RIP Kirk Douglas

His greatest accomplishment in life was making it to 103

 

Man ... Paths of Glory, Spartacus and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. That's a hell of a career. Oddly enough, as a kid, I was introduced to his acting in "Tough Guys" with Burt Lancaster and loved it. I haven't seen it in 30 years, and it's probably far more terrible than I remember, but that was the movie that made me seek out more of his work.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was the next one I saw. My Nana used to babysit my sister and I on Friday nights (overnight), and on Saturday mornings we would watch a show called Dialing for Dollars with George Allen. It showed all kinds of old sci-fi movies, like The Blob, Planet of the Apes and such. That's when I saw 20,000 Leagues.

I knew I liked him, but it wasn't until college that I saw Paths of Glory and Spartacus and that was a whole new level. The guy was great. And his son was no slouch either. Hollywood royalty. RIP.

 

I'd never heard the Wood rumor before. Apparently the story has been around for a while - not something that came up as part of the MeToo stuff. Bad week for celebrities accused of rape dying I guess.

 

Yep. I was watching a Natalie Wood movie the other night and found the rumor out for the first time too. If you Google search, "who raped Natalie Wood?", Kirk Douglas's bio is the first thing that comes up.

Really sad about that. I admired him as an actor, especially in "Paths Of Glory" and "Seven Days In May", but Wood's alleged rape was particularly brutal.

 

For some reason, the wood rumor made me think of this old sctv bit with joe flaherty as douglas

 

Just a quick note on that, Eugene Levy and Catherine O'hara were on the Conan podcast recently.

 

Didn’t need to click the link to know the line. Had totally forgotten about this!

 

He was 57 when I was born. He was old and I never saw any of his movies except Spartacus. RIP