At the age of 100

Being 100 years old is a feat, but reaching the age of 100 and, at the same time, being a living legend of the history of cinema is not only a feat but … how should we define it? I guess that it´s understandable to feel speechless because very few people can boast about these two facts but Kirk Douglas is one of them. He has made more than 90 films so he has played very different roles throughout his career but, perhaps, for most of us, Kirk Douglas is and will always be Spartacus in the Stanley Kubrick film, whose screenplay was written by a blacklisted author during the McCarthy era. I can´t help thinking about Cary Grant now as the two of them received three Oscar nominations but they didn´t win an Academy Award until they received a Lifetime Achievement Award. Both Cary Grant and Kirk Douglas changed their real names and acquired stage names – Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch, the son of a Moscow-born Russian Jewish ragman – and even if he was born in the United States, he had to deal with “casual anti-Semitism” almost throughout his career as he wrote in his 1988 autobiography The Ragman´s Son, a title which underlines his humble origins.

                                                 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KIRK!!