Douglas Fairbanks was born in Denver on 23rd May, 1883. After graduating from Harvard he became an actor. He became a major Broadway star in plays such as He Comes Up Smiling and The Show Shop.

In 1915 Fairbanks signed with Triangle Films on a salary of $2,000 per week. Early successes included His Picture in the Papers (1916), Down to Earth (1917) and Arizona (1918).

In 1919 Fairbanks joined with D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin and his wife, Mary Pickford, to form United Artists, a company that enabled the stars to distribute their films without studio interference.

Over the next few years Fairbanks wrote, produced and starred in a series of films that established him as a swashbuckling hero. This included The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Three Musketeers (1921), Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), Son of Zorro (1925) and The Black Pirate (1926).Douglas Fairbanks died on 12th December, 1939.