. He is demoted to a manual labor position on a dangerous mountain section of the track known as the "down grade". Ted must prove his worth while dealing with a gang of hijackers and competing for the affection of Molly Crane.

The Down Grade

1927

The Fatal Mistake poster
9.0

After being fired from his job on the Evening Star newspaper, cub reporter Jack Darwin (William Fairbanks) , with the help of an undercover police woman, Ethel Bennett (Eva Novak), prevents the theft of the valuable Riko jewels. Jack gets his job back...and marries Ethel.

The Fatal Mistake

1924

No artwork available
8.0

Drifter Edwin Drake, estranged from his family, has a prophetic vision and gets his life back on track. Eventually he meets Sarah Holmes, an acolyte of the power of positive thinking, in the boardinghouse where both reside. Sarah happens to befriend Edwin’s mother and after Mrs. Drake shows her a picture of Edwin Sarah arranges for them to be reunited bringing happiness to all.

That Something

1920

The Cowboy and the Flapper poster
8.0

U.S. Marshal, Dan Patterson, goes undercover as a criminal to infiltrate a gang holding a young woman named Alice Allison captive. He must earn her trust while battling the outlaws and keeping his true identity hidden.

The Cowboy and the Flapper

1924

The New Champion poster
8.0

When prizefighter "Knockout" Riley (Frank Hagney) injures his hand in a car accident, Bob (William Fairbanks), a blacksmith's assistant enters a championship bout in his place...and wins the fight and the damsel.

The New Champion

1925

No artwork available
9.0

Hale Garrison, a big game hunter returning from safari in Africa, meets Gloria Manner on shipboard and falls in love with her.

The Torrent

1924

The Great Sensation poster
9.0

Jack Ruby (William Fairbanks), the son of a wealthy family, pretends to be a chauffeur and goes to work for Peggy Howell (Pauline Garon), a beautiful flapper.

The Great Sensation

1925

The Handsome Brute poster
8.0

After being wrongly dismissed from the New York City police department, police officer Larry 'O'Day (William Fairbanks) reveals an internationally-known detective John Granger (Lee Shumway) to be a cheap crook. He is promoted and reinstated and marries his ever-faithful sweetheart Nelly Egan (Virginia Lee Corbin.)

The Handsome Brute

1925

No artwork available
8.0

To help secret serviceman Bill Parsons in pursuit of the thieving Benson gang wealthy criminologist Henry Avery sends his assistant Blinky to cover the waterfront while he attends a reception at the home of Mrs. Cornelius Westervelt. At the soiree he meets gang member Alice Carter while also discover the gang’s cache hidden there. Captured Parsons is saved by Blinky, and the pair foil the gang’s attempt to rob Mrs. Westervelt and her guests.

The Beautiful Sinner

1924

The Secret Gift poster
7.0

Jan Saxe and Peter Harlingen, two young men from Holland, arrive in America with little orphan Bertha Kruger whom they have befriended during the trip and whom they both love. Bertha has come to live with her blind Aunt Sophie, and when Jan secretly raises $500 for an operation to restore her aunt's sight, Bertha marries Peter, believing that he was the donor of the "secret gift."

The Secret Gift

1920

The Battling Fool poster
9.0

William Fairbanks stars in this fighting feature about a rural rube who enters the ring to earn prize money to help a crippled girl.

The Battling Fool

1924

The Vanishing West poster
8.0

A boy's father is an unjustly accused fugitive, and the boy's scheming uncle plots to become the youngster's guardian and take over the family fortune.

The Vanishing West

1928

No artwork available
8.0

A girl leads the way across the great Oregon Trail.

Wyoming

1928

Vanishing Millions poster
9.0

European produced 15 chapter adventure serial starring William Fairbanks and Vivian Rich.

Vanishing Millions

1926

No artwork available
NR

At the urging of his sweetheart, Rosemary Smith, a man (William Fairbanks) leaves his soft job in the east and goes west to settle a dispute over oil lands owned by Rosemary's father. This man evicts the wrong party and later must return west in order to set things right, protecting the honor of a girl from the advances of the crooked foreman.

Do It Now

1924

Flying High poster
10.0

While taking a joyride with his sweetie Patricia, daredevil pilot Roy Cummins witnesses the aerial hijacking of a mail plane.

Flying High

1926

No artwork available
10.0

When Danger Calls is a 1927 American silent thriller film directed by Charles Hutchison and starring William Fairbanks, Eileen Sedgwick and Ethan Laidlaw.

When Danger Calls

1927

Peaceful Peters poster
9.0

A dying prospector tells "Peters the Pacific" about a mine he has discovered for "the mate's girl" and the ambush he has been set upon by mine jumpers, and gives Peters the location of the mine. In town, Peters uncovers the corrupt dealings of a dance hall owner, Jim Blalock, and Peter Hunter.

Peaceful Peters

1922

No artwork available
8.0

Out on the range with William Fairbanks.

Her Man

1924

Marry in Haste poster
7.0

A wealthy Wyoming man disowns his son, Wayne Sturgis (William Fairbanks), for marrying art student Joan Prescott (Dorothy Revier). After several years on a small farm, Joan begins to suffer from disillusionment, unhappiness, and ill health. The marriage is nearly ruined by the attentions that neighbor Monte Brett (Gladden James) pays Joan.

Marry in Haste

1924

No artwork available
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

A Western Demon

1922

1910s · 7 titles

No artwork available
NR

When her baby daughter Eleanor is traumatized after her father perishes in a storm at sea, Mother Coutierre sends the girl to live with her aunt in Paris. Years later, Eleanor, now a successful model in Paris, is surprised by a visit from her elder sister Marie, who has come to hide the birth of her illegitimate child. When Mother Coutierre arrives and believes Eleanor to be the infant's mother, Eleanor continues the deception so that her sister can marry Pierre Bondel, a fisherman.

The Mother Instinct

1917

Wolf Lowry poster
6.0

Tom "Wolf" Lowry confronts new settlers in his valley but has a change of heart when he sees Mary Davis.

Wolf Lowry

1917

The Flame of the Yukon poster
10.0

George Fowler arrives at the Mias saloon, and the proprietor, "Blak Jack" Hovey, orders a saloon girl, known only as "The Flame," to fleece him, but he has no money...

The Flame of the Yukon

1917

No artwork available
NR

Jim Walton, the sheriff of El Dorado, orders Joe Malone to stop working an abandoned mine that he has uncovered. Later, Malone recognizes Edith Strang, the dancing girl who is passing through town with the quack Doc Hamilton, as the rightful heir to the abandoned mine.

The Medicine Man

1917

The Little Brother poster
7.0

Jerry Ross dresses as a boy and sells newspapers to make money on the street corner. As the result of a chance meeting with Frank Girard, who is interested in the "Big Brother Movement," Jerry is invited to Girard's farm in the country. Later she is sent to a coeducational institution where she assumes the dress and manners of a girl once more.

The Little Brother

1917

Somewhere in France poster
NR

Wicked Frenchwoman Marie Chaumontel is the mistress of Captain Henry Ravignac. She steals some papers from him, which she gives to the Germans. Then she escapes to Berlin while her lover is tried for her wrongdoing. He is found guilty of neglect, and he commits suicide. His brother, Lieutenant Charles Ravignac swears revenge, and he becomes a counterspy by going to work for the Germans.

Somewhere in France

1916

The Hired Man poster
NR

Ezry is a hardworking hired man who saves his money carefully in the hopes one day of going to college. But when his girlfriend's brother gets in trouble for bank robbery, Ezry tries to help out by offering his savings in exchange for the stolen funds.

The Hired Man

1918