Douglas Fairbanks Jr. – Actor and highly decorated WWII Officer

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. – Hollywood Actor & Highly Decorated WWII Officer
This is the US passport of actor DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS Jr, which comes in excellent condition and with several visas of his trips. See pictures! A fantastic document for collectors!

Douglas Elton Fairbanks Jr., KBE, DSC, (December 9, 1909 – May 7, 2000) was an American actor and a decorated naval officer of World War II.

Born in New York City, the only child of actor Douglas Fairbanks and his first wife, Anna Beth Sully. His parents divorced when he was nine years old, and both remarried. He lived with his mother in New York, California, Paris and London. Fairbanks’s 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 Baghdad.

Largely on the basis of his father’s name, Fairbanks Jr. was given a contract with Paramount Pictures at age 14, appearing in Stephen Steps Out.

In 1930, Fairbanks Jr. went to Warner Bros. to test for the second lead in Moby Dick. Although he didn’t get the part, head of production Darryl F. Zanuck was impressed with Douglas’s screen test, and cast him in an important role in The Dawn Patrol. He supported Leslie Howard in Outward Bound (1930) and Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar (1931). The latter was a hit, and Warner’s offered Fairbanks Jr. a contract with cast and script approval – a condition which, Fairbanks Jr. says, was only offered to one other actor at the studio, Richard Barthemless.

During this period of his career, Fairbanks Jr specialized in supporting female stars such as Bette Davis, Loretta Young, Ann Dvorak, and Mary Brian. His most notable credit was Morning Glory with Katherine Hepburn.

Wartimes

Although celebrated as an actor, Fairbanks was commissioned a reserve officer in the United States Navy when the United States entered World War II and was assigned to Lord Mountbatten’s Commando staff in the United Kingdom.

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him special envoy to South America. Fairbanks served on the cruiser Wichita during the disastrous Convoy PQ17 operation.

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 a military deception 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.

Awards Douglas Fairbanks Actor Officer

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 Légion 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 and in 1942 made an Officer the National Order of the Southern Cross, conferred by the Brazilian government. Among his other exploits was the sinking of the corvette UJ-6083 (formerly the Regia Marina Gabbiano-class Capriolo) while in command of a mixed division of American PT Boats and British Insect-class gunboats plus assorted other small craft. Fairbanks commanded from HMS Aphis. Douglas Fairbanks Actor Officer

Fairbanks stayed in the US Naval Reserve after the war and ultimately retired as a Captain in 1954.

On the morning of May 7, 2000, Fairbanks died at the age of 90 of a heart attack and was interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California, in the same tomb as his father.

Fairbanks has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures at 6318 Hollywood Boulevard, one for television at 6665 Hollywood Boulevard and one for radio at 6710 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1969 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Best Dressed List.The moving image collection of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is held at the Academy Film Archive and includes over 90 reels of home movies.

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