123 years ago today, in Colorado, early matinee idol Douglas Fairbanks was born.
As one of the original members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a husband to Mary Pickford, a business partner to D.W. Griffith, and a best friend to Charlie Chaplin, Doug Fairbanks represented a hub of Hollywood legend, as well as one of the four biggest box office draws in American silent pictures. Fairbanks was for a generation the iconic Robin Hood (1922), an impressive Zorro (1920; 1925), and the ultimate swashbuckling cad in The Thief of Bagdad (1924), as well as one of the most athletic and exciting forms in motion picture history.
It is a shame that he has largely been forgotten outside of old-movie-fan circles, as his films remain remarkably watchable even for silent film neophytes, and his Thief of Bagdad is among the greatest adventure stories ever filmed.
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