Kirk Douglas - The Early Years
Born Issur Danielovitch on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York, the only son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Kirk Douglas had six sisters. The family was poor, and "Izzy" sold snacks to mill workers and delivered newspapers.He acted in high school plays, realizing early in life that he wanted to be an actor. He attended St. Lawrence University on a loan, and paid off his tuition by working as a gardener and a janitor. A top wrestler on the school team, he wrestled in a carnival one summer to make money.
He won a scholarship to the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, where his fellow students included Lauren Bacall and a young actress named Diana Dill, whom he married in 1943. Izzy began using the name "Kirk Douglas" with his first job in summer stock and made his Broadway debut as a singing telegraph messenger in Spring Again (1941).
In 1944, after discharge for injuries during World War II, Douglas worked in radio and found Broadway success in the play Kiss and Tell.
He planned a stage career, but fate and an old schoolmate intervened. Hal Wallis was in search of new talent, and Bacall suggested that he look at Douglas in rehearsals for a play, The Wind is Ninety. After the play's run, Douglas went to Hollywood and was cast in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), playing against type as a weak man under the thumb of Barbara Stanwyck.
It wasn't until his eighth role, as a self-involved, ruthless boxer in Champion (1949) that the Kirk Douglas persona was established, and he received his first Oscar nomination.
Stardom in the '50s
By the 1950s, Douglas was a major box office draw. In 1951, he gave a powerful performance in the cynical, ahead-of-its-time film, Ace in the Hole, directed by Billy Wilder. His second Oscar nomination came for his role as a heartless user in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). Other '50s films included: 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Man without a Star (1955), Paths of Glory (1957), The Vikings (1958), and The Devil's Disciple (1959).It was as Vincent Van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956) that Douglas reached his pinnacle as an actor; the role won him another Oscar nomination. and a Golden Globe Award. His passionate performance as Van Gogh, as well as his startling resemblance to the artist, hit all the right notes with audiences.
Continued Success
Douglas was in demand through the '60s and '70s, with films like Spartacus (1960), Town Without Pity (1960), Lonely are the Brave (1962), Seven Days in May (1964), and The Heroes of Telemark (1965), to name a few. For Spartacus, Douglas insisted that Dalton Trumbo, blacklisted during the Hollywood "Red Scare," received screen credit, helping to bring about the end of the infamous blacklist.In 1963, Douglas appeared on Broadway in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, to which his family owned the rights, but he was unable to convince a Hollywood studio to produce the film. His son, Michael Douglas, finally made it in 1975.
By the '70s, Douglas expanded into television, appearing in a miniseries, Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers (1976) and several TV movies. Film audiences saw him in the Jacqueline Susann potboiler, Once is Not Enough (1975), and the war film Victory at Entebbe (1976). He continued to appear in big- and small-screen productions, most notably Inherit the Wind (1988) for television with Jason Robards and Jean Simmons, and the film Illusion (2004).
In March 2009, Douglas starred in an autobiographical one man show entitled Before I Forget at the Center Theater Group's Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City, California. The four performances were filmed and edited as a documentary that was first screened in January 2010.
Personal Life
Kirk Douglas has been married twice. He and Diana Dill had two sons, actor Michael Douglas and producer Joel Douglas. The couple divorced in 1951. In 1954, he married Anne Buydens, and they had two sons, producer Peter Douglas and actor Eric Douglas. Tragically, Eric Douglas died of a drug overdose in 2004.
Douglas' autobiography, The Ragman's Son, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1988. He survived a helicopter crash in 1991, in which two people were killed. He began a spiritual quest, getting in touch with his Jewish heritage. A book, Climbing the Mountain: My Search for Meaning, was published in 2001.
In 1996, the actor suffered a stroke, limiting his speaking ability. His remarkable recovery included therapy and a physical regimen, which included a daily, ten-minute workout and then swimming, jogging, and tennis. When challenged that ten minutes wasn't long enough, he said, "You just follow me around and tell me if you think it's a good workout."
Douglas has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the US State Department since 1963, receiving the the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981, the Jefferson Award in 1983, and the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in France. He received the American Cinema Award in 1987 and the German Golden Kamera Award the same year. Although he never won for an individual performance, he received an honorary Academy Award in 1955. The American Film Institute honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999. Douglas has a My Space account and is the world's oldest celebrity blogger.
