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Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s, known for serious dramas ...
Actor: The Final Countdown. Cleft-chinned, steely-eyed and virile star of international cinema who rose from being "the ragman's son" (the name of his best-selling 1988 autobiography) to become a bona fide superstar, Kirk Douglas, also known as Issur Danielovitch Demsky, was born on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York.
- January 1, 1
- Amsterdam, New York, USA
- January 1, 1
- Beverly Hills, California, USA
- Who Was Kirk Douglas?
- Early Life
- Career Highlights
- Writing and Acting
- Later Projects
- Generous Benefactor
- Legacy and Family
- Death
After stints in the U.S. Navy and on Broadway, actor Kirk Douglas broke into the movies with The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. He went on to critical acclaim in such films as 1952's The Bad and the Beautiful and 1956's Lust for Life. One of his biggest hits was 1960's Spartacus.
Born Issur Danielovitch on December 9, 1916, in Amsterdam, New York, Douglas is known for his distinctive voice, strapping physique and cleft chin. The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Douglas grew up poor. He worked odd jobs to pay for his college education and to support himself while studying acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. At ...
A sought-after actor, Douglas worked with many leading directors, including Billy Wilder for 1951's Ace in the Hole. However, it was his work with Vincente Minnelli that led to two of his greatest performances: morally bankrupt movie executive Jonathan Shields in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), and troubled artist Vincent van Gogh in Lust for Lif...
While one phase of Douglas' life was slowing down, another was just beginning. In 1988, he shared his life story in the best-selling autobiography, The Ragman's Son. He also showed a talent for fiction writing, producing such works as Dance with the Devil (1990) and The Gift (1992). One of his nonfiction works, Climbing the Mountain: My Search for ...
Douglas continued to write biographical works in his later years, including Let's Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning (2007). More recently, he delved into the backstory of one of his most famous roles, with 2012's I am Spartacus! The Making of a Film, Breaking the Blacklist for which George Clooneywrote the foreword. In 2009, Douglas...
Douglas also devoted much of his life to philanthropic work. Through the Douglas Foundation, he and his second wife Anne gave away millions to numerous worthy causes. Recent donations include $2.3 million to Children's Hospital Los Angeles for a surgical robot and the endowment of the Kirk Douglas Fellowship at the American Film Institute. In Octob...
Throughout his distinguished career, Douglas received many honors, including the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in 1991. He also became a Kennedy Center honoree in 1994, received an honorary Academy Award in 1996, and received the National Medal of Arts in 2001. Married twice, Douglas had two sons, Joel and Michael, with hi...
Douglas passed away on February 5, 2020, at the age of 103. “Kirk’s life was well lived, and he leaves a legacy in film that will endure for generations to come, and a history as a renowned philanthropist who worked to aid the public and bring peace to the planet,” his son Michael said in a statement. “Let me end with the words I told him on his la...
Feb 5, 2020 · 5 February 2020. Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film Spartacus won four Oscars. Actor Kirk Douglas, whose Hollywood career spanned seven decades, has died aged 103. The stage and screen actor was...
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Feb 5, 2020 · Kirk Douglas, one of the last surviving movie stars from Hollywood’s golden age, whose rugged good looks and muscular intensity made him a commanding presence in celebrated films like “Lust for...
- 3 min
- Robert Berkvist
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Feb 5, 2020 · 5 February 2020. Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film Spartacus won four Oscars. Actor Kirk Douglas, whose Hollywood career spanned seven decades, has died aged 103. The stage and screen actor was...
Feb 5, 2020 · Kirk Douglas, the intense, muscular actor with the dimpled chin who starred in "Spartacus," "Lust for Life" and dozens of other films, helped fatally weaken the blacklist against suspected Communists and reigned for decades as a Hollywood maverick and patriarch, died Wednesday, his family said.
