# RIP Kirk Douglas, Dead at 103



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

One of my favorite actors from a Golden Age, gone. So many memorable films starting with The Champion. He and Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis made, two by two, a series of riveting films: Spartacus, The Vikings, Seven Days in May. Douglas' portrayal in Lust for Life as Vincent Van Gogh should have won him an Oscar. His autobiography, The Ragman's Son, is a fun read. Larger than life. He tells the story of getting grief from John Wayne for playing the "sissy artist" Van Gogh, then turning to Wayne and reminding him that neither of them were necessarily as they appeared, and reminding Wayne that his real name was actually Marion Morrison.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

103 is a long run! Especially after suffering a stroke which never seemed to dim his lust for life. RIP


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

Interesting though that Natalie Wood seems to be getting more media attention than Douglas himself (just look up their names together


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## Guillaume80 (Jan 19, 2020)

Always sad news but 103, he had a pretty good life and will be remembered...RIP


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Hard to believe that when Kirk was born the USA were still to enter WWI, Babe Ruth was a young star with the Boston Red Sox and Alban Berg was writing _Wozzeck_. Filmwise he left a pretty good legacy. RIP.

Some people are built to last - Olivia de Havilland is also 103 and still with us.


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

I've considered Kirk a hero. A true hero.

* Served in the U.S. Navy for 3 years in WWII (Unlike Wayne)
* Effectively ended the ban on the Hollywood 10, scapegoats for Uncle Joe from Wisconsin and the HUAC, when he named Dalton Trumbo as writer for _Spartacus_. (It could have killed his career, and boy did some people try.)
* He produced and starred in one of the greatest anti-war movies ever, _Paths Of Glory_, a film banned in France for 18 years, and a film once banned on all US military bases both home and abroad. (Kubrick's first masterpiece.)

Any comparisons with other Hollywood tough guy types like Wayne ends in the screening room. John Wayne couldn't carry Rodger Young's kit bag. He would be the last person I'd want to go into battle with. Not so with Douglas. The man had real courage of the kind so rarely displayed in the land of the free and the home of the brave.


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