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Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.

Born: May 23 rd, 1883 in Denver, Colorado
Died: December 12 th, 1939 in Santa Monica, California (age 56)
Cause of death: heart attack
Real Name: Douglas Elton Ulman
Marriages: Three, two ending in divorce. The first to Anna Beth Sully lasted 13 years and produced 1 son, Douglas, Jr. The second to actress Mary Pickford was the most publicized as the couple were referred to as King and Queen of Hollywood but it ended after 16 years. His third marriage to Lady Sylvia Ashley lasted 3 years until his death. She later became the fourth Mrs. Clark Gable.

Remarks: He was more a personality than an actor. Off screen, Fairbanks was a physical fitness enthusiast and an expert at boxing, fencing and riding. Onscreen he was probably the first of Hollywood’s swashbuckling heroes. It was the stage that first claimed him but, in 1915 he made his film debut in “The Lamb”. During his marriage to Pickford, their palatial home “Pickfair” in Beverly Hills was the place where the elite of Hollywood gathered.

Films (50) also include “Reaching for the Moon” (1917, “Bound in Morocco” (1918),”The Mark of Zorro” (1920), “Robin Hood” (1922) and “The Iron Mask” (1929)

Born: May 14 th, 1903 in New York, New York
Died: December 31 st, 1997 in Woodland Hills, California. (age 94)
Cause of death: pneumonia
Real Name: Lillian Bohney
Marriages: Two, the first ending in divorce. Her marriage to director Irvin Willat lasted six years until Willat divorced her. Howard Hughes paid him $350,000 for her freedom. Their affair lasted 3 years. Her second marriage to rancher Robert Kennaston lasted 50 years until his death. There was one son and an adopted daughter from the marriage.

Remarks: Billie was a beauty and, after starring in “The American Beauty” (1927), that became her title. She debuted in the 1921 movie “Get –Rich-Quick Wallingford” but her breakthrough role was as Priscilla in “All the Brothers Were Valiant” (1923). Billie’s next two films were in two-step Technicolor process…”Wanderers of the Wasteland” (1924) and “The Black Pirate” (1926). Ironically, in the latter, she was “doubled” in the love scene by ..Mary Pickford! Apparently Mrs. Fairbanks didn’t want her husband that close to the lovely lady.

Films (50) also include “The Light of the Western Stars” (1925), “The Marriage Clause” (1926), and “Adoration” (1928)

Billie Dove

Born: February 9 th, 1891 in Richmond, Surrey, England
Died: May 19 th, 1958 in Santa Barbara, California (age 67)
Cause of death: lung infection
Real Name: Ronald Charles Colman
Marriages: Two, the first to Thelma Raye ending in divorce. The second to actress Benita Hume lasted 20 years until his death.

Remarks: He was suave, cultured and charming and when he spoke, audiences were enthralled. Ronald Colman’s voice was the most imitated of any actor but no one could ever match it. Seriously wounded in WWI, he returned to London and found some success on the stage. In 1920 he left for New York and Broadway where director Henry King saw his performance and gave him the leading man’s role opposite Lillian Gish in “White Sister”. In 1926 he played the title role in “Beau Geste” as a French Legionnaire. He played dual roles in “The Prisoner of Zenda” convincing as both the weak king and the courageous Rassendyl.

Films (57) also include “Bulldog Drummond” (1929), “Clive of India” (1935), “A Tale of Two Cities” (1935), “Lost Horizon” (1937) and “Random Harvest” (1942).

Born: February 26 th, 1906 in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England
Died: October 2 nd, 1987 in Marbella, Spain (age 81)
Cause of death: pancreatic cancer
Real name: Marie-Madeleine Bernadette O’Carroll
Marriages: Four, all ending in divorce. Her first was to producer Henri Lavorel, her second to Captain Philip Astley, her third to actor Sterling Hayden and her fourth to Life magazine publisher Andrew Heiskell. None of the unions produced children.

Remarks: Patrician and beautiful, Madeleine made 19 films in Britain before she played Pamela in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps”, one of two movies under his direction that opened doors for her in Hollywood. She arrived in America in 1936 under contract to Walter Wanger and 20 th Century Fox.. But after her sister was killed during the London blitz of WWII she went back to Britain to work in war relief, making only 3 postwar films.

Films (43) also included “The General Died at Dawn” (1936), “Northwest Mounted Police” (1940), “One Night in Lisbon”(1941), “My Favorite Blonde” (1942) and “An Innocent Affair” (1948).

