His books
In 1988, Kirk published
his immensely popular
autobiography The Ragman’s
Son. He also wrote novels,
such as Dance With the Devil
(1990) and Last Tango in
Brooklyn (1994), and non-
fiction, including Climbing
the Mountain: My Search for
Meaning (2001), My Stroke of
Luck (2003), and I Am Spartacus! (2012). In 2014, he
published his first book of poetry, Life Could Be Verse.
Honours & Awards
• Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in
1949, playing a ruthless boxer in Champion, directed
by Mark Robson.
• Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in
Vincente Minnelli’s 1952 Hollywood melodrama The
Bad and the Beautiful, opposite Lana Turner.
• Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor as
Vincent Van Gogh in Vincente
Minnelli’s film biography
Lust for Life.
• In 1996, won an Honorary
Academy Award “for
fifty years as a creative
and moral force in
the motion picture
community.”
• Won the American
Film Institute’s Life
Achievement Award in
1991. They also placed him
on their list of the top 50 stars
of American cinema.
• Kirk has a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.
• In 2004, a street in Palm Springs,
California, was named “Kirk
Douglas Way” in his honour.
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• In 1981, Kirk was presented with the Presidential
Medal of Honor, the United States’ highest civilian
award, in recognition of his work throughout the
world as a goodwill ambassador for the U.S. State
Department.
• The French government presented him with the
Legion of Honor in 1985.
• In 2001, he received the National Medal of the Arts at
the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Little-Known Facts
• Douglas’s birth name was actually Issur Danielovitch
Demsky. His parents were both Jewish immigrants
from Belarus, and Douglas was known as “Izzy”
growing up. He only changed his name to Kirk
Douglas when he enlisted in the US Navy during the
Second World War.
• He was the only boy in a family that included seven
children!
• He was so broke at one point that he once spent a
night in prison because it meant that he would have a
bed to sleep on!
• Douglas was one of the very first actors in Hollywood
to establish a production company of his own while
still working as an actor. Named after his mother,
Bryna Productions would be credited for most
of Douglas’s biggest films.
• In 2018, the 101-year-old Kirk Douglas
appeared on stage at the Golden Globe
Awards. He recieved a standing ovation.
In 1964, Anne and Kirk
established The Douglas
Foundation (www.
douglasfoundation.org), one
of the entertainment industry’s
oldest and largest private
philanthropic organisations.
The Foundation’s work,
focusing on health, education,
and the disadvantaged,
continues unabated.
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