A legacy of commanding roles, philanthropy and taking on McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklist

Kirk Douglas, a son of Russian immigrants who rose to play Spartacus and other legendary roles during Hollywoods Golden Era, died Wednesday. He was 103.With marble-bust features and an intense on-screen delivery, Mr. Douglas was among the most commandingand last survivingmembers of a class of stars who headlined big-screen epics at a time when movies were the dominant form of entertainment.He played boxers, reporters, detectives, soldiers, Vincent van Gogh, Doc Holliday and, in one of the most famous portrayals in Hollywood history, the gladiator and slave leader Spartacus.
After breaking out with the lead role in 1949s Champion, Mr. Douglas went on to star in The Bad and the Beautiful and Ace in the Hole, highlights in a career that included collaborating with directors like Billy Wilder, acting alongside stars like Lana Turner and taking on political forces like Sen. Joe McCarthy and his blacklist of suspected Communist sympathizers in Hollywood.
Mr. Douglass survivors include his son Michael Douglas, the Oscar-winning star of Wall Street.
Kirk Douglas and actress Lisabeth Scott, in a scene from the 1948 film noir I Walk Alone, in which he played a morally challenged nightclub owner.
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Kirk Douglas and actress Lisabeth Scott, in a scene from the 1948 film noir I Walk Alone, in which he played a morally challenged nightclub owner.
After suffering a debilitating stroke in 1996, the elder Mr. Douglas had to reacquire the ability to speak. Accepting an honorary Oscar about two months later, Mr. Douglas said to the room of Hollywood elite, I thank all of you for 50 wonderful years.
Mr. Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch in 1916 in Amsterdam, N.Y., to Russian immigrants who had seven children and little money. His father sold rags to support the family.
Even in our poor neighborhood, the ragman was the lowest rung on the ladder. And I was the ragmans son, he wrote in Life Could Be Verse, a collection of poetry and remembrances published in 2014.
Mr. Douglass first role came in second grade, as the shoemaker in the school play The Shoemaker and the Elves.
As an adult, his imposing jawline and athletic build helped him stand out, first as a college wrestler at New Yorks St. Lawrence University and then as a student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.
At the acting school, Mr. Douglas studied the rigorous Stanislavski techniques that train actors to call on emotional memory to produce deeper performances. He also dated classmate Betty Joan Perske, later known as Lauren Bacall, who went on to introduce Mr. Douglas to valuable Hollywood connections.
Mr. Douglass first audition, for Mae West, didnt go well. As his book recounted, the actress and provocateur spotted him in a room of young actors, looked him over and said: Thank you for coming. You can go now.
Nonetheless, Mr. Douglass first feature role in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) set him on a path that would keep him steadily on screen for the next half-century.
Mr. Douglas scored three Oscar nominations for best actor in the 10 years following that debut, for Champion in 1949, The Bad and the Beautiful in 1952 and Lust for Life in 1956. He didnt win any of them, taking home his first Oscar when he received the honorary award in 1996.
His most famous role, as the title character in the 1960 movie Spartacus, put him at the center of one of the great controversies of Hollywood in the 20th century. The films screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo, was among the Hollywood 10, industry players who had been cited and blacklisted for refusing congressional demands to explain alleged involvement with the Communist Party.
When Mr. Douglas, also the films executive producer, announced that Mr. Trumbo was the screenwriter on the film and would be credited on-screen, many in Hollywood started to see the blacklist fade away, historians now say. But the move didnt make Mr. Douglas the most popular man in America.
I think the drama of getting Trumbos name on the script was more dramatic than the movie itself, he later wrote. The movie cost a then-staggering $12 million to produce but went on to be one of the eras biggest hits.
The movie produced one of the most famous scenes of all time, when a group of slaves all stand and shout, Im Spartacus! around Mr. Douglas to avoid their leader being found by Roman forces.
Spartacus was developed at Bryna Productions, a production company founded by Mr. Douglas and named for his mother, and it was directed by a young Stanley Kubrick. The company would also produce Mr. Kubricks Paths of Glory, another memorable vehicle for Mr. Douglas.
Mr. Douglas showed up to sets with questionsabout his character and everything else in the script, said Jeff Kanew, a director who worked with Mr. Douglas on several projects, including Eddie Macons Run, Tough Guys and the actors one-man stage show, Before I Forget. Inconsistencies in character development or pacing would be noted on the first day, and when Mr. Kanew pushed back, Mr. Douglas countered, Ive made a few movies too, you know.
The director soon realized the actor knew what he was talking about. On Eddie Macons Run, it was Mr. Douglass idea to treat a tough interrogation scene as a seduction, telling Mr. Kanew that he was drawing on a counterintuitive approach he discovered in a similar scene in Champion.
When Burt Lancaster, his co-star in 1986s Tough Guys, wanted to postpone the project, Mr. Douglas put in a call and soon the production was back on. As he explained to Mr. Kanew, I just told him that one of these days one of us is going to do the other guys eulogy, and you dont want the legacy to be bailing on a movie.
Mr. Douglas and his wife, Anne Buydens, who survives him, married in 1954 after meeting on the set of his film Act of Love. Together, they became known in Los Angeles for significant philanthropic donations to organizations like the Los Angeles Unified School District, the citys Childrens Hospital and the Kirk Douglas Theatre, which opened in 2004 and still stages productions.
Despite rising to fame in Hollywoods strict, image-driven studio system, Mr. Douglas didnt hesitate to share personal details about his life and Jewish faith in his later years. He wrote a blog on Myspace and then the Huffington Post, and wrote 10 novels and memoirs.
Even the most intimate moments were fair game, including one story that occurred soon after his stroke in 1996. After returning home from the hospital one day, Mr. Douglas found a revolver he had kept as a memento from his 1957 hit Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. It was loaded.
I stuck the barrel in my mouthOuch! he wrote in Life Could Be Verse. I pulled it away. Then I began to laugh. A toothache stopped me from committing suicide.
In addition to Michael Douglas and Ms. Buydens, Kirk Douglas is survived by two other sons. His youngest son, Eric, died in 2004. Mr. Douglas was married to Diana Douglas from 1943 to 1951; sons Michael and Joel are from that first marriage.
Mr. Douglas received numerous awards in addition to his honorary Oscar, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Kennedy Center Honor and the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.
Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com
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