Kirk Douglas // Interview Collection

[Music] we're saying at the beginning you know my story is so typical of so many people in the United States you know come from immigrant parents and you sort of work your way through college you go to dramatic school and you are fortunate enough to go into the kind of work that you'd like to do and it's sort of a but what I call a corny American story but nonetheless - I mean this poor and poor isn't this problem - a poverty of quality I mean how cool will you we are well I don't want it you know I'm afraid Nick Emery if he's listening with you know feel very humiliated because you know my wife once said to me you know Kirk one of these days you're gonna be shattered because you might meet someone who was poor than you but yes I came from my guess Michael what you'd call abject poverty if not having enough to eat you know days we didn't have food I guess that's that's poor you were hungry poor yes yeah and and something as a matter of fact that's intrigued because I don't think there's any reason for anyone really in the world to be hungry poor and I think that hopefully someday some of our politicians in our country or other countries would certainly work out a way where there's no reason really for anyone ever to be hung report yes but you were one you're the only boy weren't you in a family of six girls that's right I don't lend you like something of that yeah don't ask you to make something of that well of course I think that's quite difficult you know I not only had six sisters and my mother that's seven women but my father and mother separated at an early age and that left me with seven women which I think was a very difficult upbringing and I found going to college was really a form of escape I found the environment really kind of smothering yes and you know I had mixed feelings why did I leave my who by the way was quite a character he was a very powerful man a peasant he he also drank a lot I think is a form of escape and I've often thought that one of the bravest moments in my life was one day I was just and I was about 10 years old we were all sitting around the table my six sisters my mother and I my father was sitting one of the rare moments that he was with us and we're drinking tea in that time out of a glass Russian style you know my father was breaking off a piece of shiver and sipping the tea through and everybody was frightening he was just overpowering enemy was in the mean mood and I don't know why suddenly I took a spoon and I took it into the filled it with a hot tea and I well I tell you he grabbed me and beat me but I just felt so I felt I did it you know and it and I'm sound strange but that is so vivid in my mind and it's almost it was it's almost like an act that I feel saved me that I dared to do something and when you're that young you think you know you you actually think you're risking your life and I admire him even more after I read his autobiography he's had an extraordinary career in motion pictures around 80 films starting in 1949 with champion through paths of glory lust for life Spartacus lonely are the brave on and on even nominated Academy were three times a fascinating autobiography called the rag man's son would you welcome please mr. Kirk Duggars [Music] how are you good yeah this is a I understand is going through the roof I'm in yeah a very matter-of-fact see today they calling from New York to tell me that in the New York Times bestseller list it went from nine to six to four that kind of scared me my first or why then I'm making about movies maybe this is the business oriented autobiography is normally do not do that well I mean you know a lot of people the entertainment have written the stories of that Freddie how's your book deal was it it's not for six or not I'm sorry but you know I think John the the difficult thing is to find a reason to write an autobiography and you know what happened to me is one day I was driving to Palm Springs and there was a young sailor hitchhiking I used to be in the Navy so I picked him up and he ran up got in the car he looked at me and said do you know who you are but I thought about it's funny but that's a great question do you know who you are and I thought about that and after a while I got to starting to think you know I'm always mixed up so much in the world of make-believe yeah that what is reality so that's what got me starting to write my autobiography to answer that question Who am I yeah I found it faster I found you early years when you were when you lived in New York and your dad was was a rag man right that's right my father was an illiterate Russian immigrant it came to this country around 1910 like millions of others and he was in upstate New York and I was surprised because a lot of young what's a rag man I said well my father had a horse and wagon he went around and collected rags and metals and you know pieces of metal iron and stuff and we sold it and that's how he made his living I'm I've often heard that kids who grew up poor didn't realize at the time that they were poor because they didn't have a great deal to compare it with were you conscious that you were really poor well I think you have a point although yes where we were poor I was very poor as a matter of fact my wife and had some wonderful thing to say he said you know the trouble with Kirk is he snob in Reverse one of these days he's gonna be shattered because he's gonna meet somebody who was poorer than he was no I was really poor but I do think I have told my sons that they haven't had my advantages because I had the advantage of being born in abject poverty that means I had nowhere to go but up yeah if my old man was a rich movie actor I don't know what I would have turned