Douglas Fairbanks

 Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (December 9, 1909 – May 7, 2000)

He was the son of Hollywood icon Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Largely on the basis of his father's name, Fairbanks, Jr. was given a contract with Paramount Pictures at age 14. After making some undistinguished films, he took to the stage, where he impressed his father, his stepmother Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin, who encouraged him to continue with acting. With Outward Bound (1930), The Dawn Patrol (1930), Little Caesar (1931), Prisoner of Zenda (1937), and Gunga Din (1939), his movies began to have commercial success. Although celebrated as an actor, Fairbanks was commissioned a reserve officer in the United States Navy at the onset of World War II and assigned to Lord Louis Mountbatten's Commando staff in the United Kingdom. He was responsible for creating the "beach jumpers", a task force that would simulate amphibious landings with a very limited force. Operating dozens of kilometers from the actual landing beaches and utilizing their deception equipment, the Beach Jumpers would lure the enemy into believing that theirs was the principal landing. United States Navy Beach Jumpers saw their initial action in Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. For his planning the diversion-deception operations and his part in the amphibious assault on Southern France, Lieutenant Commander Fairbanks was awarded the United States Navy's Legion of Merit with bronze V (for valor), the Italian War Cross for Military Valor, the French Légion d'honneur and the Croix de guerre with Palm, and the British Distinguished Service Cross.

After the war, Fairbanks Jr. remained mainly in the U.K., and was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1949. He died at age 90 of a heart attack, and buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery with his famous father.