13 Facts You May Not Know About Kirk Douglas

This week, sadly, we lost one of the most iconic actors of our time.

Kirk Douglas passed away on Wednesday at the age of 103.

His son, Michael, announced the death via Instagram, stating, “It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103.

“To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the Golden Age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to.”

Rather than discuss the obvious, we thought we would recap some of the lesser-known facts about Douglas, a man that singlehandedly made tens of millions of people fall in love with the big screen.

#1 – Kirk Douglas’ real name is Issur Danielovitch.

#2 – Douglas is of Jewish descent and Yiddish was the preferred language spoken in his home growing up.

#3- Douglas’ family used a surname his uncle used when they first immigrated to the United States, Demsky, with Douglas’ childhood name being Izzy Demksy.

#4 – Kirk Douglas formally changed his name to what we know him as today when he entered the United States Navy during WWII (final rank of LTJG – Lieutenant Junior Grade).

#5 – Douglas’ first role was as Walter O’Neil in “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers” in 1946.

#6 – Douglas’ first nomination for an Academy Award happened in 1949 for his role as boxing hero in “Champion.”

#7 – Douglas’ Bryna Productions produced two of his most famous films, “Paths of Glory (1957)” and “Spartacus (1960).”

#8 – Kirk Douglas wrote a total of 10 novels and memoirs.

#9 – Douglas survived a helicopter crash in 1991.

#10 – Kirk Douglas appeared in one episode of “The Simpsons” in 1996, the same year he suffered a debilitating stroke.

#11 – While Douglas appeared in more than 90 movies and produced 32 of them, he only directed two movies, “Posse (1975)” and “Scalawag (1973).”

#12 – Douglas’ last movie was actually a TV movie called “Empire State Building Murders” in 2008.

#13 – At the time of his death, Douglas had an estimated net worth of $60 million, but he and his wife have donated tens of millions of dollars over the years, including an estimated $40 million to Alzheimer’s treatment facility Harry’s Haven, $5 million to St. Lawrence University, the costs for construction of numerous playgrounds in Jerusalem, and the Kirk Douglas Theater at the Aish Center.