out to be probably a polo player or something yeah that is hard to imagine this in a way I know what you're saying the fact that they have the motivation to do something I had to I know your wife Ann she must be rather understanding because you detail in here um a few escapades you have had over the years with some of them very nice ladies in Hollywood where doesn't John you know you and I have a lot in common no wait a lot of girlfriends the only difference is I did marry the women who are around that you talked about did you talk with him beforehand and say I might mention your name enough not in this book here now you know John you keep insisting I'm trying to explain to you that this is a you know a lot of children watching this show and in my book it feels primarily my father Roland bit my kids I feel we want to sword with now come on yes are there and there many people who are not interesting that they can just flip over those pages and go on with the story well then why did you put those in because I think seriously that it was an integral part of know if you're trying that's true no but if you're trying to write your life story life is long death and sex yester sex is a very important part of life so you can't completely ignore that as more fun than death do it was there any and I don't want to say escapade or affair but is there any one of those little get-togethers that you didn't put in the book for various reasons but you thought maybe then we'll get to be important to your struggle and how tough it was a song that Willie Nelson wrote that I always like to all up to all the girls I've loved before wandered in and out my door I dedicate this song yes glad they came along to all the girls I've loved before and I think that anyone that you've had any kind of relationship with in your life it's important I mean why can't I say something like that do you without you breaking into a smile with a big grin make sure my wife is watching the show shoot would you leave out of the book what what's your best quality what's my best wooden thing is your best quality is a person knows an actor well I don't know whether it's my best quality but I found out a lot about me in writing this book and what I found out is that I have a lot of anger in me it's an angry book and I'm angry about things that happened many many years ago when I was very poor and I found that anger continues and I think that that anger that I express in that book that's within me that people who make imitations in a sense has been a lot of the fuel that has helped me in whatever I've done I mean I can see it expressed in a lot of movies that I've done so anger has been a big part of my life and it's always with me and I think it'll most people wouldn't think that is a plus but in your case it probably was what's your worst what what don't you like about yourself are you impatient are you intolerant are you uh you know yes yes I'm impatient I think I impatient I think I am very a very impatient and I think as I try to tell my kids I would never win a popularity contest in Hollywood and I've tried to tell my boys I said look don't make mistakes I've made because very often during my career when I've argued and fought with people I might have been right and what I said but I was wrong in the way I said it yeah so lots of times what you say is lost because you're saying it was such vehemence that they don't even realize what you said all they know is he was yelling also life can't be trying to win a popularity contest see that's no way to go through it look I know you've got other things before you go tell the one story about the limousine when you were doing was a Spartacus you were doing yeah I was doing Spartacus you know I produced it my company that made it and I was working in it we had all kinds of problems it was hard work it was the biggest picture at that time and it was Friday night and I was dead tired in my Spartacus costume and Eddie Lewis who worked with me on the picture he asked me what are you gonna do this week and I said boy I'm dead tired I said I'm gonna drive down the Palms wait a minute you're gonna drive down to Palm Springs Kirk you're a star you're the star Spartacus this is your production he says let me get you a limousine he says you know go there like a star I thought you know he's got a point why should I I'm tired so I got a limousine the guy opened the door that was that nice silvery black in the back and I lie down underneath this silvery blanket and I'm thinking you know he's right I'm a star the guys in Amsterdam could see me now I hitchhiked it to college I ended up on a I'm a truck load of fertilizer Here I am a star on my way to Palm Lincoln limousine and halfway down the guy turns into I said what about you out of gas I don't know he says I've got a bathroom well it turns into this and I see a bar there and I thought well I have a beer and I get out of the car and I walk over to the bar and do the bar and suddenly I realize a member my spartacus costume I have no money kind of silly and as I turn around I see my driver get in the limousine say look my name is Kirk Douglas my driver will be going through the town thinking I'm asleep and he said look don't be a wise guy we'll run in believe me now I got so mad I mean I thought Here I am I'm gonna shout out the limousine I'm halfway to Palm Springs at my Spartacus outfit so I go on the road and I hitchhike in these parts couple of girls finally get me to Palm Springs and in the meantime my driver arrives there my wife hears the car I'm late she comes out to greet me he goes and opens the door looks runs back my wife says hey wait what happened to lose my husband he said yes tonight dick special guest is Kirk Douglas ladies