Kirk Douglas (lahir di Amsterdam, New York, 9 Desember 1916; umur 102 tahun dengan nama Issur Danielovitch Demsky) adalah seorang pemeran dan produser film Amerika Serikat. Ia adalah ayah dari aktor Michael Douglas. Dalam daftar AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars ia diberi peringkat 17 dan satu dari dua aktor dalam daftar itu yang masih hidup (satunya lagi adalah Sidney Poitier). Ia dilahirkan di Amsterdam, New York, dalam keluarga imigran Rusia Yahudi miskin Herschel Danielovitch dan Bryna Sanglel. Keduanya berimigrasi dari Homyel, sekarang di Belarusia. Di St. Lawrence University ia masuk tim gulat. Untuk membiayai sekolahnya, ia mencoba meraih beasiswa acting. Bakatnya menarik perhatian American Academy of Dramatic Arts di New York City, dan ia mendapat beasiswa bersama dengan Betty Joan Perske (kemudian dikenal sebagai Lauren Bacall) dan Diana Dill. Ia kemudian masuk ke U.S. Navy dan bertugas dalam Perang Dunia II dari 1941 sampai 1945. Pada 1943 ia menikahi Dill, dan setelah perang ia kembali ke New York City, memulai karier dalam teater dan iklan radio sambil mencari peluang di Broadway. Douglas dibantu rekannya Lauren Bacall memperoleh peran pertamanya dalam film Hal B. Wallis, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), bersama Barbara Stanwyck. Ia kemudian meraih 3 nominasi Oscar untuk film Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful, dan Lust for Life. Ia tidak memenangkan satupun, tetapi meraih penghargaan khusus pada 1996 untuk "50 years as a moral and creative force in the motion picture community". Dalam wawancara, ia selalu menyebut Lonely Are the Brave (1962) sebagai karya terbaiknya.
Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch Demsky, December 9, 1916) is an American actor, filmmaker, author and centenarian. He is one of the last surviving stars of the film industry's Golden Age. After an impoverished childhood with immigrant parents and six sisters, he had his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s, known for serious dramas, including westerns and war movies. During his career, he appeared in more than 90 movies. Douglas is known for his explosive acting style. Douglas became an international star through positive reception for his leading role as an unscrupulous boxing hero in Champion (1949), which brought him his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Other early films include Young Man with a Horn (1950), playing opposite Lauren Bacall and Doris Day; Ace in the Hole opposite Jan Sterling (1951); and Detective Story (1951). He received a second Oscar nomination for his dramatic role in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), opposite Lana Turner, and his third nomination for portraying Vincent van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956).
In 1955, he established Bryna Productions, which began producing films as varied as Paths of Glory (1957) and Spartacus (1960). In those two films, he collaborated with the then-relatively-unknown director Stanley Kubrick taking lead roles in both films. Douglas has been praised for helping to break the Hollywood blacklist by having Dalton Trumbo write Spartacus with an official on-screen credit, although this has been disputed by others.[3] He produced and starred in Lonely Are the Brave (1962), considered a classic, and Seven Days in May (1964), opposite Burt Lancaster, with whom he made seven films. In 1963, he starred in the Broadway play One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a story he purchased, and which he later gave to his son Michael Douglas, who turned it into an Oscar-winning film.
As an actor and philanthropist, Douglas has received three Academy Award nominations, an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. As an author, he has written ten novels and memoirs. Currently, he is No. 17 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male screen legends of classic Hollywood cinema, and the highest-ranked living person on the list. After barely surviving a helicopter crash in 1991 and then suffering a stroke in 1996, he has focused on renewing his spiritual and religious life. He lives with his second wife (of 64 years), Anne Buydens, a producer.
