איסר דניאלאָוויטש
18 min read
Reading time
3,598
Words
Published
164
Film credits
12
Books
18
Awards
Kirk Douglas, born Issur Danielovitch in 1916, rose from poverty in Amsterdam, New York, to become a Hollywood legend with Oscar-nominated roles in Champion 1949, The Bad and the Beautiful 1952, and Lust for Life 1956. He also produced and starred in Spartacus 1960, which helped break the Hollywood blacklist. He died in 2020 at age 103, one of the last surviving stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Kirk Douglas — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Kirk Douglas by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Kirk Douglas — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Kirk Douglas was born on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York, to Jewish immigrants Bertha Sanglel and Harry Danielovitch. Growing up in poverty, he worked various jobs and wrestled at St. Lawrence University to pay for his education. He earned an acting scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, making his Broadway debut in Spring Again before World War II intervened.
Douglas served in the Navy during WWII, then made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers 1946 at the urging of Lauren Bacall. His first Oscar nomination came for Champion 1949, in which he played boxer Midge Kelly. He founded Bryna Productions in 1955 and produced Paths of Glory 1957 with Stanley Kubrick and Spartacus 1960. For Spartacus, he insisted on screen credit for blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo. In 1995, he received an honorary Academy Award.
Douglas married actress Diana Dill in 1943; they had son Michael before divorcing in 1951. In 1954, he married Anne Buydens, who had worked as his assistant on the set of Act of Love 1953. They had three sons: Joel, Peter, and Eric. He survived a helicopter crash in 1991 and a stroke in 1996.
Douglas’s role in Spartacus 1960 helped end the Hollywood blacklist by crediting Dalton Trumbo. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981 and an honorary Oscar in 1995. He was named 17th greatest screen legend by AFI. His favorite film was Lonely Are the Brave 1962. He defied industry taboos and remains a quintessential Hollywood star.
Browse the complete filmography of Kirk Douglas — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Could not load more credits.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Kirk Douglas — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Kirk Douglas's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
Could not load more books.
A wall of memorable lines from Kirk Douglas — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I’ve Finally Gotten Away from Burt Lancaster. My Luck Has Changed for the Better. I’ve Got Nice Looking Girls in My Films Now.
Virtue Is Not Photogenic. What Is It to Be a Nice Guy? to Be Nothing, That’s What. a Big Fat Zero with a Smile for Everybody.
I’ve Made a Career of Playing Sons of Bitches.
In Order to Achieve Anything You Must Be Brave Enough to Fail.
I Came from Abject Poverty. There Was Nowhere to Go but Up.
Making Movies Is a Form of Narcissism.
People Are Always Talking About the Old Days. They Say That the Old Movies Were Better, That the Old Actors Were so Great. but I Don’t Think So. All I Can Say About the Old Days Is That They Have Passed.
I Have Always Told My Sons That They Didn’t Have My Advantages of Being Born into Abject Poverty.
I Think Half the Success in Life Comes from First Trying to Find Out What You Really Want to Do. and Then Going Ahead and Doing It.
Life Is Like a B Picture Script! It Is That Corny. If I Had My Life Story Offered to Me to Film, I’d Turn It Down.
If You Want to Know About a Man You Can Find Out an Awful Lot by Looking at Who He Married.
My Kids Never Had the Advantage I Had. I Was Born Poor.
I Want My Sons to Surpass Me, Because That’s a Form of Immortality.
If the Good Guy Gets the Girl, It’s Rated PG; If the Bad Guy Gets the Girl, It’s Rated R; and If Everybody Gets the Girl, It’s Rated X.
I’ve Always Believed Virtue Is Not Photogenic, and I Think I’ve Always Been Attracted to a Part, Uh, I’d Rather Play the *Evil* Character, Most of the Time, Than the Nice Fella. and I Think It Really *Bothered* My Mother, Because She Would Tell People, You Know, My Son’s Not Like That, He’s Really a Nice Boy!
