DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR. - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 03/19/1991 - HFSID 155574

DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. sends a typed letter of thanks for the clippings.
Typed Letter Signed: "Doug F", ¾p, 6x9½. New York, New York, 1991 March 19. On his personal stationery to Mr. Mel May, Mel May Productions, Sherman Oaks, California. In full: "Thank you so much for the 'clips'! I did not know anything about the Chaplin feature so its cancellation meant little. I do know 'Dickie' Attenborough he was a fine actor but has been an outstanding director as well for some years." Typed postscript: "P.S. The L.A. Country Club did once ban most 'movie folk' - but, in addition to Randy Scott, my father was a member." One correction in his hand. Fairbanks' father, Douglas, Sr., had co-founded United Artists in 1919 with Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, and Mary Pickford, who would become his second wife. 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). In the 1930s, he was married to actress Joan Crawford. English-born actor/director RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH appeared in a number of British and U.S. films, winning the 1964 British Academy Award for Best Actor for Brighton Rock. He made his directorial debut in 1969 and won the Best Director Academy Award for Gandhi in 1982. In 1992, the year after this letter, he directed the British biopic, Chaplin. RANDOLPH SCOTT (1903-1987) became a huge star in Westerns in the late 1940s and 1950s. From 1950-1953, he was a top-ten box office attraction. The L.A. Country Club likely accepted both Scott and Fairbanks, Sr. as they were both astute businessmen as well as actors. Fairbanks, along with D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, had co-founded United Artists in 1919 in order to get a bigger share of the profits from his films; Scott, who invested in oil wells, real estate and securities, was worth $50-100 million at the time of his death. Slightly creased with folds, not at signature. Light paper clip impression at upper blank margin. Fine condition.