R.I.P. Kirk Douglas (1916-2020)

Kirk Douglas

On February 5, 2020, actor Kirk Douglas passed away at the age of 103 in Beverly Hills, California. He is best known for his career of playing tough men in films like Spartacus and Ace in the Hole, earning acclaim as one of the best actors of his generation. He is considered to be one of the last surviving members from the Golden Age of Hollywood and lives his life with a tough work aesthetic that he carried over from his youth. With a prolific career that includes breaking up the blacklist, he leaves behind an impressive body of work and one that shows the defiant power of his generation in its purest form. His work will continue to live on unwilling to die just like the man himself.

Douglas was born as Issur Danielovitch on December 9, 1916, in Amsterdam, New York. While born Jewish, he would grapple with his faith for the entirety of his life. For a period he also went by the name Isador Demsky. He considers his youth to be a big reason for his work ethic. especially as he had to do a lot of odd jobs to help his family make money. He will be the first to admit that he is a "son of a bitch" and expects everyone to work as hard as him. When discussing what inspired him to work so hard, he credited his mother Bryna (for whom he later named a production company after). He decided to become an actor when he recited the poem "The Red Robin of Spring" in Kindergarten and received praise. Along with an enlistment in the United States Navy from 1941-1944 to help fight during World War II, he kept busy pursuing his interests.

When he took up acting, he would initially see himself as a stage actor. Among his early collaborators was Lauren Bacall with his first major role being Kiss and Tell in 1943. Bacall would eventually get him into films produced by Hal B. Wallis, which began with The Strange Love of Martha Ivers in 1946 opposite Barbara Stanwyck. It was one of few times that he didn't play a tough guy. By the time of the Stanley Kramer-produced Champion in 1949, he had developed his definitive persona for the rest of his career. With acclaim, he got the first of three Academy Award nominations for the film. As he became more of a box office draw, he mixed up the style of films he made which included westerns and war dramas. He would also work on Lonely Are the Brave with a screenplay by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo (the events of Trumbo's life would be depicted in the Bryan Cranston film Trumbo, which included a depiction of Douglas). Upon breaking free of the contract with Wallis, he formed his own company with Bryna Pictures and produced his own style of films. The most noteworthy achievement was helping launch the career of director Stanley Kubrick, for whom Douglas starred with in Paths of Glory and Spartacus. Spartacus (which also had a screenplay by Trumbo) has since become his most memorable performance and is considered responsible for ending the blacklist.

His career would continue as he dabbled with stage, film, and TV. He would sometimes do comedic roles, as in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and sometimes starred opposite Burt Lancaster. In one of his more noteworthy stage roles, he originated the role of R.P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The show wasn't terribly successful and it took a while for him to finally get the film made. By then, Douglas was too old and passed the rights onto Michael Douglas, who thus won an Oscar for producing the Best Picture winner. Its main star, Jack Nicholson, has received comparisons in terms of acting approach to Kirk Douglas for being secretive and meticulous. Unlike his peers, many praised Kirk Douglas for reading the entire script to understand the story better.

In his later years, he would run into various problems. He was in a plane crash in February  1991 around Santa Paula Airport. It was around then that he began to refocus his life on his Judaism. He would later suffer a stroke, The catch was that despite this debilitation, he would refuse to give up acting. Along with philanthropy that included fixing up playground equipment in the Los Angeles school district, he kept acting up until 2008. He even recorded blogs on MySpace and was considered to be one of the oldest bloggers. Even then, he kept pushing himself beyond comfort to try and produce great work. As one of the few actors to live past 100, he became one of the last from the Golden Age of Hollywood to pass away and a centenarian who leaves behind an impressive legacy. He was a man who didn't quit up until the end. He will be missed.