Kirk Douglas, Hollywood legend, dies at 103

Media playback is unsupported on your product

Actor Kirk Douglas, a fixture of cinema for six many years, has died aged 103.

The stage and screen actor was perfectly-recognized for a range of roles, including the 1960 basic Spartacus, in which he played the titular character.

Born in New York in 1916, he rose to prominence all through Hollywood’s “golden age”, earning his initial Oscar nomination for the 1949 boxing tale Champion.

He was also the father of Oscar-profitable actor Michael Douglas.

Michael mentioned in a assertion: “It is with incredible disappointment that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas still left us these days.”

“To the environment, he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies… but to me and my brothers Joel and Peter he was merely Father,” it go through in aspect.

“Permit me conclude with the words and phrases I explained to him on his past birthday and which will constantly remain accurate. Father – I love you so significantly and I am so proud to be your son.”

Media playback is unsupported on your product

Kirk Douglas was prolific as a film actor, with far more than ninety credits to his name – ranging about six many years from the 1940s to the 2000s.

An icon who defied convention

Investigation by Peter Bowes, BBC Information, Los Angeles

When I met Kirk Douglas in 2008 he was a sprightly 91. He talked about his advancing yrs and the effects a stroke, in 1996, experienced on his techniques as an actor.

“I could not converse at all,” he explained to me. “So what does an actor do who cannot converse? He waits for silent pics to occur back! Which is corny joke,” he chuckled.

Douglas was particularly proud of his role in ending the Hollywood blacklist, when he defied the ban on doing work with filmmakers with alleged communist ties or sympathies.

He mentioned he drew on “the impulsive features of more youthful Kirk” in creating his selection to give the blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo a screen credit score beneath his individual name for his do the job on Spartacus.

We reviewed his enthusiasm for doing work with younger men and women. He experienced started producing a site to inspire younger Americans to vote in that 12 months ‘s presidential election.

Douglas and his wife donated millions of pounds to charitable causes and helped establish hundreds of college playgrounds. He mentioned their philosophy was “In advance of you die, check out to do a little something for other men and women.”

He is most likely finest-recognized as Spartacus, a Stanley Kubrick film which won four Oscars and was so well-liked that its iconic “I am Spartacus” scene entered the pop tradition lexicon.

Douglas was himself nominated for an Oscar 3 times – for Champion (1949), The Undesirable and the Lovely (1952), and Lust for Existence (1956). He eventually won the honorary award in 1996 in recognition of his 50 yrs in the business.