and gentlemen Dick Cavett [Music] [Music] [Applause] thank you very much I'm as you know Kirk Douglas now you people know I'm not but there's heavy squinting going on in the balcony there's heavy everything going on in the balcony anyway you know I'm not kirk dougla could there be a talk show host named Douglas oh wait very good to see you I'm back now two days from my vacation and as much a shoes are nice but work is better how many believe my sincerity they're really my uncle the used car dealer will now pass among you to get your names there we go all right spay speaking of cars I'd think in the news Stirling Moss has had his driver's license taken away to see that for six months for a traffic violation the great race driver absolutely true that's terrible he can that's like taking away Van Cliburn Spee a know or or heifetz violin or rosin gardens frisbee or it's like say one of our highly decorative secretaries is leaving she quit today she said that she's been made to feel like a dummy around the office and she's just leaving the end of June or the first of July whichever comes first just a joke say are you out from out of town any of you Monica you'll be glad you know yeah the Commissioner of Health has said that all New York beaches are safe this summer it's the ocean that's polluted do you know the lifeguards are in strike they still are yeah but some of them are showing up for work anyway out of you know conviction and all in there so if you are swimming and you begin to drown and a guy swims out and grabs you and says are you for labor or management you know what to say what else there's not much in the news The Wall Street Journal actually had this item that the what do they call them what's that company called the Playtex company yeah has a campaign out against the no brolic and they've actually hired an agency and all did you read about that's true I make that up I know I have a suggestion for a patriotic slogan for them support our girls at the front listen you know who my guest is I want to hurry to get to him because there's a lot to him and but now here's how to make a lot of things taste better in a shake we'll be back with Kirk Douglas my only guest tonight is a real movie star fine movie actor Kirk Douglas is I guess he's been part of our lives for about a generation and me and more and had an astonishing career and played an astonishing variety of characters just to refresh your memory he led a slave rebellion in the Roman Empire he ran a mythical crime syndicate he sneered in the face of beautiful ladies he is sometimes just flexed his dimpled chin he has managed to get in harm's way had his face sliced ostentatiously he's stared down the cyclops with one eye closed he shot it out at the OK Corral he liberated Norway from the Nazis he was part of a mutiny in the French army in the other world war and he went to the south of France to paint covered his dimple and lost his ear and got up off the floor to become the world's champion you know of course that I'm talking about the incredible Debbie Reynolds [Music] lady isn't doing you know it's it's really doing something like this is really very difficult a lot of people don't realize that for an actor he feels very secure behind that montage of photos that you were showing then you're playing a role you've got wardrobe you've got a part to hide behind but when you come out like this you really feel completely naked because you have to be yourself but I want to confess one thing to you I must say that Dick Cavett is very helpful because just before I went on he told me that he says look just to remind you the chair you sit in is the one that I'm not sitting in I guess I tend to treat actors like dummies exactly I didn't mean to as a matter of fact I want to interrupt you again dick you know you said sit on your for him but easy for me to you know you said I was listening it was very amusing and you were jokingly saying you were Kirk Douglas now on my way to the theater tonight I was rushing because I love to walk in New York and I was a little late so I was walking rather fast and somebody from across the street yelled to me hey and he ran across and he said gee my favorite actor and I said thank you I'm a little hurry he said you know I'm so excited and so nervous he said your name went right out of my mind well I said my name is Douglas yeah he says Douglas Fairbanks my favorite act so it's very important when you say you know it's very important you say when you say who you are yeah and you but you do have a beard though and so there's a little confusion there I mean well as to whether it's actually you because there if I were a beard dick it's because I'm gonna be I'm either just going out of a picture or going into another one yeah all right now I'll be going into a picture that calls for a beard and I can sit in you know those false yeah I feel I should ask someone of your stature an important question right off the bat and so I will Carol Burnett was here last night and wanted to know how you clean your dimple no I dig yes this mr. D is nothing sacred no I right away because I mean must there be no secrets between me and me well I thought we'd get that out of the way because she wanted to know her I don't sit on it the sad girl as a matter as a matter of fact in a picture I did once with Kim Novak that was one of the lines where she kept staring at me I said what's the matter she says how how do you shave that yeah well the answers in that picture dick I can see the movie you know that although the answer there have been all sorts of rumors about it like something something lives in there and also I know you're sick of it Hey a matter of fact someone once said that there's a little [ __ ] with a straight