Kirk Douglas, Indomitable Icon of Hollywood's Golden Age, Dies at 103
Source: Hollywood Reporter
The actor starred in such films as 'Champion,' 'The Bad and the Beautiful,' 'Lust for Life,' 'Gunfight at the O.K. Corral' and 'Spartacus,' to name just a few.
Kirk Douglas, the son of a ragman who channeled a deep, personal anger through a chiseled jaw and steely blue eyes to forge one of the most indelible and indefatigable careers in Hollywood history, has died. He was 103.
It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103, his son Michael Douglas said in a statement obtained by People magazine. To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to.
Douglas walked away from a helicopter crash in 1991 and suffered a severe stroke in 1996 but, ever the battler, he refused to give in. With a passionate will to survive, he was the last man standing of all the great stars of Hollywoods Golden Age.
Read more: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kirk-douglas-dies-spartacus-670526
That is truly the end of an era.
RIP
jimfields33
(15,751 posts)BKDem
(1,733 posts)Soph0571
(9,685 posts)marked50
(1,366 posts)BKDem
(1,733 posts)Kirk Douglas broke the Hollywood blacklist by giving Dalton Trumbo a writers credit.
May I just take this opportunity to give a posthumous Fuck You shout out to Joe McCarthy? Oops, I did it anyway.
efhmc
(14,725 posts)Another alleged case was exposed after the death of actress Natalie Wood, who died in 1981 when she fell from her yacht and drowned. ... alleging that Douglas, while drunk, had raped Wood when the actress was 16 years old ...
Bradshaw3
(7,490 posts)While the text says allegedly. I don't recall him being found guilty of what you say so you really should change it.
efhmc
(14,725 posts)Including her sister and other people close to her.
Bradshaw3
(7,490 posts)"Everyone says" is not a finding of guilt. Pathetic.
efhmc
(14,725 posts)"Natalie Wood is a perfect example of a young actress who was abused, beaten, raped, then shamed into silence by powerful men, who threatened her career. You just gave that abuser a standing O tribute @golden globes. Shame on you."
Bradshaw3
(7,490 posts)Not everyone accused of a crime is guilty, and you don't get to decide who is and who isn't, no matter how much you think you have a right to.
efhmc
(14,725 posts)I just relayed the info which you decided was not real because as usual the powerful male is believed and the young girl is not. Natalie told her sister and many others: "Natalie Wood was a child star who went on to have a very successful adult career. Unfortunately the beautiful actress was also the victim of a horrific sexual assault. When she was fifteen years old Natalie was raped by an older actor. Although she never went to the police she told several friends that her rapist was actor Kirk Douglas." But of course she was a young woman and therefore not to be believed. If you think that she could have gone to the courts with this accusation and still had a career in Hollywood at this time, you represent the exact reason she did not.
Bradshaw3
(7,490 posts)I looked back at some and didn't fund any there. After alll, he paid a settlement to his accuser. Perhpas you did and I missed it. If not, why not?
BlueStater
(7,596 posts)Her sister, Lana, confirms that Natalie did indeed tell her and her mother that she was raped by an actor "twice her age", but a specific individual was not named.
At least that's the case with this NYT article from last year:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/03/style/lana-wood-natalie-sister-death.html
obamanut2012
(26,049 posts)He did it, everyone knows he did. She was a 16-year-old nobody, and he was a major actor. She isn't the only one he raped, either.
But keep lauding him.
Bradshaw3
(7,490 posts)But keep smearing someone who just died if it makes you feel better. And you don't know either way, for a fact. Assuming you weren't there. Or will you claim that next?
MicaelS
(8,747 posts)and I am 62 and love movies.
obamanut2012
(26,049 posts)Fuck him.
efhmc
(14,725 posts)He is not guilty until men deem him so or if he is taken to court (not then pretty much also), which by the way if she had accused him at that time, her career would have been over.
efhmc
(14,725 posts)ailsagirl
(22,893 posts)"...you'll never work in Hollywood again."
ailsagirl
(22,893 posts)WestIndianArchie
(386 posts)You posted this before I could.
