Biography

With her twin sister, Madeline, Marion Fairbanks was one of the Thanhouser Twins, featured in the studio’s films and publicity from 1912 to 1916. The two were seemingly inseparable in print, though their filmographies differ slightly, as one twin sometimes appeared without the other.

Born in New York City in 1900, Marion went on to a stage career after Thanhouser, including a 1932 lead in Whistling in the Dark at the Waldorf Theatre in New York. In the 1930s she ran a beauty parlour. Bowers records that she died in Georgia in the mid-1970s, as Marion Fairbanks Delph.

A short summary written from the encyclopedia.Read Bowers’ full biography on this page ↓

Filmography

Films you can watch

14:201912The Little Girl Next Door

12:301913The Children’s Hour

15:001913 · as the uncle’s namesakesUncle’s Namesakes

13:241913Jack and the Beanstalk

12:151914Shep’s Race with Death

15:201915 · as the twin sistersTheir One Love

11:441915 · as the twins of G.L. RanchThe Twins of the G.l. Ranch

14:341915 · as Irene, the girlThe Baby and the Boss

Other Thanhouser films

Show all 38 films

These have no online copy. Each page says what is known about where a print is held.

Photographs

All 8 pictures →

Marion Fairbanks, photograph. Marion and Madeline Fairbanks, The Thanhouser Twins. Courtesy Q. David Bowers.

From the encyclopedia

The full biography

From Volume III: Biographies of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. 289 words.

With her sister Madeline, Marion Fairbanks was one of The Thanhouser Twins. The pair garnered much publicity during the 1912-1916 era.

Born in New York City on November 15, 1900, Marion Fairbanks and her twin sister Madeline were featured in Thanhouser films from 1912 to 1916. Refer to the preceding biographical listing for Madeline Fairbanks for additional information concerning The Thanhouser Twins. Virtually all of the publicity accorded to Madeline featured Marion as well, for the two were seemingly inseparable. However, their Thanhouser filmographies are slightly different, as on occasion one twin appeared in a film without the other.

As was her sister Madeline, Marion Fairbanks was seen on stage in many productions after she left Thanhouser (refer to Marions biographical listing). In the late 1920s Marion engaged in a romance with McCormick Steele, former Yale football star, who besieged her with telegrams for six months when he was on a trip to South America with his brother. She married him in 1927, but within a few years trouble erupted, and the two became subjects of various gossip columns. A divorce followed, after which she married Ray Smith. She divorced again, and married her third and final husband, William Delph.

In December 1932, Marion Fairbanks was on stage separately at the Waldorf Theatre, New York City, where she succeeded Eleanor King as the leading lady in Whistling in the Dark. In the 1930s she operated a beauty parlor and “directed a branch of a cosmetics manufacturer,” according to a newspaper account. In her later years she knew much unhappiness and struggled with the temptations of alcohol. Her death occurred in Georgia in the mid-1970s, by which time she was known as Marion Fairbanks Delph. Childless, she had no survivors.

Bowers’ own filmography list is left out here: the filmography above lists the same films. Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “FAIRBANKS, Marion (Thanhouser Twin).” thanhouser.org/research/people/marion-fairbanks/