Charming early 3.5 x 5.25-inch sepia-tone German postcard portrait, boldly signed in black fountain pen, circa 1927. In good condition, with the writing just a hint light against the dark background of the image and some gentle silvering, invisible when the photo is viewed head-on.  Handsome, dashing Douglas Fairbanks made his bones under D.W. Griffith, before he, Charlie Chaplin and soon-to-be-wife Mary Pickford co-founded United Artists in 1919. The star initially dazzled in social comedies, but, from the 1920s onward, increasingly became associated with swashbucklers, always doing his own stunts.  Highlights of his career include The Mark of Zorro (1920), Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), The Black Pirate (1926), The Iron Mask (1929), Mr. Robinson Crusoe (1932), and The Private Life of Don Juan (1934). Fairbanks retired at the age of 54 and died of a heart attack less than two years later. 

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