😔
msongs
(67,381 posts)OnlinePoker
(5,719 posts)Chrysanthemum
(188 posts)...in Hitchcock's Saboteur and as Dr. Auschlander in St. Elsewhere!
Bayard
(22,035 posts)Definitely a fighter.
NecklyTyler
(1,173 posts)stonecutter357
(12,694 posts)pazzyanne
(6,546 posts)Your work speaks for you.
BumRushDaShow
(128,704 posts)He hung in there for so long and I know that was comfort for his son Michael (given Michael's own travails).
R.I.P. and thank you for many many decades of work.
yaesu
(8,020 posts)sinkingfeeling
(51,443 posts)efhmc
(14,725 posts)"In honor of Kirk Douglas passing, Im sharing these photos of a teenage Natalie Wood who told friends that at the age of 15, she was violently raped by Mr. Douglas. Call me old fashioned, but Id rather honor the victims."
packman
(16,296 posts)I know no one is immortal, but---
DinahMoeHum
(21,783 posts)cos dem
(903 posts)It just struck me how the sham-trial in this movie matches the sham-trial that just concluded today. Both of them with preordained outcomes, and neither of them resulting in anything close to actual justice.
Great movie and great actor. His contribution to quality cinema will not be forgotten.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,837 posts)Martin Eden
(12,858 posts)Maxheader
(4,371 posts)Kirk could be either a gentle, but strong character or a real bad ass..
rip kirk...thanks for the entertainment...
Ferrets are Cool
(21,105 posts)Captain Zero
(6,799 posts)RIP.
Paladin
(28,246 posts)And trump better keep his distance from any services or memorials---Kirk Douglas was a life-long liberal, and proud of it.
Demonaut
(8,914 posts)Kablooie
(18,619 posts)She is also 103 years old.
AdamGG
(1,287 posts)by pushing for Dalton Trumbo to be openly listed as the screenwriter of Spartacus.
A man of great talent, fame, charisma and principles, who lived for 103 years and was married for 65. Not too shabby.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)FuzzyRabbit
(1,967 posts)I swear by my tattoo!
oasis
(49,365 posts)WhiskeyGrinder
(22,311 posts)jcmaine72
(1,773 posts)FailureToCommunicate
(14,011 posts)Here he is in Kubrick's "Paths of Glory"
Also:
1946- The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
1947- Mourning Becomes Electra
1947- Out of the Past
1947- I Walk Alone
1949- A Letter To Three Wives
1949- Champion
1951- Ace in the Hole
1951- Detective Story
1952- The Bad and the Beautiful
1952- The Big Sky
1954- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
1955- The Indian Fighter
1956- Lust For Life
1957- Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
1957- Paths of Glory
1958- The Vikings
1959- Last Train from Gun Hill
1960- Spartacus
1962- Lonely Are the Brave
1964- Seven Days in May
1965- In Harms Way
1982- The Man From Snowy River
Brilliant actor, philanthropist, fought against McCarthyism, and got to 103. RIP Sir.
Watchfoxheadexplodes
(3,496 posts)I have literally watched this movie more than 100 times.
Rip
oasis
(49,365 posts)Paladin
(28,246 posts)My two favorite Kirk Douglas movies---I can't decide which one I like more, so I won't.
WestIndianArchie
(386 posts)He was a RAPIST
Yeehah
(4,574 posts)I believe we still have a presumption of innocence in this country.
Paladin
(28,246 posts)Enjoy your stay.
Aristus
(66,307 posts)Like Robert De Niro, etc.
Some actors *koff*John Wayne*koff* become too enamored of their tough guy image to espouse an ideology of empathy, compassion, and love like liberalism.
Kirk Douglas was tough enough to be tender. Macho enough to be loving. Hard-edged enough to be compassionate.
Yeehah
(4,574 posts)He got to see Jean Simmons naked.