Hollywood icon died at 103
By Sam Catanzaro
Actor and Hollywood star Kirk Douglas died yesterday at age 103 as the Culver City theatre named after the icon dimmed its lights Wednesday evening in his honor.
“Kirk was a star in every possible way—in his art and acting, his love of family and country, and in his tremendous philanthropy. Kirk always said that theatre was his first love, and you could see that in his eyes as he sat front and center on so many opening nights,” wrote the Michael Ritchie, Center Theatre Group’s Artistic Director, in a Facebook post.
The Center Theatre Group operates the Kirk Douglas Theatre located at 9820 Washington Boulevard in Culver City, an institution that Kirk and his wife Anne helped support over the years.
“As the world mourns the loss of Kirk Douglas, we are especially going to miss him in the audience and in our lives here at Center Theatre Group. Tonight we will borrow a long-standing Broadway tradition and dim the lights on the marquee of the Kirk Douglas Theatre at 7:50 pm. It is a small but meaningful recognition of a man who brightened so many lives and made this theatre possible.”
Douglas, born Issur Danielovitch Demsky in Amsterdam, New York in 1916, starred in over 75 films over the course of his career, including the 1960 gladiator film “Spartacus” and “The Bad and the Beautiful”, which earned him an Academy Award nomination.
Douglas is survived by his wife Anne, and his three sons Michael, Joel, and Eric.
