Madeline and Marion Fairbanks

Madeline (Madeleine) (November 15, 1900 – January 15, 1989) and her twin sister Marion Fairbanks (November 15, 1900 – September 20, 1973) were American stage and motion picture actresses active in the silent era.^[1]

Born in New York City, the twins were mainly educated by private tutors at home and while traveling. Their mother was actress Jennie M. Fairbanks, a.k.a. Jane Fairbanks, and their father was the son of Nathaniel Fairbanks, who served in the American Civil War, and a descendant of Jonathan Fairbanks, a Massachusetts hero of the Revolution. Madeline and Marion had an older brother, Robert.

The Fairbanks twins began their stage career in The Bluebird at the New Theatre in New York, NY.^[2]

They then appeared on Broadway in The Piper (1911), Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1912) and Snow White (1912). As the Thanhouser Kids they appeared in films such as Cousins (1913), The Flying Twins (1915), The Bird of Prey (1916), and The Answer (1916); on Broadway, they in the Ziegfeld Follies (1917–20), Mercenary Mary (1925), Oh, Kay! (1926), Allez-Oop (1927) and Happy (1927); Marion appeared solo in Grab Bag (1924) and on a tour of Little Nellie Kelly. Madeline performed solo in The Ritz Revue in (1924).^[3]

They entered films with Biograph the Thanhouser Film Corporation in 1912, where they were billed as "The Thanhouser Twins", and remained there until 1916. The Fairbanks sisters appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1918 and 1919, as well as the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic in 1918 and Ziegfeld 9 O'clock Frolic in 1921.

By 1932, Marion was on stage separately at the Waldorf Theatre, New York City. She succeeded Eleanor King as leading lady in Whistling in the Dark. 1930s news accounts reported that she operated a beauty parlor and directed a branch of a cosmetics manufacturer. In her later years she knew much unhappiness and struggled with the temptations of alcohol.

Marion Fairbanks died in Georgia in 1973 and was buried at Westview Cemetery. Her name was then Marion Fairbanks Delph. She had no survivors other than her sister. Madeline married Leonard Sherman in 1937. The union ended in divorce in 1947. She lived in New York until early 1989, where she died of respiratory failure.

• New York Times, Theatrical Notes, August 9, 1920, Page 6.
• Syracuse Herald, Juvenile Performers Are Stage Veterans, May 5, 1912, Page 48.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Madeline and Marion Fairbanks.

• Madeline and Marion Fairbanks at IMDb
• Madeline and Marion Fairbanks at IMDb
• Thanhouser Twins at Library of Congress, with 2 library catalogue records