His dimple in his chin and his smirk were as legendary as his films. The actor Kirk Douglas, son of penniless Jewish immigrants who became an icon of the golden age of Hollywood, died Wednesday at the age of 103, 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 cinema, "testified his son. "But for me and my brothers, Joel and Peter, he was just a dad," writes Michael Douglas on his Facebook page.
"Films for generations to come"
"Kirk has had a good life and he leaves behind films for generations to come, and the memory of a recognized philanthropist who worked for the public good and world peace," continues the actor. "Kirk kept his charisma as a movie star until the end of his wonderful life," wrote Steven Spielberg to the specialist magazine Hollywood Reporter, adding that he would miss his "handwritten notes, letters and fatherly advice".
"103 years on this Earth. Sounds good! It was great to hang out with you," said actor Danny DeVito on Twitter. Stars like Mark Hammill ( Star Wars ) and William Shatner ( Star Trek ) have also paid tribute to an "unforgettable actor" and an "incredible icon".
A hundred films
As for the Academy of Oscars, which should certainly pay tribute to him on Sunday during its grand annual ceremony, it was content to say "goodbye to a Hollywood legend" with a quote from Kirk Douglas himself recalling that he wanted to be an actor since elementary school.
His real name Issur Danielovitch Demsky, Kirk Douglas was born on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, a small town in the state of New York. Despite his miserable childhood, or perhaps because of it, this son of a Jewish ragpicker who fled Russia had eyes only for the cinema.
After enlisting in the Navy during the Second World War, he landed small roles before finally meeting success with a role of hard boxer in The Champion . Hollywood opens its doors to him and he goes on to film, a hundred in total, the best of which have become classics: 20,000 leagues under the sea (1954), The Paths of Glory (1957) by Stanley Kubrick, which he finds for Spartacus (1960), a peplum that makes it a world star.
It is also with the hashtag #IamSpartacus that many anonymous paid tribute to him on Wednesday evening on social networks.
Committed actor
A committed actor who has always been close to the Democrats, Kirk Douglas has the audacity, in the midst of a McCarthyist witch hunt in the 1950s, to hire a screenwriter on the black list of people accused of Communist sympathies. Despite the glory, successes and three nominations in the 1950s, he never won an Oscar during his career, much to his regret.
He had had it handy with Vol over a cuckoo's nest , directed by Milos Forman in 1975, but the main role had spun under his nose. "It was a tragedy for me. It was Nicholson who got the role and he got an Oscar. And I don't have one ...", admitted Kirk Douglas.
Oscar of honor
The Hollywood legend had to wait until 1996 to win an Honorary Oscar for his entire career. He had just had a stroke that left him paralyzed on one side of his face, which didn't stop him from going on stage to receive his award and deliver a speech.
Determined not to hang up the gloves despite this handicap, the stubborn Douglas had followed a long and painful rehabilitation to relearn how to express himself. He had thus lent his voice to a character from the Simpsons before making appearances in some films, like Diamonds in 1999, where he played a boxer victim of a stroke. Kirk Douglas had found his lifelong friend Lauren Bacall for the occasion.
One-man autobiographical show
After a heart attack in 2001, he found his way to the set for Une si belle famille , where he appeared in 2003 alongside his son Michael, grandson Cameron and ex-wife Diana Dill. In 2009 again, Kirk Douglas had climbed on the stage of a theater bearing his name near Los Angeles for four performances of an autobiographical one-man show.
Great seducer, he had multiplied the conquests but lived since 1954 with the same woman, Anne Buydens, met in France and became his second wife.