Swashbuckling means a sword-wielding adventure.
Early motion pictures, with their short stories and their silence, could be enjoyed by almost anyone, anywhere. It didn’t matter what country you lived in or what language you spoke. The physical beauty of early film actors and actresses drew large and adoring fans. As the fictional silent film star in the classic movie Sunset Boulevard (1950) says, “We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces.”
(1883–1939) began acting at age 12 and touring at 15. He reached the Broadway stage in 1902 and broke into films just as Hollywood began its rapid growth. He starred (1920) and (1922). He performed his own stunts, becoming the “action hero” of his day. He also wrote many of his own screenplays. Fairbanks’s son, Douglas Jr., followed in his father’s footsteps as an actor.
