"Kirk
Douglas’s talent begins in the soles of his feet
and ends in the spirit that can vault beyond the stars.”
These words of tribute from the American Academy of
Dramatic Arts sum up the essence of the man. A lifetime
of achievement – which includes 87 films, 10 plays,
9 books, and a host of other contributions to his art,
his country, and his fellowmen – speaks for itself.
Born December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York, the son
of illiterate Jewish-Russian immigrants, Issur Danielovitch,
who would become Kirk Douglas, was driven to leave behind
the poverty of his hometown. He won a wrestling scholarship
to Saint Lawrence University and worked as a wrestler
in summer carnivals. He had to meet school expenses.
A second scholarship, from the American Academy of Dramatic
Arts, put him on the road to Broadway. He made his Broadway
debut as a singing Western Union boy in Spring Again,
but interrupted his budding stage career in 1942 to
enlist in the U.S. Navy, where he served as a communications
officer in anti-submarine warfare.
After the war he returned to Broadway as the ghost soldier
in The Wind is Ninety. The New York Times described
his performance, “Nothing short of superb.”
His widely praised performance caught the attention
of Hollywood, and he was cast opposite Barbara Stanwyck
in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. He returned
to Broadway and did several plays which were not successful.
Three years later, in 1949, his agents arranged for
him to co-star with Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck in
The Great Sinner. His agents were aghast when
he declined to play that part. Instead, he chose the
role of the anti-hero, Mr. Kelly, in Champion at a much lower salary. The cynical boxer in Stanley
Kramer’s Champion, won him both stardom
and an Academy Award nomination. He received his second
nomination in 1952 for playing an opportunistic movie
mogul in The Bad and the Beautiful, and his third
in 1956 for his portrayal of Vincent Van Gogh in Lust
for Life, for which he won the New York Film Critics’
Best Actor Award.
In 1955, Mr. Douglas formed one of Hollywood’s
first independent film companies, Bryna, named for his
mother, and managed by his wife, Anne. The Bryna Company
produced many memorable films, including Paths of
Glory, The Vikings, Spartacus, Lonely
are the Brave, and Seven Days in May.
In 1964, Anne and Kirk Douglas formed the Douglas Foundation
in order to make more significant and meaningful contributions
to charitable causes. Kirk looked at the wonderful paintings
that he and Anne had acquired during nearly 40 years
of marriage, and decided: “It’s a sin to have
so much money hanging on a wall.” Proceeds from
the auction of works by such artists as Chagall, Mirò,
Picasso, and Vlaminck enabled the Douglas Foundation
to undertake a number of meaningful projects. These
helped them established the Anne Douglas Center for
Women and the Motion Picture Relief Home’s Alzheimer’s
Unit, which has been named “Harry’s Haven”
after Mr. Douglas’s father. They are now in the
process of building a new wing.
The Douglas Foundation is currently funding a program
initiated by his wife Anne, restoring neglected playgrounds
of Los Angeles schools. Up to now, they have established
235 playgrounds. Their goal is 515 more. They have also
created a series of playgrounds in Israel, both for
the Arabs and Jews. The Foundation has also committed
funds for the building of a theatre directly opposite
the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and for the Kirk Douglas
Theatre for The Center Theatre Group which will open
in Culver City, California in 2004.
In 1958, Mr. Douglas broke the notorious Hollywood blacklist
when he gave screen credit to blacklisted writer Dalton
Trumbo for the Spartacus screenplay. Mr. Douglas
was widely condemned for his decision at the time. It
was not until 30 years later that the American Civil
Liberties Union and the Writers Guild of America recognized
his act as courageous. He considers it his proudest
achievement.
In 1963, he bought the dramatic rights to Ken Kesey’s
book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and
starred in it on Broadway. For the next ten years he
tried unsuccessfully to make the play into a motion
picture. Finally in 1975, he allowed his son Michael
to produce the movie, which collected five Oscars including
best picture. But the biggest disappointment of his
life was that he didn’t play in the film.
In 1981, President Carter presented Mr. Douglas with
the Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian
award in recognition of the many trips he had made at
his own expense, speaking to audiences all over the
world about why democracy works and what freedom means.
In addition to visiting more than twenty countries in
Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe, Mr. Douglas has also
visited the war zones of Beirut, Lebanon, and Red Cross
hospitals and Afghan refugee camps near the Khyber Pass,
delivering the same message.
Mr. Douglas has been honored by governments and organizations
of other countries as well, including France, Italy,
Portugal, Israel, and Germany. Among the top international
awards he received was his appointment, in 1990, as
Officier de la Legion d’Honneur for distinguished
services to France in arts and letters.
