He's Spartacus!

December 9, 2016 2:32 AM

Issur Danielovitch Demsky, aka Kirk Douglas, turns 100 today.

Kirk Douglas Turns 100: The Legendary Actor Recalls Kubrick and the Blacklist
5 reasons to celebrate actor Kirk Douglas on his 100th birthday
Kirk Douglas at 100: a one-man Hollywood Mount Rushmore
In pictures: Kirk Douglas at 100
"I'm Spartacus!"

posted by chavenet (26 comments total)

He's the last of the greats, isn't he? I can't think of any other stars from his era who are still alive.
posted by Beholder at 3:11 AM on December 9, 2016

Happy Birthday, Colonel Dax!
posted by fairmettle at 3:35 AM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Damn, he was one good-looking man, plus a great actor, too. Thanks for all the movies, Mr. Douglas!
posted by easily confused at 3:54 AM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've been saying I'm Spartacus to everyone on the train this AM and they all think I'm nuts! LOL! I wanna kick their asses down the well.
posted by xtian at 4:06 AM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

He's alive?! (As shocking to me as some of the recent losses.) Happy damn birthday, Kirk and I wish you many more (assuming you want them).
posted by ezust at 4:16 AM on December 9, 2016

!
posted by jiroczech at 4:48 AM on December 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Ever since I read the rumors about him and Natalie Woods, I haven't felt the same about him.
posted by Bee'sWing at 4:49 AM on December 9, 2016 [7 favorites]

More a Tony Curtis note than a Kirk Douglas note, given that he's not in the scene, but that cut-and-restored bath scene in Spartacus was, I think, the only discussion of homosexuality I had in school. Or, more precisely, the Latin teacher's awkward explanation (he'd start circumlocuting if it came within 100 miles of sex, which is a problem if you teach Latin) when he realised we had no idea why they were talking about seafood.

This is totally related because I definitely fancied Kirk Douglas as a small child.
posted by hoyland at 5:13 AM on December 9, 2016 [5 favorites]

This is another article that could do with a not-dead flag in the title.
posted by acb at 5:19 AM on December 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Also, there are 22 days left of 2016; let's celebrate Kirk Douglas having survived this treacherous year on the first of January.
posted by acb at 5:21 AM on December 9, 2016 [6 favorites]

fucking Crassus. I hate that guy!
posted by thelonius at 5:26 AM on December 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

Happy birthday to the real creator of Itchy and Scratchy, and to the owner of a solid gold house!
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:34 AM on December 9, 2016 [10 favorites]

Was Charles Muntz in Up based on Kirk Douglas? He was voiced by Christopher Plummer, but I kept seeing Douglas.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:06 AM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I gave him a plate of corn muffins back in 1947 to paint my chicken coop, and he never did it!
posted by cmfletcher at 6:16 AM on December 9, 2016 [6 favorites]

Not just Natalie Wood, Bee'sWing.
posted by schadenfrau at 6:37 AM on December 9, 2016

Seeing Trumbo gave me a newfound respect for Kirk Douglas. Googling "Kirk Douglas Natalie Wood" just flushed it down the toilet. Maybe living to 100 is nature's way of balancing accounts.
posted by bunbury at 7:01 AM on December 9, 2016

My favorite Kirk Douglas moment is still this one from Paths of Glory.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 7:05 AM on December 9, 2016

Check out this late career gem, an episode of Tales From The Crypt, and take note of who directed it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0716911
posted by Beholder at 7:56 AM on December 9, 2016

If you haven't seen him in Ace in the Hole, do it. He wipes the floor with everybody in the movie, chews the scenery up and spits it out, and plays perhaps the best and most unsympathetic villain-you-still-want-to-win ever. And that final scene: God, I get chills every time I watch it.
posted by blucevalo at 8:12 AM on December 9, 2016 [5 favorites]

,
posted by Rumple at 8:46 AM on December 9, 2016

I've loved him in many a film

Been meaning to rewatch Seven Days In May
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:51 AM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

He's completely brilliant as the heavy in the best film noir ever, Out Of The Past. It was his second film role.
posted by vibrotronica at 9:22 AM on December 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

He bought a grass field for my elementary school the year after I graduated. I was told by people who attended the ribbon cutting that he did somersaults on the grass. He was about 80 years old at the time.

As far as I know that field is still there (though it probably isn't green anymore due to years of drought). I remember my shoes melting into the asphalt on hot days when I was a kid, and grass would have been a big improvement. And if you're still doing somersaults on grass fields in your 80s you're doing something right.
posted by potrzebie at 9:41 AM on December 9, 2016 [6 favorites]

Dick Van Dyke, also in rude health.
posted by Damienmce at 2:01 PM on December 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Let's not forget that he STILL has good politics: just a couple of months ago, Kirk Douglas publicly denounced Trump and his fear-mongering.

(And this is probably the only chance I get to tell MY Kirk Douglas connection: my mother (...ALSO the child of Lithuanian immigrants...) went to Amsterdam High School with him.)
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 8:08 AM on December 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Ace in the Hole is one of those movies that probably hurt too much (HT Roger Ebert): Billy Wilder's bleakest film. It is completely worth seeing anyway and scarily prescient about the ugliness underlying a media circus. Douglas was perfectly cast.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 2:53 PM on December 10, 2016