Born: March 19 th, 1909 in Johannesburg, South Africa
Died: February 21 st, 1985 in Palm Springs, California (age 75)
Cause of death: lung cancer/renal failure
Real name: Seafield Grant
Marriages: Three, two ending in divorce. His first to actress Ida Lupino ended after 5 ½ years. The second to Peggy Field Morrow lasted only 4 years. His third wife, June Hansen survived him. There were no children.

Remarks: Hayward was raised in London where he began acting on the stage and in British films. His Broadway debut came in 1935 but he decided Hollywood was the place to be and for the next 20 years he was the hero of period adventure films. But Louis Hayward was a real hero as well as a reel one, earning the Bronze Star as a Marine in WWII. He was the first actor of many to take on the mantle of “The Saint” Simon Templar (1938).

Films (48) also included “Anthony Adverse” (1936), “The Saint in New York” (1938), “The Son of Monte Cristo” (1940), “And Then There Were None” (1945), and Captain Peter Blood in “Captain Pirate” (1952).

Born: February 27 th, 1910 in Palisades, New Jersey
Died: December 7 th, 1990 in Scarsdale, New York. (age 80)
Cause of death: heart attack
Real Name: Joan Geraldine Bennett
Marriages: Four, three ending in divorce. Her first to John Marion Fox lasted two years and produced one daughter, Adrienne. Her second to producer Gene Markey lasted 6 years and produced a daughter, Melinda. Her third to producer Walter Wanger lasted 25 years. They had a daughter, Stephanie. Her fourth husband , David Wilde, survived her.

Remarks: Joan came from a long line of actors and so her career seemed almost predestined. With two parents (and two sisters) in the industry, Joan made her stage debut early…at the age of four! In 1929 at 19 and already divorced with a child, she costarred with Ronald Colman in “Bulldog Drummond”. A blonde for 39 films, she became a brunette for “Trade Winds” and remained a brunette for the rest of her career. In 1951 her husband, producer Walter Wanger shot her agent because he thought they were having an affair. Wanger was jailed, the agent recovered and so did the marriage (for another 14 years) but Joan’s career in films went down the tubes. In 1966 she turned to television and won over a new generation of fans as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard in the series “Dark Shadows”.

Films (74) also include “Disraeli” (1929), “Little Women” (1933), “She Couldn’t Take It” (1935), “The Woman in the Window” (1945) and “Father of the Bride” (1950)

Born: December 8 th, 1909 in New York, New York
Died: May 7 th, 2000 in New York, New York (age 90)
Cause of death: heart attack
Real Name: Douglas Elton Ulman Fairbanks
Marriages: Three, the first to actress Joan Crawford ending in divorce. The second to Mary Lee Eppling ended with her death after 49 years and left him with 3 daughters. The third to Vera Shelton lasted until his death after 9 years.

Remarks: Young Douglas was not as fond of physical exercise as his father and was overweight, self-conscious and sensitive as a boy. But by 1923, the genes and self-determination had kicked in and he was buff and trim when he made his debut in the silent film “Stephen Steps Out”. The junior Fairbanks made his first swashbuckler as Rupert in the 1937 version of “The Prisoner of Zenda” starring Ronald Colman. After serving in WWII, he came back to work continuing in the adventure mode with “Sinbad the Sailor” and two projects he also wrote and produced ..”The Exile and “The Fighting O’Flynn”.

Films (84) also included “The Way of All Men” (1930), “Morning Glory” (1933), “Gunga Din” (1939) and “The Corsican Brothers” (1941).

Born: October 24 th, 1924 in Papeete, Tahiti
Died: November 23 rd, 1992 in Century City, California (age 72)
Cause of death: diabetes / complications after surgery
Real name: Jeanne Paule Teipo-Ite-Marana Croset
Marriages: One to assistant producer Harold Nebenzal, son of producer Seymour Nebenzal. The couple had one son Daniel and onedaughter, Deborah before divorcing after14 years.

Remarks: An actress under many names , Jeanne Paule was the daughter of a Swiss attaché in Tahiti and was raised as a Swiss citizen. They traveled all over the world but , when WWII threatened, the family permanently located in the USA. Jeanne was discovered by Orson Welles who changed her name to Rita Corday and took her to RKO where her first role was in “Hitler’s Children” (1943)….as a corpse! Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. changed her name again to Paule Croset for “The Exile”. In 1951 she became Paula Corday for “The Sword of Monte Cristo” with George Montgomery and continued to use that screen name for films and television work until she retired in 1956.

