
Acting
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Born 1909-12-09 · New York City, New York, USA
Douglas Elton Fairbanks Jr. (December 9, 1909 – May 7, 2000) was an American actor, producer, and decorated naval officer of World War II. The son of silent film star Douglas Fairbanks and stepson of Mary Pickford, he established his own successful career in Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s, becoming known for his charm, sophistication, and versatility in both romantic comedies and adventure films. Among his most notable films are The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Gunga Din (1939), Little Caesar (1931), and The Corsican Brothers (1941). He also appeared opposite many of the era’s leading actresses, including Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Loretta Young, Rita Hayworth, and Paulette Goddard. During World War II, Fairbanks served with distinction in the United States Navy, helping develop military deception and special operations techniques. For his wartime service, he received numerous decorations from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and several other nations. After the war, he continued acting in films and television while also becoming a respected producer and public figure. Fairbanks remains remembered as one of Hollywood’s most elegant leading men and among the few major stars to achieve distinction both on screen and in military service. In 1969, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Best Dressed List.
Acting credits
7.5A kingdom's ascending heir, marked for assassination, switches identities with a lookalike, who takes his place at the coronation. When the real king is kidnapped, his followers try to find him, while the stand-in falls in love with the king's intended bride, the beautiful Princess Flavia.
The Prisoner of Zenda
1937
6.0Four successful elderly gentlemen, members of the Chowder Society, share a gruesome, 50-year-old secret. When one of Edward Wanderley's twin sons dies in a bizarre accident, the group begins to see a pattern of frightening events developing.
Ghost Story
1981
6.9A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?
Little Caesar
1931
6.9While working in England, an American surgeon Dr. John Marlowe is invited to Vosnia (a fictitious East-European country) to receive an award and demonstrate his life-saving surgery. Unwittingly caught in the middle of a dangerous and corrupt series of political events, Marlowe then becomes the object of a shoot-to-kill, vicious pursuit. Fleeing, he seeks help from an English-speaking actress, Lisa Robinson, and the two attempt to escape across the treacherous mountains of Vosnia.
State Secret
1950
6.6Now hear this. The studio that gave the cinema its voice offered 1929 audiences a chance to see and hear multiple silent-screen favorites for the first time in a gaudy, grandiose music-comedy-novelty revue that also included Talkie stars, Broadway luminaries and of course, Rin-Tin-Tin. Frank Fay hosts a jamboree that, among its 70+ stars, features bicyclers, boxing champ Georges Carpentier, chorines in terpsichore kickery, sister acts, Myrna Loy in two-strip Technicolor as an exotic Far East beauty, John Barrymore in a Shakespearean soliloquy (adding an on-screen voice to his legendary profile for the first time) and Winnie Lightner famously warbling the joys of Singing in the Bathtub. Watch, rinse, repeat!
The Show of Shows
1929
6.5British army sergeants Ballantine, Cutter and MacChesney serve in India during the 1880s, along with their native water-bearer, Gunga Din. While completing a dangerous telegraph-repair mission, they unearth evidence of the suppressed Thuggee cult. When Gunga Din tells the sergeants about a secret temple made of gold, the fortune-hunting Cutter is captured by the Thuggees, and it's up to his friends to rescue him.
Gunga Din
1939
6.0Daredevil sailor Sinbad embarks on a voyage across the Seven Seas to find the lost riches of Alexander the Great. His first stop is the port of Basra, where his ship is seized and scheduled for auction. In his attempt to win it back, he befriends beautiful concubine Shireen. But when her master, the nefarious Emir, calls her back to duty, Sinbad must interrupt his adventure to save the "Jewel of Persia."
Sinbad the Sailor
1947
5.8A struggling playwright in 1850s Paris and his mate finds love that furnishes him with the inspiration he has long sought.
Mimi
1935
5.4Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Peter Fonda host an examination of the history of decency standards for movies from the early 1920s onwards.
Hollywood Uncensored
1987
6.2Wildly optimistic chatterbox Eva Lovelace is a would-be actress trying to crash the New York stage. She attracts the interest of a paternal actor, a philandering producer, and an earnest playwright. Is she destined for stardom, or will she fade like a morning glory after its brief blooming?
Morning Glory
1933
6.3This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel and more, with host Bob Hope.
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1940
7.3During the Russian Revolution, a young nobleman and his peasant maid flee from their homeland to Constantinople where they marry and begin a challenging new life.
Scarlet Dawn
1932
10.0A multi-award winning biography covering the life and career of legendary screen and stage actor/director Laurence Olivier.
Laurence Olivier: A Life
1982
5.0Composed of three shorts – Ride of the Valkyrie, The White Bus, and Red and Blue – from three of Britain’s most-celebrated directors - Lindsay Anderson, Peter Brook, and Tony Richardson. Comic legend Zero Mostel stars as an opera singer (in full costume) navigating the London transport network as he attempts to reach Covent Garden in 'Ride of the Valkyrie'. Scripted by Shelagh Delaney, 'The White Bus' blends realism, drama, and poetry as a despondent young woman travels home to the North of England. And Vanessa Redgrave stars in Tony Richardson’s romantic reverie and musical featurette 'Red and Blue'. Produced in 1967, but ultimately shelved.
