Kirk Douglas dead at 103

Feb 05, 2020 by Ian Evans

Legendary actor Kirk Douglas, who survived a 1991 helicopter crash and a severe stroke in 1996, has passed away. He was 103.

In a statement, his son, actor Michael Douglas, said that, “It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103. To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the Golden Age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to.”

Acting in more than eighty films before his retirement in 2004, Douglas was nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards three times for his performances in 1949’s Champion, 1952’s The Bad and the Beautiful and 1956’s Lust for Life. He was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1996.

Douglas, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, fought against the McCarthy Era investigations which saw some in the Hollywood community blacklisted and unable to work. On of those people was Dalton Trumbo, who Douglas hired to write Spartacus, a film which Douglas produced and starred in. Perhaps Douglas’ most famous film, it helped to begin the end of the blacklist.