Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas: (on Joan Crawford, his first wife) So many dreadful things have recently been written about Joan Crawford!. But the girl I knew was enchanting and terribly nice. I refused to read her stepdaughter's book, Mommie Dearest, because when I learned what it was about, it seemed to be about someone I had never known. Joan and I were devoted and friendly right up to the end. It's true we had a very different view of things. You see, she was absolutely dedicated to her work, to her studio, to her career. Work was her only reality. Nothing else interested her. When we took a long-delayed honeymoon and traveled to London and Paris, she couldn't wait to get back to Culver City and M-G-M. I had many other interests. I loved to travel and had friends in all walks of life, but she didn't care for any of that. Finally, our temperaments just didn't jibe. The fact is, she was incredibly intense. I wasn't.

Douglas: (on his relationship with his father, Douglas Fairbanks Senior) I will confess that my father was never a father to me. He was more like an older brother. We were very, very shy of each other. He was very undemonstrative. There was never an embrace or a hug. And he was never around, he'd disappear for months on end. He'd never remember birthdays or Christmases. Occasionally, we'd meet in some hotel room, and he'd say, 'Hello,' and I'd say, 'Hello,' and that was that. It was only a few years before he died, in 1939, that we became friends. We even took a trip together and got to know each other a little better.

Douglas: (on taking up government assignments) Close friends and advisers warned me against taking on a government assignment. This was too radical a change of character for the public to accept, they said. It preferred its theatrical personalities to be that, and nothing else. An actor would be unacceptable in any diplomatic capacity because of a preconceived bias about show folk. Hence, it was argued that I might fail in any assigned mission, as well as damage my professional career at one and the same time; thus, falling between two stools. I made up my mind, however, that I could accomplish certain missions, and that the issues involved in the world at that time, it was some time before the last War, were far more important than any possible detrimental effect on my business. I would not, in my view, be true to myself if, so to speak, I played it safe. After a number of unpublicized assignments, I was summoned by President Roosevelt and accepted an appointment to come into the open as a presidential envoy on a special mission to certain Latin American countries. This first "open mission" was accomplished, and my subsequent public affairs activities did indeed affect my professional career, almost as predicted.