A remarkable treasure trove owned by Hollywood royalty Douglas Fairbanks Jr has emerged in Kent.
The collection, which includes a Cartier clasp, belongs to the famous star’s grandson – Tunbridge Wells builder Nick Weston – who had kept it under the bed for decades.
Mr Weston is the son of the Fairbanks Jr’s eldest daughter, American-born debutante and socialite Daphne, who moved to the UK in 1948 and from whom he inherited most of the collection.
It goes under the hammer at Hansons Auctioneers’ Kent saleroom in Penshurst on April 22.
The incredible haul includes a rare original Disney celluloid, from the 1952 film Pluto’s Partywith a handwritten dedication from the legendary American animator, Walt Disney – which has a guide price of £2,000-£3,000.
The 61-year-old said: “It was grandad’s dad, Dougie Snr, who was very close to Walt Disney, but that friendship continued with my grandfather. Hence both my elder brother Anthony and I received signed celluloids when we were very young.”
Unlike the rest of his family, which uses the Fairbanks name, Weston downplays the connection to his swashbuckling forebears.
He said: “I rarely tell anyone about it. I did mention it to an elderly local lady who I did some building work for, only because I suspected she would know the name. And, sure enough, she was blown away. But generally, I don’t say anything.”
Weston plans to give the sale proceeds to his daughters Eliza and Georgina to “buy something nice”.
While Weston has warm memories of family holidays at Fairbanks’ Palm Beach mansion, he also remembers his grandfather as a forbidding war hero.
He said: “I remember him as being rather standoffish and always having to be on my best behaviour around him. But he was always a really good-looking man – even at the very end.
“I recall going to see him in hospital at the end of his life. He grabbed my hand and started to cry. He could hardly speak and looked very ill, but I do remember he still had the most amazing piercing blue eyes.”
Douglas Fairbanks Jr was born into Hollywood royalty. His father was the original swashbuckling actor Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (1883-1939) known for his good looks and fearless stunts.
Born in 1909, the younger Fairbanks followed in his father’s footsteps appearing in films such The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Gunga Din (1939), and The Corsican Brothers (1941). He was also first married, briefly, to actress Joan Crawford.
Nick’s mother, who moved to London with the rest of the family aged eight, remembers a glittering childhood with visitors including David Niven, Noel Coward, Rex Harrison, the Lawrence Olivier, Charlie and Oona Chaplin and Princess Margaret.
By then Douglas Fairbanks Jr, a dedicated Anglophile and war hero – the first American to command a British flotilla – was firmly entrenched in the highest British social circles.
He was a lifelong friend of Lord Mountbatten, allowing him to forge close friendships with the entire Royal family – particularly Princess Margaret.
Nick said: “I remember my mum telling me she was taught how to curtsy by the late Queen.”
In 1960, aged 20, Daphne Fairbanks married David Weston a dashing officer in the Coldstream Guards.
The wedding hit the headlines around the world and was attended by High Society guests including the royal princess and her husband, Antony Armstrong-Jones.
said: “They were a real pin-up couple of the day and very well connected. My mum was the most amazing woman, so lovely.”
Nick was born in 1964, the middle of the couple’s three sons, with a daughter Natasha born in 1970.
The Fairbanks’ estate paid for private schools with Nick attending a Kent prep school, St Ronan’s in Hawkhurst, before going to a local comprehensive in Suffolk.
An apprenticeship in carpentry followed, before taking up a career as a builder.
Along with his cousins, Nick’s childhood holidays were spent at the Fairbanks’ plush Fifth Avenue apartment and their Florida mansion.
He said: “I imagine it was quite an extraordinary upbringing but because it was the only childhood I had ever had it seemed normal. While grandad was quite stern it was Grandma Mary Lee who was much softer.”
In 1989 he remembers appearing on This is Your Life celebrating the life of his famous grandad, hosted by Michael Aspal.
He said: “I met Christopher Lee and Brooke Shields. I guess it was pretty cool. I remember hanging out with Juliet Mills, the daughter of the famous British actor Sir John Mills, and her husband Maxwell Caulfield.”
When his parents divorced in 1980, his mother remarried and moved to Suffolk with Nick following his father to Kent.
Two decades later, he was at his grandfather’s graveside in 2000 when Douglas Fairbanks Jr was laid to rest in the same tomb as Douglas Fairbanks Snr in a marble sarcophagus at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in California.
Nick said: “It was a big deal, I remember meeting Mickey Rooney there.”
The majority of Fairbanks Jr’s Estate was sold in 2011 at an auction overseen by his third wife, Vera Shelton, some 30 years his junior, who he married in 1991.
Nick continued: “All the pieces in this month’s sale were given to me by my mother who died in 2016. They have been under the bed for decades collecting dust, so it’s time to give them another home.”
Auction Details
Auction: The Penshurst April Auction including: Titanic Related Memorabilia, Property of Douglas Fairbanks Jnr Family, Silver, Jewellery, Watches & Fine Art
Auction date: 22nd April 2026 | 10am
Location: Hansons’ Kent Saleroom
Auction contact: [email protected]
Catalogue/bidding: www.hansonslive.co.uk | www.the-saleroom.com