In 1991, the American Film Institute singled him out
for its prestigious Life Achievement Award. In its tribute,
the AFI noted that “no other leading actor has
been more ready to tap the dark desperate side of the
soul and thus reveal the complexity of human nature,”
and lauded him for his “sense of depth and defiance.”
In 1995, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts distinguished him with its award “for contributions
to U.S. cultural life.”
In 1996, the Academy of Motion Pictures honored Douglas
with a special Oscar for “50 years as a creative
and moral force in the motion picture community.”
In presenting the award, Steven Spielberg lauded Mr.
Douglas for his courage and his conscience. “Whether
he’s dealing with a character on screen, or with
the all-too-real effects of a recent stroke, courage
remains Kirk Douglas’s personal and professional
hallmark. There is a single thread drawing all the characters
he has played together. It’s call conscience.”
Kirk Douglas’s conscience has often found an outlet
in his movies. For example, through the TV movie Amos,
which earned him Emmy and Golden Globe nominations,
Mr. Douglas tried to focus public attention on the issue
of abuse of the elderly. His efforts have also included
editorials and letters to newspapers, appearances on
national television, and testimony before the Congressional
Select Sub-Committee on Aging.
In 1992, through the TV movie, The Secret, he
attacked the social stigma associated with dyslexia.
His performance was singled out as the year’s best
by the Los Angeles Times critics, and earned him the
Einstein Award from the National Dyslexia Research Foundation.
Kirk Douglas movie projects are often family affairs.
Amos was produced by his son Peter, as were Final
Countdown and Inherit the Wind, which won
an Emmy award for best film. Mr. Douglas has also co-starred
with his son Eric in Yellow, a segment in HBO’s
“Tales of the Crypt” series, which earned
him a second Emmy nomination. His son Joel has served
as production manager on the Douglas-directed movie Posse. He and son Michael and grandson, Cameron
shared screen time in It Runs in the Family,
a feature film released in 2003. The last brings his
number of movie roles to 85.
In 1991, Kirk Douglas had a helicopter crash in which
two people were killed and Kirk almost broke his back.
In 1996, he had a stroke which affected his speech.
For a time, he believed this would end his career as
an actor, but with the encouragement of his friends
and family, he kept working with a speech therapist
and at the end of 1998, he played the role of a feisty
ex-boxer recovering from a stroke. Diamonds was released
in December of 1999 and was followed by an Emmy-nominated
guest star role for “Touched by an Angel”
in February 2000.
When not acting, Mr. Douglas occupies his time writing.
His autobiography, The Ragman’s Son, published
in 1988, received rave reviews and became an international
best-seller. It was on the New York Times best-seller
list for a total of 34 weeks. He followed it up with
three novels, Dance with the Devil in 1990, The
Gift in 1992, and Last Tango in Brooklyn in 1994, and children’s books, The Broken Mirror
in 1997. In 1997, Mr. Douglas published a sequel to
his autobiography entitled Climbing the Mountain:
My Search for Meaning. In it he discusses events
since his helicopter crash, the hard work of recovery
from his stroke, and his religious awakening in later
life, which led to his becoming an ardent student of
the Torah. His second children’s book Young
Heroes of the Bible was published in October of
1999. The third installment of his autobiography, My
Stroke of Luck, came out in January 2002. In 2004
he is just finishing his book, Grow Old Along with
Me. He said that will be his last book, but don’t
count on it.
On December 9, 1999, Mr. Douglas celebrated his second
Bar Mitzvah at age 83 at Sinai Temple in Westwood, California,
marking the second cycle of life that began at the age
of seventy, according to the Talmud. Since then, he
has traveled to Israel and Jordon (as guest of King
Abdullah and Queen Rania). He had a high school named
for him in West Granada Hills, received the Golden Bear
at the Berlin Film Festival. President Bush draped around
his neck the Presidential Medal of the Arts in Washington.
In 2003 he filmed It Runs in the Family with
his son Michael and grandson Cameron.
He followed that with a movie, Illusion. He said
that will be his last movie, but I wouldn’t count
on it. In the meantime, he made a documentary with his
son Michael dramatizing the relationship between them,
it is called A Father A Son: Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood.
Mr. Douglas has been married to his wife Anne for 50
years. He is the father of four sons from two marriages:
Michael, Joel, Peter and Eric. He also has seven grandchildren:
Cameron, Kelsey, Tyler, Dylan, Ryan, Carys, and Jason.
They all call Kirk Pappy. He and Anne and their 2 Labradors
– Danny and Foxy – divide their time between
residences in Beverly Hills and Montecito.
Anne and Kirk celebrated their 50th Anniversary with
a big second wedding, but this time he was using a cane.
