From NPR (abridged):
Kirk Douglas, Hollywood Tough Guy And 'Spartacus' Superstar, Dies At 103
His son Michael Douglas
announced the actor's death: "To the world he was a legend. ... But to me and my brothers Joel and Peter he was simply Dad."
Kirk Douglas, for more than two decades "cast a giant shadow," playing two or even three starring roles each year. When he was not cast for Ben-Hur, losing the role to Charlton Heston, Douglas countered with his own Roman epic,
Spartacus. Douglas produced the film and starred as the title character who famously revolted against his Roman captors.
In Stanley Kubrick's
Paths of Glory, Douglas played the principled Colonel Dax, stepping into an iconic role of the good man fighting the establishment. His best performance was perhaps as Vincent van Gogh in
Lust for Life.
Off-screen, Douglas led a revolt, against Hollywood's blacklist. The communist witch-hunts of the 1950s had destroyed many careers, including that of
Spartacus screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. Douglas was disgusted by this hypocrisy, and saying "to hell with it," put Trumbo's real name in the film credits.
When
Spartacus became a hit, the blacklist was effectively finished. More than three decades later, speaking with NPR's Susan Stamberg, Douglas reflected upon this impulsive but life-defining decision: "Sometimes I often think that if I were much older, would I still have done it? It was an impulsive thing. I'm proud of it. I think it's one of the good things that I've done in life."