Los Angeles (AFP)

His dimple in his chin and his smirk were as legendary as his films: actor Kirk Douglas, son of destitute Jewish immigrants who became an icon of Hollywood's golden age, died Wednesday at the age of 103 years old, 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 (...) but for me and my brothers, Joel and Peter, he was just a dad, "wrote Michael Douglas on his Facebook page.

"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 peace in the world", continues the actor.

"Kirk Douglas. The rascal who inspired me. 103 years on this Earth. Sounds good! It was great to hang out with you," said actor Danny DeVito on Twitter.

As for the Academy of Oscars, which should certainly pay tribute to him on Sunday during its great annual ceremony, it contented itself with saying "goodbye to a Hollywood legend" with a quote from Kirk Douglas himself: "I wanted to be an actor since I was a kid in elementary school. I made a play, and my mother made me a black apron to play a shoemaker. After the performance, (my father) gave me my first Oscar: an ice cream. "

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 follows up on the films, a hundred in total, the best of which have become classics: "20,000 leagues under the sea" (1954), "Paths of glory" (1957) by Stanley Kubrick, which 'he found for "Spartacus" (1960) a peplum which made him a world star.

It is also with the hashtag #IamSpartacus that many anonymous paid tribute to him on Wednesday evening on social networks.

- Committed and stubborn -

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, Kirk Douglas never received an Oscar during his career, much to his regret.

He had had it handy with "Flight 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.

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 friend for the occasion forever, Lauren Bacall.

After a heart attack in 2001, he had found his way to the set for "Une si belle famille", where he appeared in 2003 alongside his son Michael, his grandson Cameron and his 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.

A friend asked him "Kirk, why is your marriage so long?". Kirk Douglas said that he replied: "It's simple. I told my wife + if you ever leave me, I'm going with you +".

© 2020 AFP