razor who jumps down there I believe it but it isn't it I'm sorry we can't see it because I I saw your film last night we'll talk about that later but it is quite a phenomenon the channeis it's there it's the most matter-of-fact it's not really a dimple let's face it it's a hole in the chin is it rich yeah I don't know I know that if we could see it it would be the most cleavage we've had on the show in a long time but an applicant now that's over you say is it really one day I was riding to Palm Springs I have a I have a home in Palm Springs and I was in the little car and a sailor was was hitching a ride and I stopped and I picked him up and he looked at me and he got very excited he said hey do you know who you are you want to share something that is a people cannot believe sometimes when they especially a face like yours can you go anywhere can you can you go and buy a spool of thread for example and have that lady in the dime store not well the last time I bought a spool of thread no one recognized well hey it's something we get past we thought we had to do this now you'd mentioned Kim Kim Novak and all the leading ladies you've done there's a bit of film that's been sort of a symbol that shows the incredible number of women who have passed through your hands well you know in the you know most people have a distorted idea you know of a movie actor I mean it all seems rather simple but a lot of people don't realize for example if I do like I worked recently in a picture with Faye Dunaway mm-hmm no an actor I'd have to get up in the morning about 6:30 take a shower rush through my breakfast jump in the car go down to the studio get into wardrobe and makeup and then at nine o'clock in the morning under those hot lights I'd have to start making love to Faye Dunaway hour after hour and these are the things that it's it's awful but it meets unemployment could we roll that bit of filum take a look at this oh the mics will stay open see know what memory this brings back these are the films of people that I've worked yeah ladies ladies oh this is a picture I did bad in the beautiful with Lana Turner it's one of the first times I played a love scene and look how tenderly I hold her this this was my first big moment with a big love scene with a big star like Lana Turner we ever attempt to do that this is what seriously one of my favorite scenes from Spartacus I don't you kiddin with you for the first time I was ever gonna have a baby I'm just the same as I ever was well this is a scene with Kim Novak that's the picture I was talking about yeah the interesting thing about this scene is most movies nowadays you find somebody zipping it down and here i zip it up was that a sound or silent film it's Ava Gardner in seven days in May do me a favor don't don't complicate my life right now I just got over very bad anything you say will be wrong Faye Dunaway in in the arrangement dick you don't have to say a word but they got crazy I mean literally not yes yes thank you Charles you know dick as I was watching these clips from movies that I've done I suddenly realized you know an actor he's supposed to immerse himself in the role mm-hmm he's supposed to be the character that he's playing and as I watched those clips I have a feeling that sometimes a little bit of Kirk Douglas creeps into these scenes I would think it'd be hard to keep it out yes I was gonna ask how you keep in such terrific shape but now we know that series Phil we'll be right back after this brief message we just saw all those all those ladies that you've worked with Hitchcock said in an interview once that it's very hard for the romance on the screen not to carry over into the private lives of the actors have you found this true and another thing I want is now that we've answered that you're free to reject any any question of it I don't knowwe said that I think it was in that Truffaut interview that he even found that it all from here Madison why sure you can keep a professional distance fact I don't think seriously dick I think very often you might have a very good relationship with the person that you're working with you're reading lady and it doesn't necessarily mean that the scenes you play will necessarily be good in other words it doesn't work you know people love to say oh they're great romance carry it over and spilled over on the screen I don't think that's true I think it's something how you know you play a scene and something catches fire a dozen in other words I don't think that it necessarily follows because two people have a very close rapport that it's going to carry over into that I think if anything it might even inhibit it because they would be aware of maybe pairing it with what you really have been through some some incredible things in your career I mean the violence of the things you've been through and in the film say he'd never been badly hurt yes I've been hurt several times I broke my nose in a picture I broke a finger and I broke a rib you know it's strange because when I started when I think if when I started my career you're studying Shakespeare and Epson and then you start doing movies and then suddenly you have to learn how to mount horses and juggle and skip rope and fighting and suddenly all that Shakespeare training you wonder what ever happened to that and I actually think that in theater acting moviemaking in your field I really think that vitality energy is the first requirement because if you don't have vitality and energy you can't do anything else did you push-ups everyday or a regimen of exercise I do exercise everyday because so many of the movies that I've done involves so much exercise that that has been conditioning but I always do 5 to 10 minutes of exercise I do that's all