Douglas, Kirk

Douglas, Kirk (1916- ), American film actor and director. Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch in Amsterdam, New York, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. He attended St Lawrence University and then the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, working in between as a waiter, professional wrestler, usher, and “soda-jerk”. He first appeared on Broadway in 1941, and his first film appearance was as an alcoholic husband in Lewis Milestone's The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946). Since then he has appeared in over 70 films, carving out a distinctive place as an actor whose unshakeable faith in himself commands absolute attention. He could portray fierce and relentless ambition—as a boxer in Champion (1949), a ruthless journalist in Ace In The Hole (1951), or a domineering film producer in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). He was equally powerful portraying the lone individual pitted against an indifferent or brutal society, as in Lonely Are the Brave (1962). In The Big Sky (1952), Lust For Life (1956), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Paths of Glory (both 1957), Seven Days in May (1964), The Brotherhood (1969), and many others, he could be relied on to draw on a restless energy which exemplified a resolute stubborness to see things through to the end. He directed two of his own films, Scalawag (1973) and Posse (1975), and has published two autobiographical books, The Ragman's Son (1988) and Dance with the Devil (1990).