On the 23rd of May 1883 the worlds first action film megastar was born, that man is of course Douglas Fairbanks Snr. Fairbanks Snr was born in Denver, Colorado USA and began performing at a young age. Douglas began in amateur theatre but soon moved onto doing summer stock at the Elitch Gardens Theatre in Denver, Colorado. The theatre was the first picturehouse in the western states of the USA, showing films from 1896 until its closing in 1991. Fairbanks bounced around various colleges and schools in his teenage years before finally moving to New York to make his Broadway debut in 1902. Over the next 13 years Fairbanks would make 18 appearances on the Broadway stage but in 1915 he moved his family to Hollywood to pursue a career in moving pictures. Signed to a contract with Triangle Pictures in 1915 and began working for the great DW Griffiths. Griffiths was not enthusiastic about Fairbanks so in 1916 he joined Paramount and began producing films that made him immensly popular, by 1918 he was the top box office draw in the cinemas. After World War 1 Fairbanks's career sky rocketed as he made swashbuckler after swashbuckler and carved himself out as a Hollywood legend with his energetic and expensive productions. Fairbanks had changed the pace of films and was the true innovator of action films and sequences. By the end of the 20s and the beginning of the sound era in cinema Fairbanks found his passion for film fading, he did however prove himself to be a very able 'Talkie' actor and made his final performance in the film 'The Private Life of Don Juan' in 1934. In 1939 Fairbanks passed away from a heart attack brought on by excessive exercise.
No comments:
Post a Comment