Living Tribute to....
And still kicking....
Nickname: Kirk
Birth Name: Issur Danielovich Demsky
Born: December 9, 1916
Kirk Douglas today, age 90
Kirk Douglas is an American actor and film producer known for his gravelly voice and his recurring roles as the kinds of characters Douglas himself once described as "sons of bitches". He is also father to Hollywood actor and producer Michael Douglas. He came in at #17 on the list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time and is one of two living actors on the list (Sidney Poitier being the other).
Douglas played an important role in breaking the Hollywood blacklist by publicly opposing Stanley Kubrick's intention to take credit for the screenplay of Spartacus, which had been adapted from Howard Fast's novel by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo.
The 1996 Academy Awards were just six weeks away when Douglas had his stroke. He had to learn his lines and more importantly how to say them because he was getting an Oscar for lifetime achievement.
He was scared of speaking before such a large audience. But he rose to the occasion and so did the crowd. He spoke for several minutes that night. He has not stopped talking since.
“He has shown us another side of him that he can be every bit as heroic as the people he portrayed on screen, probably more so,” says Hollywood writer Larry Gelbart, who has known Douglas for years.
“He’s certainly much more touchy feely,” says Michael. “He’s more fuzzy and, truthfully, a much nicer person.”
Today Kirk Douglas is happiest in a role he started playing late in life. He and his wife have given away millions to children’s causes here and overseas.
Their latest project is rebuilding all the playgrounds in the Los Angeles school district. They have done 170, and plan to do 130 more. “I think I have become a human being,” he says.
Kirk’s latest movie includes his son and his grandson.
Says Michael: “We’re having the best time in our lives. It’s just kind of a magical feeling.” The movie is called "A Few More Years." In it Michael Douglas plays Kirk Douglas’s son. Kirk Douglas’s grandson Cameron plays the grandson. Kirk plays a man who’s had a stroke.
Kirk says he is most proud of having broken the Hollywood Blacklist. During the Cold War, Douglas risked his career by hiring a writer on “Spartacus” who had been denounced as a communist by congressional investigators. Most of Hollywood shunned the people on the blacklist.
His speech may be slurred but he still has a lot to say. “I’m out to be what I am and do what I can. And if you don’t like it, screw you,” he says.
How does he want to be remembered? “I tried. God damn it, I tried. I think all you can do in your life is try. You cannot do any more than try your best.”
Kirk's book "My Stroke of Luck", is wonderful and shows so much respect for this man as an actor, husband, father, friend and "child of God". What a very kind, loving, brave man.
Photos from "Spartacus (1960)
His long list of movies
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Out of the Past (1947)
Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)
I Walk Alone (1948)
The Walls of Jericho (1948)
My Dear Secretary (1949)
A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
Champion (1949)
Young Man with a Horn (1950)
The Glass Menagerie (1950)
Along the Great Divide (1951)
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Detective Story (1951)
The Big Trees (1952)
The Big Sky (1952)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
The Story of Three Loves (1953)
The Juggler (1953)
Act of Love (1953)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
The Racers (1955)
Man Without a Star (1955)
The Indian Fighter (1955)
Ulysses (1955)
Van Gogh: Darkness Into Light (1956) (short subject)
Lust for Life (1956), as painter Vincent Van Gogh
Top Secret Affair (1957)
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), as gunfighter Doc Holliday
Paths of Glory (1957) (also producer)
The Vikings (1958)
Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)
The Devil's Disciple (1959)
Premier Khrushchev in the USA (1959) (documentary)
Strangers When We Meet (1960)
Spartacus (1960) as slave rebel Spartacus
Town Without Pity (1961)
The Last Sunset (1961)
Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)
The Hook (1963)
The List of Adrian Messenger (1963)
For Love or Money (1963)
Seven Days in May (1964)
The Heroes of Telemark (1965)
In Harm's Way (1965)
Cast a Giant Shadow (1966)
Is Paris Burning? (1966)
The Way West (1967)
The War Wagon (1967)
Rowan & Martin at the Movies (1968) (short subject)
Once Upon a Wheel (1968) (documentary)
A Lovely Way to Die (1968)
The Brotherhood (1968) (also producer)
The Arrangement (1969)
There Was a Crooked Man... (1970)
To Catch a Spy (1971)
The Light at the Edge of the World (1971)
A Gunfight (1971)
The Master Touch (1972)
Scalawag (1973) (also director)
Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough (1975)
Posse (1975) (also director and producer)
Holocaust 2000 (1977)
The Fury (1978)
Home Movies (1979)
The Villain (1979)
Saturn 3 (1980)
The Final Countdown (1980)
The Man From Snowy River (1982)
Eddie Macon's Run (1983)
Draw! (1984)
Tough Guys (1986)
Oscar (1991)
Welcome to Veraz (1991)
A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
Greedy (1994)
Diamonds (1999)
It Runs in the Family (2003)
Illusion (2004)
Kirk and son, Michael Douglas
Kirk Douglas House
Provided By: Richard's Creations
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