When Kirk Douglas burst onto the big screen in 1946’s The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, the director had an unusual request: he wanted Kirk to fill in his iconic chin dimple. But Kirk, ever the man of conviction, wasn’t having it. “Listen, this is what you get,” he famously said. “I didn’t cave.” And that, my friends, was Kirk Douglas in a nutshell.
Kirk Douglas: The Hollywood Legend Who Deserved Every Bit of Fame
That was Kirk Douglas: self-assured, bold, and completely one-of-a-kind. As John Landis, who directed him in the 1991 film Oscar, tells Closer Weekly in their latest issue, “Kirk had drive, ego, and intelligence. He was a real classic American story and a great Hollywood star. He was a legend, and he deserved to be one.”
Kirk Douglas: From Humble Beginnings to Hollywood Icon
Kirk Douglas, who passed away at the remarkable age of 103 on February 5, started life in the humblest of circumstances. Born Issur Danielovitch Demsky in Amsterdam, New York, he was the son of impoverished Russian immigrants. His father, an alcoholic, wasn’t allowed to work in the town’s mills because he was Jewish, so he scraped by selling rags. But Kirk’s father wasn’t all bad; he was, in fact, the toughest guy in town. Kirk fondly remembered an ice-cream cone his father bought him after seeing a play he performed in when he was just seven years old. “It was worth more to me than an Oscar,” Kirk said.
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Kirk Douglas: The Rise to Stardom and the Price of Fame
Kirk attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC, where he met Lauren Bacall. Later, when she’d made it big in Hollywood, Lauren recommended Kirk to a casting agent. Three years after landing the role in Martha Ivers, Kirk became a star as a boxer in Champion. But fame wasn’t easy for him at first. He developed a reputation for arrogance, and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper wasn’t shy about telling him so. “Now that you’ve got a big hit, you’ve become a real son of a bitch,” she said. His response? “I was always a son of a b—h — you just never noticed.”
