Douglas Fairbanks, Movie Star Trivia Quiz

Answer: Comedy

Fairbanks' early comedies included "In Again, Out Again", "His Majesty, the American", and "Mr. Fix-It". Unless you're a devoted Fairbanks fan, you've probably never heard of them. He got top billing, but he would be almost forgotten today if he'd stayed in comedy.

Answer: Zorro

Fairbanks' 1920 breakthrough film was "The Mark of Zorro", where he played a masked hero with a secret identity. Zorro protects people against the cruel governor of colonial California and rallies the caballeros to overthrow him. He played all the other roles listed in the next few years.

Answer: United Artists

Fairbanks and his associates were unhappy with the deals they were getting from the major studios and created United Artists to let actors have more control over their careers. Its first feature film was "His Majesty, the American", an action comedy starring Fairbanks.

Answer: Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood

It was common for studios to make knock-offs of big movies with public domain titles, tricking audiences. To avoid this, Fairbanks gave his movie a title which no one else could legally use. In this version of the classic tale, the Earl of Huntingdon turns outlaw to fight Prince John, who has become a tyrant in the absence of King Richard.

Answer: Color photography

"The Black Pirate" was shot in two-strip Technicolor, which gave it a more restricted gamut of colors than modern films using three primary colors. Color was common in earlier movies, but it was normally done by tinting the images rather than color photography.

The other innovations mentioned all came later. In "The Black Pirate", Fairbanks' character joins a pirate crew to get revenge against them for killing his father.

Answer: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

In 1927, Fairbanks became the president of the newly formed Motion Picture Academy, as it's known for short. He was the host of the first Academy Awards ceremony. Fairbanks wasn't involved in Paramount, a rival studio. The Screen Actors Guild was formed in 1933 and the Film Preservation Society in 2014.

Answer: "The Three Musketeers", "The Iron Mask"

Dumas' novel "The Three Musketeers" was so successful that he produced a long series of books continuing the adventures of d'Artagnan and the Musketeers. "The Iron Mask", Fairbanks' last silent film, draws on several novels in the series about the adventures and intrigues of four friends fighting for Louis XIII and XIV. "The Count of Monte Cristo" is also by Dumas, but Fairbanks never appeared in a film version of it. "Cyrano de Bergerac" was a play by Edmond Rostand.

Answer: A lamp holding a genie

"The Thief of Bagdad" draws on the "Arabian Nights" stories, but there's no genie in it. The rope helps him sneak into places, the cloak gets him past guards, and the carpet lets him make a quick rescue. If he had a genie too, it would have all been too easy!

Answer: A Shakespeare play

In 1929, Fairbanks and Pickford played the leading characters in "The Taming of the Shrew", said to be the first talking film adaptation of a Shakespeare play. Mary Pickford produced it, and in 1966 she created a revised cut. Some people have wondered how much the tempestuous couple in the play reflected the domestic relationship between Fairbanks and Pickford.

Answer: Don Q, Son of Zorro

Fairbanks played both Zorro and his son in 1925, anticipating a similar dual role by Valentino in the 1926 "Son of the Sheik". "The Curse of Capistrano" was the title of the novel on which "The Mark of Zorro" was based. In this film, Zorro's son is framed for murder, fakes his death, and returns in disguise to catch the killer with his father's help.