103 years, an extraordinary career and dozens of films. The actor Kirk Douglas, the last big sacred monster of Hollywood, died this Wednesday at the age of 103 years, announced his son Michael Douglas.
“It is with great sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103 years. For the world, he was a legend, an actor in the golden age of cinema […] but for me and my brothers, Joel and Peter, he was simply a dad ”writes Michael Douglas on his Facebook page.
Indispensable actor of American cinema, especially in the 50s and 60s, Kirk Douglas toured with the greatest directors, from John Huston to Brian De Palma, via Elia Kazan or Stanley Kubrick.
His cinematographic career, which spans seven decades, includes dozens of films, of all kinds, from the western (Settlement of accounts at OK Corral) to the war film (The Paths of Glory), to the peplum (Spartacus) or dramas (The passionate life of Vincent van Gogh).
And if he was named several times to the Oscar for best actor, he never received it. In 1996, the cinema community finally honored him with an honorary Oscar. Since 2008, he had retired from film sets to devote himself to his foundation for disadvantaged children.