WAMG Tribute: Movie Superstar Kirk Douglas Has Died

By Jim Batts | February 6, 2020

The word rang out yesterday, vibrating through the canyons of Los Angeles, much like the echo of thousands of voices sixty years ago that proclaimed “I am Spartacus!”. Perhaps the last of the leading men of Hollywood’s pre-1950 Golden Age is now with his long-departed peers. Here’s how the town’s Hollywood Reporter broke the news:

” 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, died Wednesday in Los Angeles. 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,” son Michael Douglas wrote on his Instagram account. “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.”

Yes, for nearly eight decades Douglas epitomized movie star matinee idol glamour. As Norma Desmond famously quipped in SUNSET BOULEVARD, “We had faces then!”. Kirk’s one of a kind looks: those piercing blue eyes, gritting teeth and jutting dimpled chin paired with his low growl of a voice, passionate persona, and athletic build made him irresistible to film fans and a gift to cartoonists and celeb impressionists.

But Kirk Douglas was the first, and maybe the best, artistic creation of the talented Issur Danielovitch. As the title of his 1988 states, he was “The Ragman’s Son”, who tried to help his immigrant family live “hand to mouth” in the slums of Amsterdam, New York. His acting career really took flight after his stint in WWII, when he was on stage at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC. One of his classmates, Lauren Bacall, recommended him to famed producer Hal B. Wallis. This led to his film debut, the fourth lead in the 1946 noir classic from Lewis Milestone THE STRANGE LOVES OF MARTHA IVERS.

He caught the eye of several studios and began to grow a fan base by his versatility. After a couple more crime classics, Kirk proved adept at romantic comedy with MY DEAR SECRETARY. His leading man breakthrough might have been 1949’s CHAMPION, where his physicality matched the intensity of his line delivery.

His role as Midge was perhaps the first of his “anti-heroes” as Kirk often portrayed flawed, even “unlikable” protagonists. This was certainly the case in Billy Wilder’s now considered classic (then a rare box office flop) ACE IN THE HOLE (AKA THE BIG CARNIVAL) in which Kirk played the ambitious immoral “stop at nothing” hard-bitten newspaper “hack” Chuck Tatem.

The following year, Kirk teamed up with another celebrated director (he seemed to seek out gifted filmmakers), Vincent Minnelli, in a dark look at “tinsel town” (yes, Kirk was the shadiest producer) in THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL.

While Kirk looked fantastic in modern suits and fashions, he enjoyed donning period duds, especially for his many Westerns. Starting with ALONG THE GREAT DIVIDE, he continued to saddle up for films like MAN WITHOUT A STAR, LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL, THE WAR WAGON (with John Wayne), THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER, and the film he often called his personal favorite, the 1962 farewell to the “cowboy life”, LONELY ARE THE BRAVE.

Speaking of costume, Kirk was prolific in fantasy flicks. In fact, he was the action lead of Walt Disney’s first “produced in the states”, live-action adventure flick, 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. This was right after he traveled to Italy to “jump-start” the “sword and sandal’ epics with ULYSSES. Later there was THE VIKINGS, THE LIGHT AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, and SCALAWAG (which he also directed).

And then there are the many real people Kirk played in several acclaimed “biopics”. General Patton in IS PARIS BURNING? and Col. David ‘Mickey’ Marcus in CAST A GIANT SHADOW. The most critically acclaimed may be his re-teaming with Minnelli to play the emotionally tortured painter Vincent Van Gough in LUST FOR LIFE.

His other great filmmaker collaboration may be the two iconic films Kirk made with Stanley Kubrick. They followed the anti-war drama PATHS OF GLORY with the epic (perhaps kirk’s biggest box office smash) SPARTACUS.

Speaking of pairing, while many male stars became associated with frequent female stars (from Garbo & Gilbert, through Ryan & Hanks), Kirk, who co-starred with many great actresses (Bacall and Doris Day in YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN, TOP SECRET AFFAIR with Susan Hayword, THE ARRANGEMENT with Faye Dunaway and Deborah Kerr), was most notably paired with a male star, Burt Lancaster. Their six-film (and a TV flick) collaborations began with the crime thriller I WALK ALONE in 1948 and ended with the 1986 comedy TOUGH GUYS. In between, they squared off in the political drama SEVEN DAYS IN MAY and “saddled up” for the greatest “real-life’ showdown in the old West GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL (Kirk was Doc while Burt was Wyatt).

While many of the remaining movie “elders’ were retiring in the 1970s and 80s, Kirk was still the lead in several genre films. After the comedy HOME MOVIES with director Brian DePalma, Kirk starred in his CARRIE follow-up THE FURY and did another horror flick THE CHOSEN. Right off his smash SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, director Hal Needham cast Kirk as the lead in the Western satire THE VILLAIN (with young Arnold Schwarzenegger as its hero, the “Handsome Stranger”). He even dabbled in science fiction with the robot-rampage thriller SATURN 3 and the time-traveling THE FINAL COUNTDOWN, both in 1980. The 1990s found Kirk going for laughs in the 1930s set John Landis farce OSCAR with Sly Stallone, and opposite Michael J. Fox in the ensemble farce GREEDY. After the caper crime comedy DIAMONDS, Kirk finally got to work with his Oscar-winning son Michael, along with grandson Cameron and first wife Diana, in IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY.

The curtain finally came down on Kirk’s big-screen career with the 2004 drama ILLUSIONS, though he did have a role in the 2008 TV movie “The Empire State Building Murders”. Aside from acting and directing, Kirk was a prolific producer as the head of Byrna (his mother’s name) Productions. It’s in that capacity that Kirk helped end the Hollywood Blacklist by insisting that Dalton Trumbo, who had been accused of being a Communist, be listed in the screenwriting credits for SPARTACUS under his own name (this was depicted in the recent film bio TRUMBO with Kirk played by Dean O’Gorman). Plus Kirk starred in the first feature film to center on the Holocaust, THE JUGGLER (1953).

Kirk was awarded the 1981 Presidental Medal of Freedom, the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1994. He was nominated for CHAMPION, LUST FOR LIFE, and THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, but was finally given an honorary Oscar in 1996. Kirk earned the respect and admiration of his peers and appreciated his millions of fans. He was truly the last of the Hollywood “larger than life” screen personalities. We at WAMG join the world and his family in mourning his loss. But, oh the treasures and gifts he’s left behind. Best of all, he had a great sense of humor about himself. Here’s two great musical numbers from the 1958 and 59 Oscars with him “cutting a rug” with best pal Burt.

And let’s leave you with one more chuckle. It’s the 2004 Oscar-nominated Animated Short Subject featuring the vocal talents of Kirk’s best mimic, Frank Gorshin (it did win a BAFTA). To quote you from one of your classics, “Kirk, you were the CHAMP!!!”.