This is a vintage passport of Hollywood Legend DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS jr ! Son of Hollywood Legend Douglas Fairbanks / Mary Pickford, close friend of Charly Chaplin. He was married with Joan Crawford!
ONE OF A KIND CHANCE TO OWN HOLLYWOOD HISTORY!
Son of DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS and stepmother MARY PICKFORD - two Hollywood Legends!!!
Fairbanks jr was married to JOAN CRAWFORD, another Hollywood Legend.
CHARLY CHAPLIN was a close friend of Fairbanks jr. for centuries!
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was born in New York City as the only child of actor Douglas Fairbanks, and his first wife, Anna Beth Sully. His parents divorced when he was nine years old, and although both remarried, they never had more children. He lived with his mother in New York, California, Paris and London.
Fairbanks' father was one of cinema's first icons, noted for such swashbuckling adventure films 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. After making some undistinguished films, he took to the stage, where he impressed his father, his stepmother Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin, who encouraged him to continue with acting.
He began his career during the silent film era. He initially played mainly supporting roles in a range of films featuring many of the leading female players of the day: Belle Bennett in Stella Dallas (1925), Esther Ralston in An American Venus (1926) and Pauline Starke in Women Love Diamonds (1927). In the last years of the silent period he was upped to star billing opposite Loretta Young in several pre-Code films and Joan Crawford in Our Modern Maidens (1929). He supported John Gilbert and Greta Garbo in Woman of Affairs (1929). Progressing to sound, he played opposite Katharine Hepburn in her Oscar-winning role in the film Morning Glory (1933).
With Outward Bound (1930), The Dawn Patrol (1930), Little Caesar (1931), Prisoner of Zenda(1937), and Gunga Din (1939), his movies began to have more commercial success.
PASSPORT is in excellent condition and is full of visas e.g. UK, Spain, Bahamas, St.Maarten, France, 32 pages, complete.
His first notable relationship was with the actress Joan Crawford, whom he began to date seriously during the filming of Our Modern Maidens. On June 3, 1929, at St Malachy in New York City, Crawford and Fairbanks married. Fairbanks was only 19 and Crawford was four years older.
They went on a delayed honeymoon to England, where he was entertained by Noël Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, Bea Lillie, and Prince George, Duke of Kent. He became active in both society and politics, but Crawford was far more interested in her career and had an affair with Clark Gable. The couple divorced in 1933.
Despite their divorce, Fairbanks was quick to defend Crawford when her adopted daughter Christina Crawford, published Mommie Dearest, a scathing biography of Crawford's personal life. He firmly stated, "The Joan Crawford that I've heard about in Mommie Dearest is not the Joan Crawford I knew back then."
On April 22, 1939, Fairbanks married Mary Lee Hartford (née Mary Lee Epling), a former wife of Huntington Hartford, the A&P Supermarket heir. They remained together until her death in 1988, and had three daughters: Daphne, Victoria, and Melissa.
On May 30, 1991, Fairbanks wed Vera Lee Shelton, a merchandiser for QVC Network Inc.
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him a special envoy to South America.
Although celebrated as an actor, Fairbanks was commissioned a reserve officer in the United States Navy at the onset of World War II and assigned to Lord Louis Mountbatten's Commando staff in England.
Having witnessed (and participated in) British training and cross-channel harassment operations emphasizing the military art of deception, Fairbanks attained a depth of understanding and appreciation of military deception then unheard of in the United States Navy. Lieutenant Fairbanks was subsequently transferred to Virginia Beach where he came under the command of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, who was preparing U.S. Naval forces for the invasion of North Africa.
Fairbanks convinced Hewitt of the advantages of such a unit, then repeated the proposal at Hewett's behest to Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations. King thereupon issued a secret letter on March 5, 1943 charging the Vice Chief of Naval Operations with the recruitment of 180 officers and 300 enlisted men for the Beach Jumper program.
The Beach Jumpers' mission would simulate amphibious landings with a very limited force. Operating dozens of kilometers from the actual landing beaches and utilizing their deception equipment, the Beach Jumpers would lure the enemy into believing that theirs was the principal landing.
United States Navy Beach Jumpers saw their initial action in Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. Throughout the remainder of the war, the Beach Jumpers conducted their hazardous, shallow-water operations throughout the Mediterranean.
For his planning the diversion-deception operations and his part in the amphibious assault on Southern France, Lieutenant Commander 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 LĂ©gion d'honneur and the Croix de guerre with Palm, and the British Distinguished Service Cross. Fairbanks was also awarded the Silver Star for valor displayed while serving on PT boats.
He was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1949. Fairbanks stayed in the Naval Reserve after the war and ultimately retired a captain in 1954.
