Fairbanks, in addition to being blessed with a strong, lithe body, has developed it by expert devotion to every form of athletic sport.

He swims well, is a crack boxer, a good polo player, a splendid wrestler, a skilful acrobat, a fast runner, and an absolutely fearless rider.
There is never a picture during the progress of which he does not interpolate some sudden bit of business as the result of his quick wit and dynamic enthusiasm.

In one play, for instance, he was supposed to enter a house at sight of his sweetheart beckoning to him from an upper window.

As he passed up the steps, however, his roving eye caught sight of the porch railing, a window-ledge, and a balcony, and in a flash he was scaling the facade of the house like any cat.
In another play he was trapped on the roof of a country home.

Suddenly Fairbanks, disregarding the plan of retreat indicated by the author, gave a wild leap into a near-by maple, managed to catch a bough, and proceeded to the ground in a series of convulsive falls that gave the director heart-failure.
During "The Half-Breed" picture, some of the action took place about a fallen redwood that had its great roots fully twenty feet into the air.
"Climb up on top of those roots, Doug," yelled the director.
Instead of that, "Douggie" went up to a young sapling that grew at the base of the fallen tree.