It Isn’t a Manly Profession. It’s a Childish Profession. You Couldn’t Be a Complete, Grown up Adult and Be an Actor . . . I Mean, If I Were a Sophisticated Adult, How Could I Say, Here I Am, Fighting Evil, Represented by Yul Brynner? You Have to Have a Childish Part of You! It’s True! You Know, I Watch as My Kids Have Grown Up, I’ve Watched, Them, You Know. Children Are Natural Actors; They Pretend They’re Cops and Robbers, and I Think All Actors Retain a Certain Amount of That Within Themselves. They Have To, or They Can’t Function as Actors. and That’s Why They Become Self Deprecating. They Think, Well, It’s Not
You Have to Leave Your Country to Get a Perspective, to See What Makes America Great. Now I Can Say That Nowhere in the World Is There a Match for What We Have in Hollywood.
When You Become a Star, You Don’t Change. Everyone Else Does.
I Can’t Tell You How Many Times Someone Has Said, I’ve Heard You’re Such an S.O.B. I’ll Say, Who Said That? 90% of the Time It’s Someone with Whom I’ve Never Worked.
Why Is It That Often the People You Do the Most for Resent You the Most? Maybe You Remind Them of Their Weaknesses. the Hell with Them!
I’m Too Old to Change. Like Popeye, I Yam What I Yam. Love Me or Hate Me, Just Don’t Be Indifferent.
I’ve Never Tried to Win Popularity Contests. I’ve Always Been Blunt Never Hesitated About Expressing Myself.
Let’s Face It the World Is a Mess and the Young People Will Inherit This Mess. We Should Do All We Can to Help Deal with It. That’s Why I Wrote the Book Let’s Face It and Dedicated to the Young People. I Try, with Humor, to Help Them Navigate Through What Lies Ahead. but the Reality Is, He Problems They Face Are Not Very Funny.
We Are the Strongest Country in the World. We Are the Richest. We Must Take Self Inventory. We Must Look Less into the Stars and Planets in the Heavens and More into Ourselves. What Can We Do to Make Our Country Better? to Earn Back the Respect We Used to Have?
I Never, Ever Thought I Would Live to Be 100. That’s Shocked Me, Really. and It’s Sad, Too. I Miss Burt Lancaster We Fought a Lot, and I Miss Him a Lot. and John Wayne, Even Though He Was a Republican and I Was a Democrat.
I Was Not a Tough Guy. I Just Acted Like One.
I Don’t Know Who Any of the New Stars Are, and They Probably Don’t Know Me.
I Had Been a Ragamuffin Kid of 15 Coping with a Neighborhood Filled with Gangs. Under My Teacher’s Guidance, I Became a Different Person. I’m Eternally Grateful. by Today’s Standards, She Would Have Gone to Jail. I Had No Idea We Were Doing Something Wrong. Did She?
Little-known facts about Kirk Douglas — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
He avoided being on producer Mike Todd’s private plane in 1958 when it crashed and killed all on board, because his wife Anne advised him not to go.
He appeared in a stage production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and later bought the film rights, eventually turning them over to his son Michael, who produced the 1975 film.
He wore lifts in many films to appear taller; Burt Lancaster once hid them as a prank, infuriating Douglas.
After his success in Champion 1949, Hedda Hopper told him he had become a real S.O.B., to which he replied he had always been one.
At a 1987 tribute, Burt Lancaster said Douglas was a very difficult man, and then added he would be the second to say so.
He wrote his autobiography without a ghostwriter.
He survived a helicopter crash on February 23, 1991, which killed two others and left him with a back injury.
His friendship with Burt Lancaster was largely fabricated by Douglas; they were competitive and sometimes had mutual disdain despite respecting each other’s talent.
He met his German wife Anne when she applied to be his assistant on the French location shoot of Act of Love 1953.
He gave up a two- to three-pack-a-day cigarette habit in 1950; his father died of lung cancer in 1954.
After son Michael Douglas was fired from a stage production of Summer Tree, he bought the stage and film rights and gave them to Michael.
He had a fully Jewish upbringing but did not practice extensively as an adult until his second Bar Mitzvah at age 83.
He had both knees replaced in 2005 against doctors’ advice; the operation was successful.
