He was the last representative from Hollywood's golden era. Now actor Kirk Douglas has died at the age of 103. Our obituary.
So the Titan is mortal. Kirk Douglas, the last representative of the gods from Hollywood's Golden Era, has now actually got away from it at the biblical age of 103 and left us alone. With Douglas, a star has died of a kind that no longer exists and can no longer exist. A larger than life, mythical figure who has managed to remain present in epic dramas for decades and to shape the collective memory of the audience.
Kirk Douglas was born into a poor Russian-Jewish family
He worked it hard, the man got nothing. Born into a poor family of Russian-Jewish immigrants as Issur Danielovitch in the US state of New York, his youth is characterized by a lack of prospects: the father is a silent man, the mother is helpless and above all tries to get the son and the six daughters through - In the Danielovitch household, food is always an issue. Only when he was 15 did Issur have a kind of revival experience, and that in two ways: his English teacher seduced him and initiated him into the secrets of carnal delights. "Undoubtedly illegal from today's perspective," Douglas later recalls. But he is grateful for it, because Mrs. Livingston, as the lady was called, as Douglas later revealed, also opens up the world of literature and poetry to him. The young Issur becomes a fanatic reader and rediscovers the world for himself. Hence his rather sidelong desire to become an actor. His athletic appearance and talent for wrestling pave the way for higher education: equipped with a scholarship, he can study and try out on stage.
Kirk Douglas in "Spartacus" (with Jean Simmons)
© dpa / Bert Reisfeld
Douglas played his first leading role in "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers"
After military service in World War II, he took the name Kirk Douglas - if he wanted to pursue a career, he was told that his birth name was no help. Douglas arrives, not because he is a virtuoso, but because he has presence and a dynamic charisma. His appearance and his powerful acting brought him a leading role as a completely unknown in the first film appearance in 1946: In "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" he plays a shady character, later Douglas will claim that he was the first anti-hero in Hollywood. His timing is excellent, in the gloomy post-war years, the time of brilliant characters and simple stories was also over in the cinema. Multi-layered, ambivalent characters are now protagonists in Hollywood's “black series”. Opaque types who sometimes go their way painlessly become Douglas' specialty. In his private life, he sometimes rolls through life just as ruthlessly as his film characters. He is often arrogant, arrogant and a notorious womanizer who rarely manages to walk past a lady without chatting to her.
"Spartacus" was his most famous film - "Ways to Fame" was probably his best
Much later he regretted this: his toughness, his insensitive way of dealing with people, his selfishness. "I don't particularly like young Kirk Douglas," he wrote in his last memoir, "Let's face it." By the time he was 90, he had a helicopter crash and had a serious stroke, and had long since decided to try the rest of his life to become a better person. With the help of faith - he recalls his Jewish roots late - and his German wife Anne succeeds.
It is perhaps Kirk Douglas' greatest achievement, despite countless film classics, the honorary Oscar and worldwide fame: that he has come to terms with himself and the world. He didn't want to step down as bitterly as his favorite film partner Burt Lancaster, who like Douglas could be quite a scavenger. On the other hand: Douglas would probably not have achieved what he would have achieved if he had always been as relaxed and nice as he was in old age.
The family: Kirk Douglas with son Michael (right) and grandson Cameron.
© dpa
With the furor of a rising star who senses his chance, the young Douglas is making his way to the top and is very quickly no longer only interested in money and success, but in power: he wants to decide in which films he will appear in those days as an actor you are completely at the mercy of the studios. So Douglas becomes Hollywood's first major independent film producer, which also quickly becomes uncomfortable. In 1957, for example, he produced the merciless anti-war film "Ways to Fame", although he knew that he would not make any money. It may be his best job. In 1960, despite many hostilities, he hired the author Dalton Trumbo for “Spartacus”, who is on Hollywood's “black list” because of supposedly “un-American activities”. Douglas doesn't care, as he doesn't care much as long as he likes it. It's not always fun for his surroundings, including his own children. He cracks up with his son because he gives the lead role in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" to Jack Nicholson and not his father. Michael explains that he is too old for the part. But Kirk does not want to see this - he had great success with the theater version on Broadway. It takes a long time for the two to bury the hatchet.
Otherwise, Douglas later kisses what needs to be kitten, and sometimes almost despairs of the world. The conflict between Israel and Palestine deeply grieves him, as does the disregard for African Americans in his home country, the United States. But Douglas remains an optimist to the end and never loses his humor or iron will. In old age he learns to speak again after the strokes - as disciplined as he used to learn German and French. He trains a little every day even at his age, writes books, memors poetry and decides before his 100th birthday to donate his entire fortune - at least around $ 80 million - to charity.
Now this astonishing man, who remained an extraordinary figure until old age, has died and with him the 20th century. Such men no longer exist - and you would need them right now.
Zoran Gojic