oh I think that's all you need but let's take a look at some of the things that you have down here this is a series of fingers and action things you can matter fact I think this starts with the scene I did years ago from the from the juggler when I played a clown and I actually had to learn juggling champion fast at my feet [Applause] because sometimes I scare myself [Applause] this is a Montague oh this is the scene in the juggling from a picture called the juggler that I did years ago to actually learn juggling our movie is really a yeah I did a clown routine [Music] [Applause] I love this I think everybody's a frustrated clown you know dick well this was a scene from a picture called man without a star pretty good aim seriously how many cakes did this when you're showing off Rolex one take know this twirling a gun never saved a man's life there's only one thing you gotta love get it out fast and then put it away slow that's good advice yeah what I mean kid Cooper mount it's an adult virgins only series of the reverse is leapfrog with the Twitter picture I did with John Wayne call the business war wagon did you ever hurt yourself doing this yes I rather not hear about it they try to make everything look easy oh nice but baby even it doesn't always work is the mount that never makes it you miss a key we usually don't put those on film this is a scene from Spartacus it's a wonderful gladiator scene with woody strode that looked very dangerous when you did dead well as a matter of fact it really was thick because we did a stupid thing you see those are actually made of hard metal they're not ready no it's not rubber at all that's all hard metal and if you miss somebody could get hurt yeah and you want to take the lip good so you exactly we tried it with rubber never look good we have take a message to our local stations you probably need to rest after that we have a message we'll be right back stereo talking with Kirk Douglas but that's obvious if you're watching on television if you're listening on radio you're making that know if you just do dinner am I talking about you know I when I have a beard I look exactly like you well approximately like you know we were talking about earlier dick about mistaken identity I think the the wildest thing that happened to me once Burt Lancaster is a friend of mine and he did a picture years ago called trapeze yeah very good in it and one day Burt and I were having dinner in a restaurant in Palm Springs and a man came up had a few drinks and he walked right past Burke came right up to me and started off by saying mister Mitchum now that was just the beginning and I I never corrected I'm I said yes he says mr. Mitchum I want to tell you how wonderful I thought you were in trapeze I mean this is what you call a triple mistake he got you that doesn't crush you to think that they don't have oh no I think dick I think very often usually when I meet people I always say hello my name is Kirk Douglas I know who you are but very often I think people recognize you you know they may have seen you but sometimes they get a little bewildered you know they know the face is familiar I once did I did the reverse on someone once I was in a town for personal appearances with a movie and was in a big hotel and there was a big convention taking place and as I got in the elevator a lot of people around you know they're all a little it had a few drinks and they all had a lot of people had these badges on it you know it says Joe tai in Tulsa Oklahoma yeah and a fellow walks in with one of these badges and he's all excited hey he says Kirk Douglas and I said Joe he says how do you know me I said aren't you Joe time he says yeah sign is it is Jo time Tulsa Oklahoma yeah he said I said Jo by this time I was almost at my floor I said Jo I'm surprised you don't even remember and I walked out of the elevator so if Jo tines listening now he knows how you know there's a pressure ever get too great yeah I know that your life is you referred to it as a sort of almost corny story because you really all the cliches rags-to-riches your parents came over as immigrants who had no money your father was a peddlers I remember that's right know that you've said that it's almost a b-movie plot the stories like it really is you know when I did a tour for the State Department and my wife and I we went around talking to students all over the world and you see my life that be story is the you know it's the American story it's the it's the thing that's a be story here it's an a story in any other country it happens often here but you go outside of the United States it doesn't happen very often I mean I have many friends whose parents were immigrants who struggled like I didn't have enough to eat and then they went off to become lawyers you know doctors and if you go wrong like myself and become actors but it's really a dream come true in a sense what in that cliche sense was there every time when you really had the dream I will be a famous actor someday or did it well info you know after I graduated from st. Louis University dick I was working I was going to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts studying to be an actor and I was working as a waiter and shafts restaurant now remember one night I had my pocket full of tips and I was walking down Central Park that had a few beers and a few of the other waiters who all would be active or walking down and I pointed up to the Hampshire House and I said one of these days I said I'm gonna come back to this town and I'm gonna take a suite on the 25th floor and I'm gonna look down at this Park and it was wonderful having this dream and sure enough in b-story fashion years later I did a picture champion I came back to New York and