Born: December 9, 1909 - New York, New York, USA 
Died: May 7, 2000 - New York, New York, USA
Cause: heart attack
He was born in New York City, New York, the son of actor Douglas Fairbanks and his first wife Anna Beth Sully. His parents divorced when he was ten
years old. With his mother, he lived for a time in California, Paris, and London.
Largely on the basis of his name, he was given a contract at age fourteen with Paramount Pictures. After making some undistinguished films, he took to the stage, where he impressed
his father, his step-mother Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin, who encouraged him to continue with acting. He was also
noticed by Joan Crawford, who began to date him. On June 3, 1929, in St. Malachy's Church, New York, New
York, they were married.
Faribanks starred in several pictures with Loretta Young, and with
Little Caesar, Outward Bound and The Dawn Patrol his
movies began to have more success.
He went on a delayed honeymoon to England, where he was entertained by Noel Coward and George, Duke of Kent. He became active in both society and politics, but Joan Crawford did not enjoy
these activities and they were divorced in May 1933.
It has been claimed that Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was one of the naked men in the incriminating photos which were used as
evidence in the divorce trial of Margaret,
Duchess of Argyll.
On April 22, 1939, he married Mary Lee
Hartford , a former wife of George Huntington Hartford, the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company heir: they had three daughters. Mary Lee Fairbanks
died of cancer in 1988. Three years later, on May 30, 1991 he married Vera Shelton.
He advocated U.S. support for Britain during World War II, and was
created a KBE in 1949. In 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed him a special envoy to South America. later in the war, he was comissioned in the U.S.
Navy commanding a group of British patrol boats during commando operations.
He died of a heart attack in New York.
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