DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR. - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 02/22/1978 - HFSID 324306

DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR.
The television and film star quotes Hamlet in a letter to a young boy, to be given to him on his 21st birthday, signs name in black ink
Typed letter signed: "Douglas Fairbanks, Jr." in black ink. 1 page, 8½x11. Addressed to young David Robley, as a response to his uncle Michael Hurwitz' request of predictions for the future, to be given to him on his 21st birthday. Palm Beach, Florida. February 22, 1978. In full: "Dear David Robley: It would take a wiser man than I, or one with a crystal ball, to predict what the future may hold for you, or anyone. Rather than risk such a thing, perhaps I can leave you with the same admonishment that was made to me by my father on my twenty-first birthday. It was a quote from 'Hamlet': 'Let your own discretion be your tutor.' I can't think of anything wiser to tell a young man on his twenty-first birthday and although non of us ever succeeds in reaching the end of the rainbow, it is the earnest effort to do so that counts; the fun of the chase, and the conscious aspiration to do, not the best we can, but the best we know how, which are most important. Good luck and many happy returns. Sincerely". Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (1909-2000), the son of the dashing actor of the 1920s and Anna Beth Sully, the daughter of an industrialist, was raised by his mother after his parents' divorce in 1918. At the age of 13, he starred in Lasky's Stephen Steps Out, an unsuccessful attempt to exploit the Fairbanks name. Although the younger Fairbanks, a movie producer as well as an actor, appeared in some 75 films, his father took little interest in his son's career, and the two did not become close friends until the early 1930s. His feature films included Stella Dallas (1926), Little Caesar (1930), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Gunga Din (1939) and Sinbad the Sailor (1947), and Fairbanks also appeared in a number of made-for-TV movies and hosted the anthology series, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Presents (1952-1955). Fairbanks was highly decorated for his US Navy service in World War II; he organized the Beach Jumpers, an elite unit which staged diversionary amphibious landings to draw enemy forces away from the genuine landing sites. In the 1930s, he was married to actress Joan Crawford. Normal mailing folds. Slight surface creases.Fine condition.