Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks redefined the silent film spectacle. Born in Denver in 1883, he came to Hollywood in 1915 as a comic actor but found his true calling in swashbuckling adventure films, beginning with The Mark of Zorro in 1920. He pioneered the costume-action genre with increasingly elaborate productions—Robin Hood, The Thief of Bagdad, The Black Pirate—that set the standard for all adventure cinema to follow.