Films (26) also included “The Falcon Strikes Back” (1943), “West of the Pecos” (1945), “Too Young To Kiss” (1951) and “The French Line” (1954).

Born: November 2 nd, 1913 in New York, New York
Died: October 20 th, 1994 in Century City, California (age 80)
Cause of death: heart attack following a massive stroke.
Real Name: Burton Stephen Lancaster
Marriages: Three with two ending in divorce. His first to June Ernst lasted 11 years. The second to Norma Anderson lasted 23 years and produced 5 children. His third wife, Susan Martin, survived him after 3 years of marriage.

Remarks: Burt was a street kid In New York City who became a circus acrobat, a soldier and finally an actor. He was very good at all of it. Then, in 1948, he became a producer and director and he was very good at that, too. Burt’s acrobatic prowess aided him immensely in the swashbuckling adventure roles but his innate sensitivity and the ability to capture the core of each character he played made him a star. He won Oscar nominations for “From Here To Eternity” (1953), “Birdman Of Alcatraz” (1962) and “Atlantic City” (1981) but only captured the gold statuette for the title role of a fiery evangelist in “Elmer Gantry” (1960).

Films (78) also include “Criss Cross” (1949), “Jim Thorpe” (1951), “Apache” (1954), “A Child Is Waiting” (1963) and “The Train” (19640.

Born: June 18 th, 1926 in Recskemet, Hungary
Died: August 1 st, 1998 in London, England (age 72)
Cause of death: heart failure
Real Name: Eva Martha Ivanova Szoke
Marriages: Four. Her first to Geza Kovacs ended with an annulment because she was just 15. The second to producer Alexander Paal ended after 4 years. She married William Wordsworth but it lasted less than a year and her fourth to actor Curt Jurgens ended after 2 years and one daughter.

Remarks: Eva’s private life evoked more publicity than her pictures. She married producer Alex Paal after he rescued her from Communist Hungary and gave her the role of Kathalina in his film “A Tale of Two Cities/A Tale of Five Women”. But they divorced shortly afterward. She also claimed later that her daughter, Deana, born during her marriage to Jurgens, was actually the result of an affair with Frank Sinatra. Eva retired from the screen in 1966 and took up residence in Indonesia.

Films (35) also included “Orient Express” (1954), “Naked in the Night” (1958), “Blind Justice” (1961) and “Blood and Black Lace” (1964).

Born: May 6 th, 1913 in London, England
Died: August 16 th, 1993 in Santa Monica, California (age 80)
Cause of death: cancer
Real Name: James LaBlanche Stewart
Marriages: Three, all ending in divorce. The first was to actress Elspeth March and lasted 10 years with two children to the union. The second to actress Jean Simmons also lasted 10 years and produced one daughter. A third to Caroline LeCerf ended after 5 years and the birth of a daughter.

Remarks: Stewart was a natural for swashbuckling roles. He got his acting foothold as an extra in British films in 1933 but changed his name by the end of that decade to avoid confusion with Hollywood star James Stewart. Granger became one of Hollywood’s top British leading men along with James Mason in the 1940’s and took over adventure sagas when Errol Flynn’s career was in decline. “Scarmouche” and a remake of “The Prisoner of Zenda” in 1952 were also popular swashbucklers. By 1962 Granger had ventured into television and for the next two decades, alternated between the two mediums.

Films (62) also include “King Solomon’s Mines” (1950), “All the Brothers Were Valiant” (1953), “The Last Hunt” (1956), “North to Alaska” (1960) and “The Last Safari” (1967).

Born: August 22 nd, 1933 in Zagreb, Croatia
Died: December 26 th, 1994 in Rome, Italy (age 61)
Cause of death: heart ailments
Real Name: Sylva Koscina
Marriages: Only one listed to Raimondo Castelli. It lasted 5 years before ending indivorce.

Remarks: Sylva only starred in a handful of Hollywood productions. A leading lady in Italian films since 1945, her Hollywood tenure was during the late 1960’s when she made “Three Bites of the Apple” (1967) and “The Secret War of Harry Frigg” (1968) (“The Swordsman of Siena” was made in Italy for international distribution).

Films (118) also included “Johnny Banco” (1967), “A Lovely Way To Die” (1968), “Deadly Sanctuary” (1969) and “Vertigo for a Killer” (1970).