Spartacus actor Kirk Douglas dies aged 103
His son Michael Douglas and other Hollywood stars, including William Shatner and Bruce Campbell, have paid tribute to the Spartacus actor on social media
Screen legend Kirk Douglas has passed away at the age of 103.
The Hollywood star, who first found fame during the “golden age” of film, enjoyed an immensely successful career on stage and screen, spanning seven decades.
Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch in 1916 in New York, the son of Jewish immigrants from present-day Belarus. Throughout his career, he appeared in many iconic films including Spartacus, Paths of Glory and The Bad and the Beautiful.
He received his first Academy Award nomination in 1949 for his role in Champion, and later added a further two nominations in addition to a Lifetime Achievement Oscar.
His son, Michael Douglas, a Hollywood legend in his own right, released a statement on Instagram describing the “tremendous sadness” the news had brought him and his brothers.
It read, “To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies… but to me and my brothers Joel and Peter he was simply Dad.
“Let me end with the words I told him on his last birthday, and which will always remain true. Dad – I love you so much and I am so proud to be your son.”
Many stars of Hollywood also paid tribute to Douglas and his legacy, including Steven Spielberg, Bruce Campbell and William Shatner.
Spielberg said Douglas left behind a "breathtaking body of work".
He told the Hollywood Reporter: "Kirk retained his movie star charisma right to the end of his wonderful life and I'm honoured to have been a small part of his last 45 years."
Meanwhile, the official Twitter account of the Academy tweeted an old quote from Douglas which read, “I wanted to be an actor ever since I was a kid in the second grade. I did a play, and my mother made a black apron, and I played a shoemaker. After the performance [my father] gave me my first Oscar: an ice cream cone.”
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
