All hail, Spartacus the centenarian!
As film legend Kirk Douglas celebrates his 100th birthday we look at how he rose from humble beginnings to become the toast of Hollywood
FOR years he has been under strict medical orders to abstain from alcohol but tomorrow Kirk Douglas has been given permission by his cardiologist to raise a glass of vodka to celebrate his 100th birthday. At a tea party in Beverly Hills family and friends will gather to toast the movie legend whose success has been as dramatic as any Hollywood script.
The son of an illiterate rag-andbone man, he went on to win several awards from an Oscar to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour.
Forever remembered as Spartacus and Vincent van Gogh, he starred in 87 films, wrote 11 bestselling books and is father to movie star Michael Douglas. He cheated death in a helicopter crash 25 years ago and survived a stroke five years later that left him suicidal, having to relearn how to talk and walk.
In his youth the blue-eyed hunk with the famously dimpled chin appeared opposite Hollywood’s most beautiful leading ladies, bedding many, including Rita Hayworth and Joan Crawford.
But on the eve of his centenary, Douglas credits his longevity to his second marriage to wife Anne, saying: “I was lucky enough to find my soulmate 63 years ago and I believe our wonderful marriage and our nightly ‘golden hour’ chats have helped me survive all things.”
Yet his proudest achievement was breaking the Hollywood blacklist at the height of the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s. Douglas risked his career to hire blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo to pen the script for Spartacus and insisted on giving him the screen credit.
Douglas, who starred in the epic film, was warned he would never work in Hollywood again. “I was scared and didn’t know what would happen to me.” Spartacus went on to win four Academy Awards, was endorsed by President Kennedy and shattered the blacklist.
“Spartacus is more important today than ever,” he says. “It’s about fighting for freedom. Look at the world today and there are still people fighting for their liberty.”
Born Issur Danielovitch, the son of penniless Russian-Jewish immigrants in the town of Amsterdam in upstate New York, he recalls: “My father got himself a horse and a small wagon and became a ragman, buying old rags, pieces of metal and junk for pennies.”
BROUGHT up with his six sisters, he says: “I was a boy who didn’t have enough to eat. We were living by the railroad tracks and every night hobos would knock on the door. Even though we didn’t have enough, my mother always saved something so when they came to the door she had something to give them.”
It was a lesson he took to heart. Douglas and his wife have given more than £40million to charity, including creating a shelter for homeless women and a home for Alzheimer’s sufferers.
“I came from poverty,” he says. “I didn’t dream of becoming a millionaire so you have to give back.” He was deflowered as a child by his English teacher yet has no regrets. “I had been a ragamuffin kid of 15,” he wrote. “Under her guidance I became a different person. I am eternally grateful.”
He enjoyed appearing in school plays but had more than 40 jobs, including working as a gardener and a cleaner before becoming an actor, winning a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He dated classmate Lauren Bacall but in 1943 married actress Diana Dill, while serving in the US Navy. Hunting Japanese submarines in the Pacific he was discharged the following year, injured by a prematurely exploding depth charge.
Bacall recommended Douglas for his first film role in 1946 drama The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers and three years later boxing drama Champion earned the first of his three Oscar nominations. He went on to film classics including Detective Story, The Bad And The Beautiful and Lust For Life.
Diana endured Douglas’s infidelities as he became a Hollywood star, having sons Michael and Joel, until his philandering finally drove her to divorce after eight years.
He wed German-born actress Anne Buydens in 1954 yet Douglas could not put his womanising ways behind him. “What’s wrong with sex addiction?” he asked, when his son Michael was accused of suffering the same ailment in the 1990s. “I’ve had it all my life.”
But Anne, who gave Douglas two more sons, Peter and Eric, remained at his side. “After 60 years of marriage you go through a lot of obstacles,” she says, “and all of them were beautiful.”
Relations with his sons were also strained. Film producer Joel, aged 69, says that living with Kirk was “like living in a beautiful town next to a volcano”. Michael, 72, said: “I had Spartacus as my father.”
Kirk had a major falling out with son Michael over One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Kirk owned the screen rights and urged Michael to produce the film with Kirk in the starring role. But to Kirk’s horror Michael gave the movie’s lead to rising star Jack Nicholson.
“You were the producer of the movie,” Kirk raged to his son. “You could have said: ‘No, no. My father must play that part.’”
They reconciled after Douglas nearly died when his helicopter hit a plane above a Californian airport in 1991. “I was in hospital thinking: Why am I alive?” he says. “It made me think more about my life.”
He recovered but a stroke in 1996 left Douglas longing to end his suffering with a bullet. “A stroke, especially for an actor, is a terrible thing because you can’t speak, you can’t act,” he says.
“At first I thought my life was at an end. But when I put the gun in my mouth, it hit a tooth. Ow! And that struck me as being funny. A toothache was stopping me from committing suicide.”
He worked with speech therapists and went on to make five more films but he admits, “I still have problems with my speech.”
As he struggled with his health Douglas was rocked by family tragedies. His youngest son Eric died of a drug overdose in 2004 at the age of 46, then in 2010 Michael was diagnosed with cancer and his grandson Cameron was jailed for drug offences. “You endure it,” he says. “It’s a part of life.”
Douglas’s torments brought him closer to Michael again and in a 2005 documentary they kissed and both said, “I forgive you.”
Yet as he hits 100 Kirk Douglas won’t be slowing down. This week he is reading the proofs for his 12th book, co-authored with his wife, Kirk And Anne: Letters Of Love, Laughter And A Lifetime In Hollywood. And he is making plans for the trip of a lifetime.
“Anne and I will hire a luxury yacht and cruise around the world,” he says. “We’ll take our time. I have plenty of that. I’m looking forward to it. I could use the rest.”