I took a suite and the 25th floor and I looked down at Central Park and very honestly I was cept I was rather sad and I felt as if I think what happens is when a dream is fulfilled it leaves with it a certain amount of sadness so I think that you always have to have a other dream quickly to replace the dream I don't think that can you do beyond that the 28th floor yeah numbers you have to always strive you have something that you you you you know you have to strive for or you're robbed I mean Tennessee Williams deals with this and a preface in one of his books he calls it the catastrophe of success which he explains this feeling that happened to him and so I think a fulfillment of one dream should be replaced with another dream do you dream not by the way do I dream a lot do you have dreams oh yeah yeah I have something that would curl your beard but television is hardly the place to talk about him but I don't remember yeah I have a corny one once I don't think I ever told anybody this but I I once was do you want to hear it do you have a degree in psychiatry can you don't know but I'm very sympathetic and I'm a good listener and I want to hear about I was crossing Madison Avenue one time and I was a really out-of-work actor it was a member anna nicola rolled off the bureau one morning and went down that where i could never get the floor then I thought like that's how poor I am I'm gonna have to walk to work I was gonna take the subway with that nickel in it done and I was walking around that day and I was really discouraged just making the rounds and I saw a silver spire on top of building that the Sun here just right and I thought that's a sign that my career is gonna take an upward turn and you know nothing happened for years no but I remember thinking that's that's like in a movie there's that silver spire and but but seriously dig now here I am on television talking to Kirk Douglas and it's an empty experience Nik I tell you why I tell you why I tell you why you failed you see you heard look we talk about image yes you see the mean now I used to come on a television show to where you are I always wore a tie the shirt you see that's the wrong image now you watch the up-and-coming people now never wear a tie never sit you know if you tip off the top seriously they call I'm not too low this is a family just loosen it now you're a hit right yeah I'm getting my compulsion you've released my compulsion III take my shirt off at the oddest time now if you were if you were really alone take your shirt off alright I'm chicken but what you you have another dimple we don't know about I'm sorry we when the mood passes I don't know but the beautiful you know as it is I'm in trouble with my wife she's the last thing she said to me is when you're going Dick Cavett show please it's a very dignified he's a very erudite fella please be dignified I'm in trouble already keep watching now we have a station break and we'll be right you you know yes I often wondered this is complete change of subject now but do you think we get our image of how we behave from from the movies I mean my just do people very much I think that very often in pictures that I've done you know I think it's sometimes in relationships that I've had with girls on the screen on the screen it teaches them you know a point of view tenderness an approach of consideration I think you get a lot of this and it's certainly in movies that I've done I think I was shaped my feelings at least as a kid I remember thinking so that's how you behave with ladies you you know how he sewed I'll scream like two cigarettes at once you know how to be gentle kind considerate I could never figure out though as a kid in Nebraska where those nightclubs were that I saw I ran into that beautiful girl as you're walking down the street and suddenly she said you got a light and she was gorgeous it was either Lauren Bacall or Lana Turner and you know nothing grabbed boilin do it librarian okay can we let's take a look at this though and and because I think this clip isn't it this is from champion oh now this is a perfect scene to show I mean manners to show how a man should treat a lady good anything is a filmin yes guess what I'm already married yeah why you think so well the next time you're in Chicago you go 246 ego tree and if you don't find mrs. michael kelly there on marry any day you say I ain't kidding I'm not kidding you've been taking me [ __ ] sucker all this time honey you never asked me if I was married anyway what's the difference you did all right with me I'm gonna hock the Harris up to my ears where are you going oh I got a date with a lady you know what a lady is how could you you know anything about sculpting you know anything about the Opera yeah oh you know how to spend money huh we're so long grazie I gotta be going I'm going with you're not gonna shake me now yes I am you dumped me once now I'm dumping you good you know in that scene it just reminded me when I said 40 use it he addressed 46 Eagle Street well I used to live on 46 Eagle Street in Amsterdam New York when I was a kid it's a little town upstate and I remember after this picture my mother was alive then and my mother whose name is Brian by the way the name of my company now the Brian company yeah and I called my mother up you know and I said he might just sigh signed a million-dollar contract she said but son are you eating enough yeah my signed a million dollar contract you look awful thin in your last picture Joe my mother a typical immigrant woman I mean she couldn't you know that was all beyond her compliment behavior all she was concerned about we're eating enough were you putting on enough weight what did she think when you played a nasty character like that guy I