From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas in The Big Trees
Birth name	Issur Danielovitch Demsky
Born	December 9, 1916 (1916-12-09) (age 91) Amsterdam, New York
Other name(s)	Issur Danielovitch
Spouse(s)	Diana Dill (1943-1951) Anne Buydens (1954-)
Children	Michael Douglas (b.1944) Joel Douglas (b.1947) Peter Douglas (b.1955) Eric Douglas (1958-2004)
Awards Academy Awards Academy Honorary Award 1996 Lifetime Achievement César Awards Honorary César 1980 Lifetime Achievement Golden Globe Awards Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama 1957 Lust for Life Cecil B. DeMille Award 1968 Lifetime Achievement Other Awards AFI Life Achievement Award (1991)

Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch Demsky December 9, 1916) is an iconic American actor and film producer known for his dimple, 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 AFI's 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).

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Family tree 5 Filmography 5.1 Features 5.2 Short Subjects 6 Bibliography 7 Watch 8 References 9 External links

Douglas was born in Amsterdam, New York, to Herschel Danielovitch and Bryna Sanglel, poor Russian Jewish^[1] parents who immigrated from Gomel, now in Belarus. He was on the wrestling team at St. Lawrence University. To help make his way through college, he thought getting an acting scholarship might work. His talents got him noticed at the acclaimed American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, where he soon received a scholarship, alongside classmate Betty Joan Perske (soon to be better known as Lauren Bacall). Another classmate was aspiring Bermudian actress, Diana Dill. He then served in the U.S. Navy from the entry of the US into World War II in 1941 until it ended in 1945. In 1943, his former classmate, Diana Dill, appeared on the cover of Life magazine. Seeing her photograph, Douglas told his fellow sailors that he would marry her, which he did on 2 November, 1943. After the war, he returned to New York City and started doing radio theater and commercials, while trying to break in on Broadway.

Douglas was helped by actress Lauren Bacall in obtaining his first screen role in the Hal B. Wallis movie The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), starring Barbara Stanwyck. Wallis was on his way to New York to look for new talent when Bacall suggested he look up her old drama school classmate, who was working in an off-Broadway play at the time.

Kirk Douglas received three Academy Award nominations for his work in Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful and Lust for Life (as Vincent Van Gogh). Douglas did not win any competitive Oscars, but received a special Oscar in 1996 for "50 years as a moral and creative force in the motion picture community".

He also 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. Douglas had collaborated closely with Kubrick in Paths of Glory, where Douglas played one of his most memorable roles, as Colonel Dax, the commander of a French regiment during World War I ordered to defend three innocent men on trial for their lives.

Douglas made several films over the decades with Burt Lancaster, including I Walk Alone (1948), Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957), The Devil's Disciple (1959), Seven Days in May (1964), and Tough Guys (1986), which fixed the notion of the pair as something of a team in the public's imagination. Douglas was always second-billed under Lancaster in these films but, with the exception of I Walk Alone, in which Douglas played a villain, their roles were more or less the same size.

For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Kirk Douglas has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6263 Hollywood Blvd. In 1984, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

In October 2004, the avenue "Kirk Douglas Way" in Palm Springs, California was named in his honor by the Palm Springs International Film Society and Film Festival.

Popular at home and around the world, Kirk Douglas received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981, the French Legion of Honor in 1985, and the National Medal of the Arts in 2001.

Douglas married twice, first to Diana Dill (born January 22, 1923; married November 2, 1943; divorced in 1951), with whom he had two sons, actor Michael Douglas and producer Joel Douglas. His second wife is Anne Buydens (married May 29, 1954 to present) with whom he has two sons, producer Peter Vincent Douglas born November 23, 1955 and actor Eric Douglas (born June 1958; died July 6, 2004 of an accidental drug overdose).

In 1996, he suffered a stroke, partially impairing his ability to speak. On December 8, 2006, Douglas appeared on Entertainment Tonight, where the entire staff wished him a happy 90th birthday the night before. His son Michael, along with his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, were among the many celebrities who attended his birthday celebration. On the show, he discussed the books he has written, and the death of his son, Eric in 2004.

Diana Dill

Kirk Douglas

Anne Buydens

Diandra Luker

Michael Douglas

Catherine Zeta-Jones

Joel Douglas

Peter Douglas

Eric Douglas

Cameron Douglas

Dylan Michael Douglas

Carys Zeta Douglas

• 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)
• Ulisse (U.S. title: Ulysses) (1955)
• Man Without a Star (1955)
• The Indian Fighter (1955)
• Lust for Life (1956)
• Top Secret Affair (1957)
• Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
• Paths of Glory (1957)
• The Vikings (1958)
• Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)
• The Devil's Disciple (1959)
• Strangers When We Meet (1960)
• Spartacus (1960)
• 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)
• In Harm's Way (1965)
• The Heroes of Telemark (1965)
• Cast a Giant Shadow (1966)
• Is Paris Burning? (1966)
• The Way West (1967)
• The War Wagon (1967)
• Once Upon a Wheel (1968) (documentary)
• A Lovely Way to Die (1968)
• The Brotherhood (1968)
• 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)
• A Man to Respect (1972)
• Scalawag (1973)
• Posse (1975)
• Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough (1975)
• Holocaust 2000 (1977)
• The Fury (1978)
• The Villain (1979)
• Saturn 3 (1980)
• Home Movies (1980)
• The Final Countdown (1980)
• The Man from Snowy River (1982)
• Eddie Macon's Run (1983)
• Tough Guys (1986)
• Oscar (1991)
• Veraz (1991)
• A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
• Greedy (1994)
• Diamonds (1999)
• It Runs in the Family (2003)
• Illusion (2004)

• Van Gogh: Darkness Into Light (1956)
• Rowan & Martin at the Movies (1968)

Awards
Preceded by Ernest Borgnine for Marty	NYFCC Award for Best Actor 1956 for Lust for Life	Succeeded by Alec Guinness for The Bridge on the River Kwai

• Wisdom of the Elders (1986)
• The Ragman's Son (1988)
• Dance With the Devil (1991)
• The Gift (1992)
• Last Tango in Brooklyn (1994)
• The Broken Mirror (1997)
• Young Heroes of the Bible (1999)
• Climbing The Mountain: My Search For Meaning (2000)
• Rabbis : Observations of 100 Leading and Influential Rabbis of the 21st Century (introduction) (2002)
• My Stroke of Luck (2003)
• Let's Face It (2007)

Kirk Douglas discusses Let's Face It (6-min. interview, free)

• Kirk Douglas at the Internet Movie Database
• Kirk Douglas at the TCM Movie Database
• Kirk Douglas at the Internet Broadway Database
• Kirk Douglas at Yahoo! Movies
• Profile @ Turner Classic Movies
• Personal papers of Kirk Douglas at the Wisconsin Historical Society - Roughly 180,000 documents on Douglas's personal and professional life
• Newcritics.com: Meeting Kirk Douglas
• [Fr] Kirk Douglas, le champion de Hollywood

Persondata
NAME	Douglas, Kirk
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Issur Danielovitch Demsky
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American actor and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH	December 9, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH	Amsterdam, New York
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH