Movie legend Kirk Douglas, one of many nice stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, has died. He was 103.
“It’s with great disappointment that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us immediately on the age of 103,” his son, Michael Douglas, mentioned in a statement to People. “To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of flicks who lived effectively into his golden years, a humanitarian whose dedication to justice and the causes he believed in set an ordinary for all of us to aspire to. However to me and my brothers Joel and Peter he was merely Dad, to Catherine, a beautiful father-in-law, to his grandchildren and nice grandchild their loving grandfather, and to his spouse Anne, a beautiful husband.”
Douglas starred in over 90 movies all through his profession, together with classics like Out of the Past, Ace in the Hole, The Bad and the Beautiful, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and his early collaborations with director Stanley Kubrick, Paths of Glory and Spartacus. He obtained a Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Nationwide Medal of Arts, and lifelong achievement awards from the American Movie Institute, the Kennedy Middle, the Display Actors Guild, and the Academy Awards. He by no means received an Oscar for appearing, although he was nominated thrice, for Champion, The Dangerous and the Lovely, and Lust for Life. He additionally produced most of the movies during which he starred, together with Spartacus, The Vikings, and Lonely Are the Brave. His onscreen persona was a posh robust man, and he usually performed troopers or cowboys.
He was additionally recognized for his philanthropy and volunteer work. He and Anne, his spouse of 65 years, pledged to present a lot of their $80 million fortune away, and have supported quite a few causes, together with donating $40 million to the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital retirement group to create and fund the Alzheimer’s wing, named Harry’s Haven, after Douglas’ father. He was a goodwill ambassador for the now-defunct U.S. Info Company, touring around the globe and advocating for democracy. He was a lifelong Democrat and a staunch supporter of Israel. He starred within the first Hollywood film filmed in Israel, 1953’s The Juggler.
Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch on Dec. 9, 1916, in Amsterdam, New York, and grew up utilizing the identify Izzy Demsky. He was the son of Belarusian Jewish immigrants and had a really impoverished childhood, as described in his 1988 memoir The Ragman’s Son. He started appearing in highschool performs, and after attending St. Lawrence College, he studied at American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, the place he was classmates and buddies with Lauren Bacall.
He enlisted within the Navy in 1941, shortly after the USA entered World Conflict II, and served as a communications officer on a submarine. He was discharged in 1944 after being injured by an unintentional detonation of a depth cost. He landed his first movie position in 1946, in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, reverse Barbara Stanwyck. He rose to the highest of Hollywood all through the ’40s and ’50s, peaking in 1960 with Spartacus, which was written by blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo below his personal identify at Douglas’ insistence, successfully ending Hollywood’s Chilly Conflict blacklist.
Douglas labored steadily via the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, originating the position of Randle Patrick McMurphy within the authentic Broadway manufacturing of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1963. He owned the rights to make the movie model for a decade earlier than passing them to his son Michael, who produced the basic 1975 movie. He directed two movies within the ’70s, 1973’s Scalawag and 1975’s Posse. He labored much less continuously after a stroke in 1996, and his ultimate movie look got here in 2008, in a French TV film referred to as Empire State Constructing Murders, a comedic tribute to the movies noir he appeared in earlier in his profession.
Douglas is survived by his spouse Anne, his sons Michael, Joel, and Peter, and quite a few grandchildren.