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.

Douglas: (on his father) I never tried to emulate my father. Anyone trying to do that would be a second-rate carbon copy.

Douglas: (On The Prisoner of Zenda) In The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), I wasn't sure whether I should play the villain, Rupert of Hentzau, because I had been working for a long time and finally had contracts where I was a 'so-called' star and had my name above the title. I wondered if I should play the part because it was in support of Ronald Colman. I liked Colman; he was a friend of mine, and I admired him greatly. But I didn't know why professionally I should do something which was second-place. I mentioned it to my father, and he said, 'Don't be a damn fool. The part of Rupert of Hentzau is the best part ever written. It's so good that a dog could play the part and walk away with the story!'.

Douglas: (on producing his own work) My father was his own producer. I was only able to produce myself toward the end of my career. Before that I was just somebody getting a salary or a percentage. I was not my own producer for a long time, and even then I was limited in terms of budget and the kind of films I could make, but it was a different approach altogether.

Douglas: (on his father objecting to him appearing in films at the age of 13) I was exactly 13, and he was right. From his point of view, he was absolutely right. He didn't know that my mother had spent all the money that we had, from her own family and also as a result of the divorce, and so it was a question of necessity, and they didn't want him to know it, and he quite rightly thought I should go on to school and to university. I wasn't permitted to tell him the real reason for some time, and then it was too late.

Douglas: (on his relationship with Charlie Chaplin who was a friend of his father) He was wonderful to me. He didn't play down to me as so many older people do to a young person, sort of patronizingly. Not at all. He treated me as a friend and a supporter and an equal. Almost like an older brother.

Douglas: (on his favorite among Douglas Fairbanks Sr. films) I have several. I think Thief of Baghdad (1924) is probably one of the finest films ever made by anybody. It's a wonderful use of the medium of film; it's not a photographed stage play. It could only be done as a movie; it could never be done as a play, not in the same way, anyway. And I like Don Q (1925). I was a big fan. I thought he was a fine artist, he designed everything himself. He wasn't just the actor, he was the producer, the writer, the story was by him. He didn't take the credit; the credit said it was by Elton Thomas, but that was his middle name.