Kirk Douglas, a star of Hollywood's Golden Age, dies at 103
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, November 29, 2024


Kirk Douglas, a star of Hollywood's Golden Age, dies at 103
Kirk Douglas, right, with his son, Michael, on the set of the movie “Once Is Not Enough” in Central Park in New York, on April 12, 1974. 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 Life,” “Spartacus” and “Paths of Glory,” died on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020, at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 103. Jack Manning/The New York Times.

by Robert Berkvist



NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- 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 Life,” “Spartacus” and “Paths of Glory,” died on Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 103.

His son actor Michael Douglas announced the death in a statement on his Facebook page.

Douglas had made a long and difficult recovery from the effects of a severe stroke he suffered in 1996. In 2011, cane in hand, he came onstage at the Academy Awards ceremony, good-naturedly flirted with the co-host Anne Hathaway and jokingly stretched out his presentation of the Oscar for best supporting actress.

By then, and even more so as he approached 100 and largely dropped out of sight, he was one of the last flickering stars in a Hollywood firmament that few in Hollywood’s Kodak Theater on that Oscars evening could have known except through viewings of old movies now called classics.

“To me, acting is creating an illusion, showing tremendous discipline, not losing yourself in the character that you’re portraying,” he wrote in his best-selling autobiography, “The Ragman’s Son” (1988). “The actor never gets lost in the character he’s playing; the audience does.”

The engine that drove Douglas to achieve, again and again, was his family history.

He was born Issur Danielovitch on Dec. 9, 1916, in Amsterdam, New York, northwest of Albany. The town’s mills did not hire Jews, so his father, Herschel, became a ragman, a collector and seller of discarded goods. He was a powerful man who drank heavily and got into fights, and was often an absentee father, letting his family fend for itself.

After attending St. Lawrence University, Douglas studied acting for two years, played in summer stock and made his Broadway debut in 1941. The next year he enlisted in the Navy and was trained in anti-submarine warfare. He and Diana Dill married in 1943, just before he shipped out during World War II. They had two sons, Michael and Joel, before divorcing in 1951. She died in 2015.

In 1954 Douglas married Anne Buydens, and they too had two sons, Peter and Eric.

Eric Douglas died of an accidental overdose of alcohol and prescription pills in 2004 at the age of 46.

In addition to his son Michael, Kirk Douglas is survived by his wife and his two other sons, as well as five grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

He made his screen debut in 1946 in “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers,” but it was the 1949 film “Champion,” produced by the young Stanley Kramer, that made him a star.

“Spartacus,” released in 1960, was Douglas’ third blood-and-thunder spectacle set in the ancient past. One of the last cast-of-thousands spectacles to come out of Hollywood, the movie’s popularity has been long lasting. It was restored and rereleased in 1991.

There were setbacks in his personal life. In 1986 Douglas was fitted with a pacemaker to correct an irregular heartbeat. In 1991 he survived a helicopter crash that left two other people dead. In January 1996 he suffered a debilitating stroke that left him with seriously impaired speech and depression so deep, he later said, that he considered suicide.

The last films in which he starred shared something of a theme: the reconciliation between fathers and sons. One was a comedy, “It Runs in the Family” (2003), in which his son was played by his actual son Michael. The other was the drama “Illusion” (2004), in which he played an ailing father in search of his estranged son.

Perhaps, together, they were a fitting finale for the ragman’s son, an actor whose boyhood poverty and absent father were never far from his mind. “That’s what it’s all about,” he said in describing what had driven him. “That’s the core, that early part of you.”

© 2020 The New York Times Company










Today's News

February 7, 2020

Art Basel cancels upcoming Hong Kong show

Kirk Douglas, a star of Hollywood's Golden Age, dies at 103

Caravaggio masterpiece added to upcoming exhibition at the Kimbell

Italy's Uffizi Gallery hails US online tout ruling

The Kunsthaus Zürich devotes an exhibition to Ottilia Giacometti

Exhibition gives a remarkable insight into the work and life of Picasso

Decreeing classical buildings for D.C.

US museum targets gender gap by acquiring only works by women

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art opens the first exhibition of 19th century photographer Lai Fong

Magritte, Lempicka and Grosz steal the show in London

Zilia Sánchez's island of erotic forms

Antony Hudek is the new director of the museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle

Wright & Wright Architects appointed to design new collections centre at Pallant House Gallery

A new monumental sculpture to join LOVE in Indianapolis Museum of Art galleries

Scenographic, conceptual, and curatorial concerns coincide in new exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel

Stephen Friedman Gallery presents exhibition of new works by Kendell Geers

White Cube announces representation of New York-based artist Julie Curtiss

Claes Oldenburg, Robert Motherwell, and Wayne Thiebaud at the Mystic Museum of Art

Nello Santi, conductor with his heart in Italian opera, dies at 88

The North Carolina Museum of Art welcomed 718,102 visitors in 2019

Hemingway and Kerouac typewriters will headline University Archives auction

The Gallery at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design opens an exhibition of works by Ana Vizcarra Rankin

Zimmerli to close during summer of 2020 for building improvements

David Roberts Art Foundation announces plans for expansion to Scotland and UK regions for 2020

Allentown Art Museum celebrates colorful history of Durham Press




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Houston Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง
Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful