Richer Americans live longer than those lower down the ladder</s>Hollywood actor Kirk Douglas is celebrating his 100th birthday on Friday.

The screen veteran’s career spanned seven decades that included three Oscar nominations, as well as an honorary Academy Award in 1996 for being “a creative and moral force in the motion picture community”.

Best known for his roles in Spartacus (1960) and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954), Douglas earned his Oscar nominations for Best Actor in Champion (1949), The Bad And The Beautiful (1952), and Lust For Life (1956), but lost out on the trophy each time.

He was born Issur Danielovitch in 1916 in Amsterdam, New York, to Jewish immigrant parents Herschel and Bryna, who had left Chavusy in the Mogilev region of the Russian Empire, which is modern-day Belarus.

The Danielovitch family also had six daughters and lived in poverty with Herschel working as a ragman.

After enlisting in the US Navy in 1941, Issur changed his name to Kirk Douglas and was a communications officer in anti-submarine warfare during the second World War until he was medically discharged because of injuries in 1944.

Douglas had attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City on a special scholarship, where two of his classmates were Diana Dill, who became his first wife in 1943, and Lauren Bacall, who helped to launch his film career.

He and Dill had two sons together - actor Michael Douglas and producer Joel Douglas - before they divorced in 1951.

Douglas later married Anne Buydens in 1954 and they also had two sons together, producer Peter Douglas and actor Eric Douglas, who died in 2004.

He is known for his relationships with a series of famous women, including Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich.

Although he started his acting career in radio, theatre and television, his friendship with Bacall led to him landing his first film role when she recommended him to director Hal Wallis for 1946 film The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers.

He starred in a number of Westerns, including Along The Great Divide (1951) and Lonely Are The Brave (1962), as well as early Stanley Kubrick film Paths Of Glory in 1957.

Douglas has been credited with helping to put an end to the Hollywood Blacklist, where employment was denied to those working in the entertainment industry who had been accused of having communist ties, by publicly acknowledging former Communist Party member Dalton Trumbo as the screenwriter for Spartacus.

In 1957 he won a Best Actor Golden Globe for Lust For Life, and in 1968 won the Cecil B DeMille Award at the Golden Globes for his outstanding contribution to the world of entertainment.

He made a Broadway adaptation of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest in 1963, which he also starred in before passing on the film rights to son Michael, and directed two Westerns — 1975’s Posse, in which he starred with Bruce Dern, and the 1973 film Scalawag, where he also took a lead role.

Despite suffering a severe stroke in 1996 which affected his speech, Douglas went through years of voice therapy to get back into acting and starred in Diamonds in 1999 alongside Bacall, playing an old fighter recovering from a stroke.

The most recent film he appeared in was 2004’s Illusion, about an ailing movie director, and in 2008 he featured in TV movie Empire State Building Murders.

As an author, he has published 10 novels and memoirs, and his blog is hosted on the Huffington Post.</s>LOS ANGELES — Kirk Douglas — actor, director, producer, author, philanthropist and Torah student — is celebrating his 100th birthday on Friday, Dec. 9, and there is a special treat in store for the centenarian.

Douglas has been under strict medical orders to abstain from alcohol, but his cardiologist, Dr. P.K. Shah, promised the actor that if he made it to 100, he could have a glass of vodka. So at an afternoon tea party at an event space in Beverly Hills, Shah will be in attendance to personally administer the medication.

Some 150 other guests will fete Douglas, ranging from his extended family, including three sons and seven grandchildren, to old friends like director Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Don Rickles and other Hollywood luminaries.

Also on hand will be Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in West Los Angeles, who has directed Douglas’ weekly Torah studies for many years. Wolpe also officiated at the actor’s second Bar Mitzvah, when Douglas — then only 83 — declared, “Today, I am a man.”

Hosting the event will be Kirk Douglas’ son, Oscar winner Michael Douglas, and his wife, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who will also welcome leaders of numerous charities and institutions in the US and Israel that have received approximately $118 million over the years from Douglas and his wife, Anne.

“You have to give back,” Douglas once explained. “I came from abject poverty. I didn’t dream of becoming a millionaire. So you have to pay back.”

On Dec. 9, 1916, the future Kirk Douglas was born in the upstate New York town of Amsterdam as Issur Danielovitch, the son of an illiterate Russian-Jewish immigrant who supported his family of six daughters and one son as a rag picker and junkman. His rise to one of Hollywood’s top male stars in the 1950s and ‘60s is the stuff of American legend.

In most of his 87 movies, the blond, blue-eyed boy who once laid tefilin every morning was now cast as just about the toughest, roughest guy around. But this is only part of the story.

Douglas is the author of 11 books, including harsh childhood recollections, explaining the Holocaust to children and love verses to his wife, as well as tracing his recovery from a helicopter crash, stroke and attempted suicide.

Douglas is now reading the proofs for his 12th book, co-authored with his wife and titled, Kirk and Anne: Letters of Love, Laughter and a Lifetime in Hollywood.

Ask Douglas about his proudest recollection and he will point to his act of moral courage in breaking the Hollywood blacklist of alleged communists during the McCarthy red-hunting era. He did so by insisting that the name of writer Dalton Trumbo, who had been blacklisted for a decade, be publicly credited for the “Spartacus” screenplay, despite warnings that such a provocation would end Douglas’ own Hollywood career.

Most of his old friends who will attend the party are familiar with another of the actor’s talents — for pithy observations on life, love and advice to future generations.

On religious observance: “I don’t think G-d wants compliments. G-d wants you to do something with your life and to help others.”

On the appeal of Torah study: “The Torah is the greatest screenplay ever written . . .”

In his heyday Douglas spared little time and interest for his Jewish heritage. However, he observed, “I always fasted on Yom Kippur. I still worked on the movie set, but I fasted.”

Kirk was upstaged by his second and current wife at the celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary in 2004. The former Anne Buydens startled the guests by announcing that she had converted to Judaism.

Douglas has always had a special spot in his heart for Israel. In “The Juggler,” he starred in the first Hollywood feature to be shot in the Jewish state, returning later for “Remembrance of Love” and “Cast a Giant Shadow.”

Shortly before his 100th birthday, Douglas recalled a blessing he first pronounced on his 90th birthday.

“In the Jewish tradition, a birthday gives a person special powers and if he issues a blessing, his blessing will come true,” he said.

“I bless all the people in the land of Israel that the current conflicts resolve themselves, that no more people die or are hurt, and that you can continue your lives in peace.”</s>BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Kirk Douglas knows how to make an entrance. With boxing gloves in every centerpiece and the theme from “Rocky” blaring over the speakers, Douglas, one of the golden age of Hollywood’s last living legends, walked confidently into the Sunset Room at the Beverly Hills Hotel Friday afternoon to celebrate his 100th birthday at an intimate gathering of friends and family.

Flanked by Anne Douglas, his wife of over 62 years, his son Michael Douglas, his daughter-in-law Catherine Zeta-Jones and his grandchildren, Kirk Douglas looked out over the crowd of about 150 people, including Don Rickles, Jeffrey Katzenberg, his Rabbi and many of his closest friends and smiled. Not only was he surrounded by friendly faces, he knew, as promised by his doctor years ago, that if he lived to 100, he would get to have a glass of vodka.

But before the vodka was presented in a comically large martini glass, Kirk Douglas got to sit and listen to words from his loved ones as images from his many classic film credits such as “Spartacus,” ”Lust for Life,” ”Paths of Glory” and others played on a screen behind him.

Michael Douglas kicked off the proceedings, saying that it’s not just about age, but about the life he’s lived and what he’s accomplished.

“One of the things that I find most incredible about dad is the third act of his life,” said Michael Douglas. “After all he accomplished in his professional career and what he’s given for his country, at the point in his life where he’s faced adversity, losing a son, having a helicopter crash, having a stroke, and what he’s accomplished in this third act in his life, I find quite extraordinary.”

Kirk Douglas kept his remarks brief.

“I wonder who he was talking about? He said some nice things about someone I don’t know,” Kirk Douglas said, joking that Michael Douglas was chosen to organize the proceedings because “he has the most money.”

Kirk Douglas also thanked everyone for coming and marveled at seeing most of his family in the crowd.

Zeta-Jones then lit the 12 candles on the cake.

“I’m so glad there’s not 100!” she exclaimed, before leading the room to sing “Happy Birthday” with a string quartet accompaniment.

It was only the start of the afternoon, which included remarks from a few of his seven grandchildren, his Rabbi and his doctor. Charley King’s Bluebell Events oversaw the afternoon tea where each table was designated not by numbers but by Kirk Douglas’s films. The birthday boy was seated at the “Lonely Are the Brave” table, which is his favorite film.

Don Rickles lightened the reverent and respectful mood, quipping to the crowd from his seat that he wanted to go home.

He poked fun at Kirk Douglas’s good looks and physique saying that he had to hear the “I’m Spartacus crap” every day, and how Burt Lancaster used to advise him that Kirk Douglas “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Rickles did get a bit choked up by the end.

“You are an outstanding man because you’ve been blessed with warmth and love and class, and … ah, forget it, you’re all of that and more,” He said. “May god give you strength and may you be with us for 100 more. If that’s his wish, so be it, if not, I know in heaven you’ll be in charge.”

Off to the side, actress and dancer Neile Adams, who was Steve McQueen’s first wife, recalled Douglas’s mischievous side.

“Kirk was terrible when he was a young man! You could not sit beside him without his hand crawling up your leg. When Steve would leave the room suddenly he’d be on me,” she said with a hearty laugh. “But he was cute.”

She recalled his resilience, when a few years ago he had both of his knees replaced. Michael Douglas, she said, tried to encourage him to just do one and get a chair. Kirk Douglas, however, had a different idea and it didn’t involve a wheelchair.

“You’ll never see Spartacus in a (expletive) chair!” Adams remembered him saying.

Later in the afternoon, Katzenberg reflected on the generosity of the Douglas’s, who are famous for their charitable giving.

“You have remained and will always remain my hero,” Katzenberg said. “I will remind you of your words that you gave to me and I try to give to other people all the time which is ‘you haven’t learned how to live until you learn how to give.'”

Steven Spielberg, who arrived late, and on crutches having recently broken his foot on set came with a very specific message.

“I wanted to come here and say I’ve been shooting movies and television shows for now 47 years and I’ve worked with the best of them and you’re the only movie star I ever met,” Spielberg said. “There is something that you have that no one else ever had … When you watch Kirk’s performance in anything, in anything he’s ever done, you cannot take your eyes off of him. It’s not possible to look away from him.”

He called it an optimistic ferocity and it’s something he challenges all his actors to achieve in his films.

And, even after 100 years to show for it, he’s still fighting.</s>Actor Kirk Douglas, one of Hollywood’s few bona fide living legends, turns 100 years old today.

That is impressive enough — along with his remarkable contributions to American film history— but Douglas also joins a fairly long list of Hollywood actors who became centenarians and sometimes worked into their 90s.

Also on that list is Olivia de Havilland, who is still with us at 100 and living in Paris. Surviving at 102 is Norman Lloyd, who appeared in Trainwreck in 2015. Those who have passed away after hitting 100 include Luise Rainer, Gloria Stuart, Bob Hope, George Burns, Anne Sheridan and many others. Flamboyant actress and socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor is currently 99 and will turn 100 in February.

Douglas, father of actor-producer Michael Douglas, reached his Hollywood superstardom in the 1950s and ‘60s. His personal power and resiliency allowed him to break studio contracts, set up an independent film production company and help end the odious Hollywood blacklist that had ruined so many careers.

Significantly, Douglas risked his own career — but persevered and triumphed — when he hired blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo to adapt the novel Spartacus to the screen. With emerging master Stanley Kubrick as director, Spartacus (1960) showcased Douglas in the title role and became a siren song for human rights activism in the 1960s. Trumbo got an official on-screen credit and the walls of blacklist dungeon started to crumble.

Douglas was born as Issur Danielovitch in extreme poverty in Amsterdam, New York, on Dec. 9, 1916. As the son of Jewish immigrants who fled the old Russian empire, Douglas described his hardscrabble childhood in his 1988 autobiography, The Ragman’s Son.

His life changed, obviously for the better, when he managed to get a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. One classmate and close friend was Lauren Bacall, who has confessed to having a wild teen crush on Douglas but could not persuade him to reciprocate. Douglas and Bacall did co-star memorably in the smokin’ musical biopic, Young Man with a Horn (1950).

Meanwhile, Douglas married another classmate, Diana Dill, who became his first wife and mother of Michael Douglas. They divorced in 1951. Douglas remains with his second wife, Anne Buydens, whom he married in 1954.

Douglas succeeded first on the American stage, then in Hollywood films after serving in the U.S. Navy during WWII. Bacall helped him land his debut role in film, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946). But it was Douglas’ obvious talent, his intense energy and a lifelong stubborn streak that pushed him to stardom.

Between 1949 and 1956, Douglas was Oscar-nominated as best actor three times for Champion (1949), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and Lust for Life (1956). Forty years later, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences awarded him with an honorary Oscar for his then 50 years of contributions as “a creative and moral force” in Hollywood.

When I first met Douglas in 1999, he had already suffered his stroke, a devastating blow that initially cost him his speaking voice. Douglas’ stubborn nature — something that had occasionally grated on working colleagues — proved to be a godsend. Through hard work with a therapist, Douglas learned to speak again, albeit with some impediments. His own “lust for life” was just as intense in this era as it was for the character he played to such acclaim in the 1956 film: Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh.

Re-finding his voice even allowed him to continue to work, including in the 1999 film Diamonds and a Douglas clan effort called It Runs in the Family. Among his co-stars was son Michael and Diana Dill. Douglas last acting role was in 2008, for the TV movie Empire State Building Murders.

The later work barely hinted at his peak performance years when his brash nature, manly sexuality and quick wit made him the leading man of westerns, crime stories, dramas and selected comedies. Douglas also had a good sense with material in his prime years, buying the film rights to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. When he could not get the film made, he passed the rights on to his son Michael, who served as producer and turned it into an Oscar triumph.

Even at arm’s length, Kirk Douglas fashioned his unique legacy. Happy birthday, Mr. Douglas!

Every great actor generates an essential-viewing list. Here is Kirk Douglas’ list, in chronological order of release:

Champion (1949): Douglas learned real toughness playing a boxer willing to step on friends and foes alike to get ahead.

Young Man with a Horn (1950): Inspired by the life of Bix Beiderbecke, Douglas plays a musician battling demons.

Ace in the Hole (1951): With journalism in crisis now, it is intriguing to look back at this excoriating chronicle of a ruthless reporter.

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952): Douglas co-starred with Lana Turner in that rarity — a Hollywood film about filmmaking that still stands up.

Lust for Life (1956): With a wild look in his eye and a perfect physical transformation, Douglas plays Dutch master Vincent van Gogh.

Paths of Glory (1957): Douglas engineers this production set in WWI, hiring Stanley Kubrick to direct. They create an anti-war masterpiece.

Spartacus (1960): Another Douglas production with Kubrick. Douglas broke the blacklist and created a humanist sword-and-sandals epic.

Lonely are the Brave (1962): Douglas took the road less travelled when portraying “heroes” — even in a western.

The Arrangement (1969): With his stardom waning, Douglas still dared to experiment, working with Elia Kazan on an intensely interior drama about a suicidal man facing his life issues.

It Runs in the Family (2003): No one, not even a member of the Douglas clan, would claim greatness for this one. But it is fascinating to see the family literally get together for a drama about a dysfunctional family — with the elder Douglas acting through his stroke.</s>The actor turned 100 Friday. Douglas is probably best known for playing the title role in Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film, Spartacus. He was nominated for a best actor Oscar three times in the 1950s and received an honorary Academy Award in 1996.

His son, actor Michael Douglas, paid an early birthday tribute to his father at an October event for the Motion Picture and Television Fund, calling him an icon, a legend and "a true movie star from an era when movie stars were looked upon as our version of royalty."

Kirk Douglas was also presented with cake and a rendition of "Happy Birthday" at the event.</s>screen presence: Kirk Douglas at his 100th birthday party at the Beverly Hills Hotel in California on Friday.

Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas celebrated his 100th birthday with a party that was attended by family and some of the biggest names in the industry.

Best known for his classic films like Spartacus, Lust for Life and Paths of Glory, the actor celebrated the milestone age with wife Anne, son Michael Douglas, daughter-in-law Catherine Zeta-Jones at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Friday, reported People magazine.

Michael paid tribute to his parents. “He is always asking about what kind of father he was. Dad, you are an amazing, amazing father.” Anne called Kirk her “friend” and “lover”. The party was attended by Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, along with Steven Spielberg, Arthur Cohn and Jeff Kanew — who directed Kirk in the film Tough Guys.

Spielberg said he watched Kirk’s films to get inspired. “I’ve worked with the best of them. But, you’re the only movie star I’ve ever met,” the director said.</s>Earlier this year, we celebrated the news that Olivia de Havilland has passed her 100th birthday. She remains the only surviving top-of-the-order star from the pre-war era. Kirk Douglas deserves to be in that club, but he didn’t appear in a movie until he was 30.

The supporting appearance in The Strange Love of Marta Ivers set him up for the next half century. He hasn’t appeared in a film since the gimmicky It Runs in the Family in 2003, but his powerful presence has kept the golden age alive. We thought we were about to lose him when he suffered a debilitating stroke in 1996, but it looks as if they haven’t built the condition that can destroy Kirk Douglas.

Kirk was born as Issur Danielovitch in Amsterdam, New York. Both parents were from Russia and spoke Yiddish in the family home. Lives aren’t lived this way in America any more. He called his autobiography The Ragman’s Son and his dad was, indeed, the fellow who travelled the streets collecting trash, pans, bottles and old clothes. There doesn’t seem to be an odd job that the young Kirk didn’t try in his early years.

Having shown some talent for acting at school, he pointed himself in that direction and — after time as a newspaper seller, snack hawker, gardener and janitor — secured himself a scholarship at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

The war intervened and Douglas served as a communications officer in the US Navy. After discharge, he committed himself to the theatre, but his old pal Lauren Bacall reckoned he had the face for movies. She recommended him to Paramount and he was off.

We always hear that America of the post-war era was a time of suburban bliss with fridges in every kitchen, but the era’s popular cinema also found space for a cynical inversion of that world. This was the era of late noir and Douglas’s aquiline features and raspy voice suited the genre (and satellite productions) very nicely. Seek him out in Out of the Past and as the ultimate pushy reporter in Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole.

Douglas ran a parallel career with Burt Lancaster and the two actors shared much in common. Both were intensely physical performers: they stood still the way others moved. Both had a style of delivery that seemed unashamed of its mannered eccentricity. They dominated the screen, but you couldn’t sincerely argue that you’d met anyone who behaved like that. (Much the same could be said of more methody actors such as Marlon Brando or James Dean.) They ended up working together on seven films.

The 1950s were his golden years. Douglas formed a company called Byrna Productions and, among other things, set about creating the legend that was Stanley Kubrick. Douglas appeared in two of the director’s films: Paths of Glory and Spartacus. For the latter film he made a decision that secured his position as an icon of liberal Hollywood.

This was 1960 and the anti-Communist witch hunts were still gripping the industry. Kirk insisted that the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, who had been working under aliases, receive an onscreen credit for the picture. Many historians date the end of the McCarthy era from this point.

Next generation

 Like many of his generation, he didn’t quite fit in with the film-makers that began to take over in the late 1960s. In the early part of that decade, he appeared in fine pictures such as Two Weeks in Another Town (a kind of follow-up to The Bad and the Beautiful) and Lonely Are the Brave (among the great latter-day westerns), but the post-classical directors didn’t find much for him to do.

He does, however, have a close connection to one of the mid-1970s most celebrated films. In 1963 Douglas bought the rights to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and took the lead role in a successful Broadway production.

He yearned to play the part on film, but, when the time came in 1975, he was too old. Kirk passed the rights to his son, Michael Douglas, who, as producer, bagged an Oscar when the film won best picture. Kirk never took home a competitive Academy Award.

Douglas has been married for more than 60 years to his second wife He has four sons. His performances as Vincent Van Gogh in Lust for Life and a version of Bix Beiderbecke in Young Man with a Horn still rattle the speakers when they play on contemporary televisions.

It is a delight to write these words when the man is still alive. How remarkable it is that the stroke that initially left him mute happened a full 20 years ago. He has been living with that inconvenience for a fifth of a very long life. That experience and an earlier plane crash (good luck killing Kirk, feeble plane) led him back to the traditional Jewish faith of his upbringing.

His strong liberal beliefs remain undimmed. When Donald Trump was on the rise in September, Douglas issued an uncompromising statement. “These are not the American values that we fought in World War II to protect,” he wrote.

“I’ve also lived through the horrors of a Great Depression and two World Wars, the second of which was started by a man who promised that he would restore his country it to its former greatness.” Shut up! If anybody is allowed to compare Trump to Hitler, it is Kirk Douglas.

This is a happy day. An institution endures. Mazel tov, to you, sir. Mazel tov.

- Read this and other articles on Donald Clarke’s Screenwriter blog. See also @donaldclarke63</s>Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas, the star of such films as "Spartacus" and "The Vikings," turns 100 today after a long movie career that has stretched across seven decades.

Douglas was one of the biggest box-office stars of the 1950s and '60s and has made more than 90 movies. He also played a major role in breaking the Hollywood blacklist - actors, directors and writers who were shunned professionally because of links to the communist movement in the 1950s - an act he was more proud of than any film he made.

In his youth, Douglas had a distinctive chin, razor-sharp cheekbones and a jutting jaw - looks that he has passed along to son Michael, who also became a star - and that made him a natural for playing all manner of rugged characters.

Douglas also had a demanding nature that earned him a reputation in his prime as the actor who directed directors. Long-time friend and sometime co-star Burt Lancaster loved to introduce him by saying, "Kirk would be the first to admit he is a difficult person. (Pause) I would be the second."

Douglas, in a 90th birthday interview with Reuters in May 2007, said the line still amused him.

Douglas said playing Vincent van Gogh in "Lust for Life" (1956) was his favorite role but "Spartacus" (1960) was his favorite film because, as producer, he took a big step toward breaking the Hollywood blacklist.

A stroke in March of 1996 left Douglas with slurred speech and damaged facial nerves. But two weeks later he showed his spirit by attending the Academy Awards ceremony to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. He also continued to take small acting roles through 2008 but said the stroke left him suicidal.

The lifetime Oscar was Douglas' only Academy Award even though he was nominated for playing ruthless boxer Midge Kelly in "Champion" (1949), a movie executive in "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952) and van Gogh in "Lust for Life."

Douglas' first movie was "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers," in 1946 after being suggested for the part by acting school classmate Betty Joan Perske, who would find fame after changing her name to Lauren Bacall.

Douglas was known for powerful performances as characters who had to endure intense on-screen pain. He was stabbed in "Ace in the Hole," crucified in "Spartacus," lost an eye in "The Vikings," an ear in "Lust for Life," and a finger in "The Big Sky."

Born Issur Danielovich on Dec. 9, 1916, in Amsterdam, New York, Douglas was the only son of seven children born to illiterate Russian immigrants.

After graduating from high school, he hitch-hiked to St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where he became a wrestling champion. He also staged and starred in theatrical productions, changing his name to Izzy Demsy.

After St. Lawrence, he graduated from New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1941 and changed his name to Kirk Douglas. He joined the Navy following two small Broadway roles.

While in the Navy he married British actress Diana Dill and they had two sons, Michael and Joel, before the marriage ended after eight years.

Douglas had a reputation as a Hollywood ladies' man. Among the lovers listed in the 1988 book "The Ragman's Son," one of several books he wrote about his life, were Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Maxwell, Patricial Neal and Gene Tierney.

While making "Act of Love" in 1953, Douglas met and married Anne Buydens, the film's publicist. Their marriage became one of Hollywood's most enduring despite his affairs. They had two sons, Peter and Eric.

Douglas, who survived a 1991 helicopter crash that killed two people, tried to discourage his children from following him into acting. Still, Michael became a superstar and a successful producer, Joel and Peter also were producers and Eric was an actor until his 2004 death from a drug overdose.

Douglas, who grew a long white ponytail in his later years, published several books, including a book of poetry, prose and photographs at age 98 in 2014.

He established the Douglas Foundation for making charitable donations and in 2015 he and Anne announced plans to give away his $80 million fortune to a variety of causes. The beneficiaries included a shelter for homeless women named after Anne, the Los Angeles public school district, St. Lawrence University and hospitals.

To mark his 99th birthday in 2015 he donated $15 million to the Motion Picture and Television Fund to help build a facility for entertainment industry figures with Alzheimer's disease.</s>Kirk Douglas, one of the last survivors of Hollywood's golden age, celebrates his 100th birthday on Friday, December 9. He embarked on a screen career in 1946 after theater work and a stint in the Navy during World War II. The three-time Oscar nominee, pictured here circa 1955, appeared in such classics as "Champion" (1949), "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952), "Lust for Life" (1956), "Paths of Glory" (1957) and "Spartacus" (1960).

The actor, here in the 1950s, was born Issur Danielovitch to Russian immigrant parents in Amsterdam, New York, in 1916. He would eventually change his name to Kirk Douglas.

Douglas escorts Irene Wrightsman McEvoy to the Academy Awards in March 1950. He was nominated that year for best actor for his breakout role in "Champion." He would also be nominated for "The Bad and the Beautiful" and "Lust for Life." The star received an honorary Academy Award in 1996.

Douglas goes on location in 1951 for director Billy Wilder's film "Ace in the Hole." The star played a cynical reporter out for a scoop in this dark look at journalism.

Douglas kneels beside his sons Joel, left, and Michael in the mid-'50s. Both followed their father's career into films, with Joel a producer and MIchael an actor and producer.

Douglas stars as Vincent van Gogh in director Vincente Minnelli's film about the Dutch painter, "Lust for Life" (1956). Co-star Anthony Quinn, right, won the best supporting actor Oscar for his role as rival Paul Gauguin.

Kirk Douglas enjoys a book with his second wife, Anne Buydens, circa 1956. The two have been married since 1954.

Douglas, right, rehearses with Burt Lancaster in preparation for the "Night of 100 Stars" event in London in 1958. The two stars appeared in five films together, from "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" (1957) to "Tough Guys" (1986).

Douglas stops at the Rome airport on his way to a safari in Kenya in 1962.

Kirk Douglas appears with his son Michael on the set of the film "Cast a Giant Shadow" in Rome in the mid-'60s. Michael Douglas had a small uncredited role in his dad's move. He would go on to become a major film star himself in the 1980s and '90s.

Douglas address a press conference in 1980 at the Cannes Film Festival, where he was president of the jury.

Actor Jack Nicholson greets Kirk Douglas after a ceremony honoring son Michael Douglas at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1997. Michael placed his hands and footprints in cement at the Hollywood landmark.

From left, Corbin Allred, Dan Aykroyd and Douglas star in "Diamonds" (1999), one of the star's more recent screen appearances.

Father and son attend a Simon Wiesenthal Center dinner honoring the latter with its Humanitarian Award in 2001.

Douglas displays a copy of his memoir, "My Stroke of Luck," at a New York bookstore in 2002. The star had recovered from a stroke he suffered in the mid-'90s.

Douglas, second from left, appears with his first wife, the late Diana Douglas, son Michael and grandson Cameron Douglas at a special screening of "It Runs in the Family" in Los Angeles. All four actors starred in the 2003 film.

Douglas greets his daughter-in-law Catherine Zeta-Jones backstage at "A Little Night Music" on Broadway in 2009. She was starring in a revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical.
American film actor and producer Kirk Douglas, one of the last living movie stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, celebrates his 100th birthday.