9 December: Kirk Douglas

The actor Kirk Douglas was born on this date in 1916. 10 things you might not know about him:

1. His real name was Issur Danielovitch. His family changed their name to Demsky so as a young man he went by Izzy Demsky. He changed his name to Kirk Douglas to give himself a more American sounding name, to boost his acting career.
2. He was born in New York, although his family had emigrated from Chavusy, Mogilev Region, which was part of Russia at the time but is now part of the present-day nation of Belarus. The family weren’t well off. His father was a ragman, buying and selling old rags and metal. Douglas worked from an early age, selling snacks to mill workers and delivering Newspapers, to help the family finances.
3. Douglas knew from kindergarten that he wanted to be an actor, after receiving applause for reciting a poem. In high school, he acted in school productions but knew he couldn’t afford to go to acting school. Undeterred, Douglas talked his way into the dean's office at St. Lawrence University and showed him a list of his high school honours. He took out a loan to pay for the tuition and worked at various jobs to pay it back. During that time he worked as a gardener, a janitor and also wrestled at a carnival one summer.
4. He joined the Navy in 1941 and served as a communications officer in anti-submarine warfare aboard USS PC-1137. The accidental dropping of a depth charge led to him being medically discharged.
5. In 1943 he got a break in stage acting when he took over Richard Widmark’s role in Kiss and Tell. His ambition was to be a stage actor, but broke into film as a result of his friendship with Lauren Bacall, who recommended him to producer Hal B. Wallis, who was looking for a new male talent. He made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers with Barbara Stanwyck in 1946. He went on to appear in over 90 films.
6. He married twice. The first time was to Diana Dill, in 1943. They had two sons, Joel and Michael, who went on to become an A list actor in his own right. The couple divorced in 1951. He married again in 1953. His second wife was Anne Buydens, who he met while filming on location in Paris. She had fled from Germany to escape Nazism and was working for film studios translating for subtitles. He wasn’t faithful to her and had several affairs, but Anne knew all about them and was remarkably tolerant. She said, "as a European, I understood it was unrealistic to expect total fidelity in a marriage." In 2017 they published their love letters in a book called Kirk and Anne: Letters of Love, Laughter and a Lifetime in Hollywood.
7. Douglas wrote ten books, both novels and memoirs including The Ragman's Son, Last Tango in Brooklyn, Climbing the Mountain: My Search for Meaning, Let's Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning, I Am Spartacus! and Life Could Be Verse: Reflections on Love, Loss, and What Really Matters.
8. He was brought up in the Jewish faith – his family spoke Yiddish at home. He returned to his faith later in life after surviving a Helicopter crash and a stroke, which left him unable to speak, and after months of speech therapy his ability to speak was still limited. He wrote a book about this experience in 2002 called My Stroke of Luck, which he hoped would be an "operating manual" on how to cope if someone in their family became a stroke victim. At the age of 83, he celebrated a second Bar-Mitzvah ceremony. His wife, Anne, converted to Judaism before they renewed their wedding vows in 2004.
9. While Douglas himself and many who knew him would describe him as brash, aggressive and difficult, a result, perhaps of growing up in poverty with an abusive father, he was also known for his wit, sense of humour and philanthropy. He donated money to schools and good causes. A lifelong member of the Democratic Party, he travelled with Anne to more than 40 countries, at their own expense, to act as goodwill ambassadors for the U.S. This work earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Jimmy Carter in 1981.
10. At the age of 101, he appeared at the Golden Globes with his daughter-in-law Catherine Zeta-Jones and He received a standing ovation and helped to present the award for "Best Screenplay – Motion Picture". He died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, on February 5, 2020, at the age of 103.

NEW!

Who's That Girl?

Matt Webster lives in a tower block and attends a failing school. He dreams of being a spy like James Bond. Little does he know that he is being watched by someone who can make him into even more than that – a superhero.

His first solo mission is to attend a ball at the Decembrian Embassy and discover who is planning to steal a priceless diamond. While there, he meets the mysterious Lady Antonia du Cane, and is powerfully drawn to her. It soon becomes clear, however, that Lady du Cane is not what she seems. Matt’s quest to discover who she really is almost costs him his career.

A modern day Guy Fawkes gathers a coterie around him with the aim of blowing up Parliament with a nuclear bomb. To achieve this, they need money. Lots of it. Selling the Heart of Decembria Diamond will provide more than enough. All that stands in their way is the Freedom League – but the League is beset by internal disagreements. Can the heroes put their differences aside in time to save the day?

Prime Minister Richard Miller and his wife Fiona grieve for their daughter, Yasmin, who has been missing for three years, and is presumed to be dead. Viper agent Violet Parker could hold the key to what happened to Yasmin, but Violet is accused of giving away the organisation’s secrets. She is to be executed without trial. Will she take her knowledge of what happened to Yasmin with her to her grave?

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-Book