Red, White, and Zero
1968
5.8The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event, for which ticket-buyers paid up to $1,000 a seat (tax-deductible as a contribution to the Actors' Fund) was billed as "The Night of 100 Stars" but, actually, around 230 stars took part. And most of the audience of 5,800 had no idea in advance that they were paying to see a TV taping, complete with long waits for set and costume changes, tape rewinding, and the like. Executive producer Alexander Cohen estimated that the 5,800 Radio City Music Hall seats sold out at prices ranging from $25 to $1,000. The show itself cost about $4 million to produce and was expected to yield around $2 million for the new addition to the Actors Fund retirement home in Englewood, N. J. ABC is reputed to have paid more than $5 million for the television rights.
Night of 100 Stars
1982
4.3A celebrity benefit for The Actors' Fund of America, featuring music, songs, dance and comedy.
Night of 100 Stars III
1990
8.3Alain's uncle sends him to France to toughen him with his aviator friend Pierre. He meets Suzanne on the voyage and fights for her love against José in an airplane.
The Aviator
1931
3.8Jay Rountree, a young, rising businessman and a son of a wealthy manufacturer gets caught up in a web involving an escort service or 'party girls' and trapped into an unhappy marriage.
Party Girl
1930
7.7A look at the life and work of Charlie Chaplin in his own words featuring an in-depth interview he gave to Life magazine in 1966.
The Real Charlie Chaplin
2021
10.0A couple of happy-go-lucky Venetian gondoliers discover that one of them is heir to the throne of a distant kingdom.
The Gondoliers
1982
7.0Cultured Mario and outlaw Lucien, twins separated at birth, join forces to avenge their parents' death at the hands of evil Colonna. Because each feels all the same sensations experienced by the other, swordplay is difficult for them. Worse yet, raised very differently, they struggle to find common ground between their conflicting personalities. But to defeat their enemy, the two will have to overcome the obstacles and work as a team.
The Corsican Brothers
1941
7.0Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
1983
8.5The life and career of two-time Oscar winner Vivien Leigh, who battled tuberculosis and manic-depression but always remained a star.
Vivien Leigh: Scarlett and Beyond
1990
5.8The woman who will become Catherine the Great marries into the Russian royal family when she weds Grand Duke Peter, the nephew of Empress Elizabeth. Although the couple has moments of contentment, Peter's cruel and erratic behavior causes a rift between him and Catherine. Mere months after Peter succeeds his aunt as the ruler of Russia, a revolt is brewing, and Catherine is poised to ascend to the throne as the country's new empress.
The Rise of Catherine the Great
1934
Behind the camera
7.1A woman who lives in Spain has trouble convincing anybody that a complete stranger has taken her dead brother's identity.
Chase a Crooked Shadow
1958
A young woman discovers her grandfather owns the true Aladdin's lamp and discovers it's handsome Genie inside as well.
The Genie
1953
6.0A former boxing champion, now an innkeeper, is accused of stealing a watch from a party of guests at his inn, who happen to be members of English royalty. The old man is arrested and thrown in prison. His son, knowing that his father didn't steal the watch and suspecting a frame-up, follows the royal party to London, where he poses as a wealthy "gentleman" and insinuates himself into the English court in an effort to find out who framed his father and why.
The Amateur Gentleman
1936
5.7A London cat burglar falls for the girlfriend of a stockbroker who used to be his partner.
Jump for Glory
1937
Compilation of 3 episodes of the TV series "Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Presents ...". "The Surgeon", "Take A Number" and "The Scream".
Three's Company
1953
6.7When his colleague is killed during a chase in Kentish Town, London bobby Frank volunteers to become a dog-handler.
Police Dog
1955
6.2Mr. Drake and his wife live a nice, quiet life on their Sussex farm, until one of their ducks lays a radioactive egg made of uranium! When the government finds out about this, the Armed Forces storm onto the farm in a frantic search for the duck responsible.
Mr. Drake's Duck
1951
6.3In 17th-century England, Charles II, the rightful heir to the kingdom, is driven from his country by militants working for rogue leader Oliver Cromwell. Charles ends up in the Netherlands, where he falls for local beauty Katie and spends his days happily in the quiet countryside. Unfortunately, Cromwell's associate Col. Ingram and his men track Charles down, and the would-be monarch must resort to swashbuckling his way to freedom.
The Exile
1947
6.3In 17th-century England, Charles II, the rightful heir to the kingdom, is driven from his country by militants working for rogue leader Oliver Cromwell. Charles ends up in the Netherlands, where he falls for local beauty Katie and spends his days happily in the quiet countryside. Unfortunately, Cromwell's associate Col. Ingram and his men track Charles down, and the would-be monarch must resort to swashbuckling his way to freedom.
The Exile
1947
10.0Tony and his dance partner/wife Gaby headline a Paris musical. Tony becomes the unwilling target for the attentions of performer Yvette. She is later murdered with the dagger used by Tony and his wife in their act, and Gaby is accused of the crime.
Accused
1936
7.3A swashbuckling Irishman opposes French agents during the Napoleonic wars.
The Fighting O'Flynn
1949
7.3A swashbuckling Irishman opposes French agents during the Napoleonic wars.
The Fighting O'Flynn
1949