mean you you have a way of being lovable and hated me at the same time well you know I really think it seriously bothered my mother you know when I played someone like the scene that we just saw in champion and I've played you know I've always believed virtue is not photogenic and I think I've always been attracted to a part I'd rather play the evil character most of the time then the the nice fella and I think it really bothered my mother because she would tell people you know no my son's not like that he's really a nice boy but there seem to be a period I was reading back clippings about you know where they like to say that you were not a nice guy famous lady columnist I believe said that I thought that movie which made you as they say that you became less than Pleasant well as a matter of fact what she actually said well I won't say exactly what she said but right after the picture Hedda Hopper who was quite a character isn't you know Kirk Douglas she said ever since champions come out you become a real sob she actually said it and I said you know by this time everybody have been saying all these things the minute something happens that successful I said look heavy you're absolutely wrong I said you know I was an sob before champion but you never noticed it the point is that really I think the difficult thing is that in movies no one is equipped to take any kind of success and if when a person after a person does his first successful picture really he doesn't change as much as other people change their whole attitude changes toward him and it's a difficult readjustment I'm sure you would you know you find that readjustment since the time you were looking for that bit with that so for them that nickle suddenly yeah it's it's it's a it's a difficult process of readjusting to any form of success I think it's very difficult that is true the background changes behind you really in a way exactly and people in a sense change more than you do but they're not aware of it because they look at you differently I'd still like to have that nickel though I could still use it here's losing gold here's something new from Kimberly Clark we'll be right back which movie would you flush down the Joan of yours oh that's that's very easy oh I have several that could go that route but I think the one that would I would do the quickest was a picture called big trees I literally did it for nothing I had the only time I ever had a contract which was a see I've always been independent there's a picture a year at Warner Brothers and I wanted to get out of that picture of year so I said they said no you can't get out I said I'll get out I'll do the next picture for nothing they said you're kidding I said no I'll do it they don't have to pay me so I did the picture was called big trees I did it for nothing it was a terrible picture and that's the way it should end and that's what how do you convince the Internal Revenue you actually did a movie and got no money for it did they have to give you a little note saying Newark is telling the truth they know they know they have to pay me something they paid me for that picture about as much as you pay me for being on this show then you have no problem just to satisfy the tax people but but you you haven't been affected by the slump we hear that Hollywood is a ghost town that it's really a boarded up place and and yet you've got three four irons in the fire all the time have you managed to avoid the slump well I don't think so much of it as a slump because I think is it's going through it it definitely is going through a transition period I think movies there's a need for movies movies will become more more and more important I think people love movies you need them on TV as well as in theaters in my own case because I was always independent I because I've also loved to work and finding properties and develop them I just if I couldn't find financing here I went to Europe I had light at the edge of the world a picture I did with Yul Brynner of Jules Verne that was financed in in Spain catch me a spy a picture coming out this fall was financed with France and with France and London and then I did a Western with Johnny Cash a gun fight and that picture was financed by the Hickory Apache anything to ask you about that go ahead ask I don't need to now be no I'm seriously I saw a movie last night and of course one feels obligated to say I enjoyed it even if you didn't but I did in this case luckily so it's easy to say it's a really it's a real good Western and and right at the beginning it says the Hickory Apaches yes present or something doesn't actually say present but I wondered about that what no they the Hickory Apache Indian tribe in Dulce New Mexico actually financed the film they put up over two million dollars to finance the film and there are no Indians in it and as a matter of fact when they came to we had a press conference in Los Angeles and when they came we were walking into the press conference and a reporter came up to me and said Kirk are those Indians in your next picture I said are they in the picture they owned it which of course they do they they have put up the financing why did the Hickory Apaches have money when most Indians are really in terrible straits well I think it depends I think there are other tribes who have a man is their finances much better and have done I don't think they're the only Indian tribe that have money I think the Hickory Apache Indian tribe have a very sophisticated program of investments I hope that their investment in a gunfight turns out very well because I'd hate to be a scalper yes how do you say diplomatically to a group of Apache warriors you've taken a bath at the box office boys there's a terrible thought but