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Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916) is an American actor, producer, director, and author. 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 and 1960s, known for serious dramas, including westerns and war movies. During a sixty-year acting career, he has appeared in over 90 movies, and in 1960 was responsible for helping to end the Hollywood blacklist. In 1949, after a lead role as an unscrupulous boxing hero in ''Champion'', for which he was nominated as Best Actor, Douglas became a star. His style of acting relied on expressing great concentration, realism, and powerful emotions, and he subsequently gravitated toward roles requiring strong characters. Among his early films were ''Young Man with a Horn'', playing opposite Lauren Bacall (1950), Billy Wilder's controversial ''Ace in the Hole'' (1951), and ''Detective Story'' (1951). He received a second Oscar nomination for his dramatic role in ''The Bad and the Beautiful'' (1952), where he played opposite Lana Turner. And his powerful acting as Vincent van Gogh in ''Lust for Life'' (1956) is considered one of his finest roles. He is one of the last living actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood. 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 starred and collaborated with then relatively unknown director, Stanley Kubrick. He produced and starred in ''Lonely Are the Brave'' (1962), considered a cult 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, 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 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 producer Anne Buydens, his wife of over 60 years. ==Early life and education== Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch in Amsterdam, New York, the son of Bryna "Bertha" (née Sanglel) and Herschel "Harry" Danielovitch (1884-1950), a businessman.〔() Kirk Douglas Biography (1916–)〕 His parents were Jewish immigrants from Chavusy, Mogilev Region, in the Russian Empire (now Belarus),〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Kirk and Michael Douglas )〕 and the family spoke Yiddish at home. His father's brother, who emigrated earlier, used the surname Demsky, which Douglas' family adopted in the United States.〔Douglas, Kirk. (''Let's Face It'' ). John Wiley & Sons, 2007. ISBN 0-470-08469-3.〕 Douglas grew up as Izzy Demsky and legally changed his name to Kirk Douglas before entering the Navy during World War II. In his 1988 autobiography, ''The Ragman's Son'', Douglas notes the hardships that he, along with six sisters and his parents, endured during their early years in New York: My father, who had been a horse trader in Russia, got himself a horse and a small wagon, and became a ragman, buying old rags, pieces of metal, and junk for pennies, nickels, and dimes. . . . Even on Eagle Street, in the poorest section of town, where all the families were struggling, the ragman was on the lowest rung on the ladder. And I was the ragman's son. Growing up, Douglas sold snacks to mill workers to earn enough to buy milk and bread to help his family. Later, he delivered newspapers and during his youth worked at more than forty different jobs before getting a job acting.〔Thomas, p. 12〕 He found living in a family with six sisters to be stifling: "I was dying to get out. In a sense, it lit a fire under me."〔Thomas, p. 13〕 In high school, after acting in plays, he then knew he wanted to become a professional actor.〔 Unable to afford tuition, Douglas talked his way into St. Lawrence University and received a loan which he paid back by working part-time as a gardener and a janitor. He was a standout on the wrestling team, and wrestled one summer in a carnival to make money.〔Thomas, p. 15〕 Douglas' acting talents were noticed at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and he received a special scholarship. One of his classmates was Betty Joan Perske (later to become better known as Lauren Bacall), who would play an important role in launching his film career.〔Thomas, p. 18〕 Another classmate, and a friend of Bacall, was aspiring actress, Diana Dill, who would later become Douglas's wife. Bacall writes that she "had a wild crush on Kirk,"〔Bacall, Lauren. ''By Myself and Then Some'', HarperCollins (1978) p. 26〕 and they dated casually. During their time together, she learned that he had no money, and he once spent the night in jail as he had no place to sleep. She gave him her uncle's old coat to keep warm: "I thought he must be frozen in the winter.... He was thrilled and grateful."〔 During that period she fantasized about some day sharing her personal and stage life with Douglas, but would later be disappointed: "Kirk did not really pursue me. He was friendly and sweet–enjoyed my company–but I was clearly too young for him," she later wrote.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kirk Douglas」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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