He helped break the Hollywood blacklist by hiring Dalton Trumbo to write the screenplay for Spartacus 1960, though Otto Preminger had already broken it with Exodus.
When MGM asked him to replace Ricardo Montalban in The Story of Three Loves, he refused until discussing it with Montalban.
Although he played Ernest Borgnine’s son in The Vikings 1958, he was six weeks older in real life.
He fell out with former President Jimmy Carter in 2006 over Carter’s book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
He was born Issur Danielovitch to Jacob and Bryna Danielovitch, immigrants from Russia who came to America in 1912.
He and wife Anne renewed their wedding vows in Beverly Hills on their 50th anniversary, with guests including Dan Aykroyd and Nancy Reagan.
He claimed to be 5′ 11 at his peak but sources say his peak height was 5′ 8.
He turned down two Oscar-winning roles: Lee Marvin’s in Cat Ballou 1965 and William Holden’s in Stalag 17 1953.
He received a Bachelor’s degree in English from St. Lawrence University, where he was president of the class of 1939.
He earned $50,000 for saying the only English word in a 1980s Japanese TV commercial: Coffee.
He celebrated his Bar Mitzvah twice: at age 13 and again at 83.
While filming The War Wagon 1967, he enraged co-star John Wayne by recording a TV commercial for Democratic Governor Edmund G. Brown after Wayne had recorded one for Republican challenger Ronald Reagan.
He was originally cast as Colonel Sam Trautman in First Blood 1982 but walked out because he wanted Rambo to die, as in the novel; Richard Crenna took the role.
He became a great-grandfather at age 101 when his grandson Cameron Douglas’s daughter Lua Izzy was born in December 2017.
He served in the US Navy as a communications officer in submarine warfare from 1941 to 1944, receiving a medical discharge.
He was originally cast in John Wayne’s role in Sands of Iwo Jima 1949 but pulled out to make Champion.
He started his own production company, Bryna Productions, in 1955, naming it after his mother.
He suffered a stroke on January 28, 1996 that impaired his speech; therapy greatly alleviated the problem.
In his last book, he expressed regret at turning down the Oscar-winning roles in Stalag 17, The Fall of the Roman Empire, and Cat Ballou.
He admitted he made The Big Trees 1952 for nothing just to get out of his Warner Bros. contract, calling it a terrible movie.
He had a pacemaker fitted in August 1986 after collapsing in a restaurant.
He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Jimmy Carter on January 17, 1981.
He appeared with Burt Lancaster in eight films, including I Walk Alone 1947 and Tough Guys 1986.
He denied being the Kirk in the note written by Jean Spangler shortly before her disappearance after filming Young Man with a Horn 1950.
He resided in Palm Springs for over 40 years; in October 2005, the city named Kirk Douglas Way around the airport.
Cowboy Stan Polson taught him to ride a horse for his first western, Along the Great Divide 1951.
He graduated from Amsterdam High School in 1934.
He attended the state funeral of former President Ronald Reagan on June 11, 2004, with Charlton Heston and others.
Lonely Are the Brave 1962 was his favorite film.
He was named #17 greatest actor on the AFI’s 50 Greatest Screen Legends list.
In a 2014 article, he listed The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Champion, Ace in the Hole, The Bad and the Beautiful, Act of Love, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Indian Fighter, Lust for Life, Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Lonely Are the Brave, and Seven Days in May as his proudest films.
He was survived by his younger sister Ida, who was nearly 101.
He appeared as the Devil in Don Henley’s music video for The Garden of Allah 1995.
There is a discrepancy over his father’s birth year: 1878 or around 1884 according to his autobiography.
He claimed painter Marc Chagall asked him to play Chagall in a film, but he turned it down due to the rigors of playing Vincent van Gogh in Lust for Life.
He co-hosted a release party for Donovan’s album Barabajagal 1969 with Cass Elliot, describing Donovan as a gentleman.
He was signed to play Gabey in On the Town 1949 but had to be replaced due to psychosomatic laryngitis.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Kirk Douglas.
Celebrities similar to Kirk Douglas — same craft, ranked by reach.
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