it is I think with a gunfight I think they're gonna do very well I hope Shelley because it'll encourage them to invest in other pictures if not I don't know what will happen yeah but I'd love to hear a little about that movie because it is it's a thoroughly entertaining movie it's a it's a good idea well we we can't do it now however we'll be right back then whatever stay we were you know I was surprised I don't know why should be surprised that Johnny Cash was such a good actor he always said did he ever resent it a little bit when you've been in 55 movies and he's in one and he comes off as well as an actor who's been in many many more you know I've never had that problem I think the better the other person is the better I can be yes as a matter of fact in a gunfight I pick Johnny Cash I watched him on TV and I think he has a wonderful quality and I never met him before I just picked up the phone and talked to him we had about four or five conversations on the phone he was very apprehensive about doing a movie and I sent him the script and finally went down to Nashville Tennessee and you know he agreed to do the picture and I thought did you think it was wonderful yes he's so wonderful qualities about his first first movie and I think he doesn't I think he does a terrific job yeah there's no sense of a guy just making it like there often is when they Xactware his film if you forget don't have any you have a clip from I have a piece from gunfight yeah oh yeah I would invite you here and showpiece from a from a Laurel & Hardy movie you wouldn't you want it you want to see it I don't want to bore you with it if you don't see it's your show I've seen the movie yeah it's a this is good take a look you'll see the two fellas we just mentioned and I'm not in it you don't seem bad located here making wages at all not as much a month as I used to spend in a day yeah without getting shot at getting talked at news back live here pays me to stand around so the cow folks buy drinks then they start asking me how are things in guys Kansas City Tombstone I bet you're really the woman can tell him huh you're being funny no no I'll just remember in Kansas toe they say you killed Ringo it's like me here and you were strung up dead by a posse in Santa Fe well that ain't exactly the truth but somebody's sure enough killed Ringo thank you that you know it's it's it's really strange to watch yourself in a movie it just occurred to me you know that one time I had a real hang-up there were like six movies that I'd already finished that I had never seen never seen yeah I've gotten to the point or I think I've seen but I really there are very few movies that I can watch myself in and I'm always dissatisfied as a matter of fact there's only one movie that I really love watching myself and it's a little picture called lonely other brave oh yeah and when I watch that movie I say Kirk terrific it's the only movie I mean otherwise it's a funny feeling now in this this scene I really see I don't think people realize what a tremendous thing that is for Johnny Cash really in his first feature picture you know to do such a good job I think he's wonderful yeah after all I have done a few movies I love the way he does that line about that that may be true but somebody did kill Johnny ring though wonderful that's a wonderful quality does it look bigger on the screen are you as big as you'd like to be I mean I mean you do look a little bigger right as I see you here you know shrimp I mean but you know what I mean you have a slight increase in size no there's a theory that actors you know so-called stars should never appear as they are because how can you ever be as big as people think of you on the screen yeah you know the screen you know you're bigger than life when you think of the Romans that I've killed the blood oh my gosh them you think of all the things you do you it's you know movies should be bigger than life yeah so it's that's why it's difficult when you when someone when the public is used to seeing you on the screen where one eye can be about five feet and suddenly you're it's in many ways to let down I'm sorry to disappoint you dick I know fine I mean if they don't have a bigger version of you this will do what's your act what is your actual height 511 it is 511 yeah you're taller than Richard Burton then well I've never yeah so there's that good I guess so ahead of the game to be ahead of Burton and anything is good we will be right back after this message we're talking during the break about I you'd mentioned you broke your nose earlier and during the break I asked you how it was by a horse broke it for you well I was doing a horse fall you're talking about you know in Europe with European films very often they don't do a horse fall it's dangerous for the horse but I'm sure that over there oh it's yes very often serious the United States a horse is trained to fall and I was doing a picture called Indian fighters about if that's the first movie I did with my company Brian and the first time Walter Matthau worked in the picture and I was training I was falling a horse in the picture and the signal to fall the horse was to pull very different horses to pull one rein so you pull the horse's head around and he falls and then you get the dangers you got to get this leg out of the way you see because so when the horse Falls you get this leg out when you fall down with it this yeah you can't fall but one time I had fallen the horse I leaned over and when the horse's head went around bang Oh broken nose and put your nose into your no light into your face yeah I hate to keep you know pointing out these imperfections because you've been so good at pointing them out for me but well these imperfection but I do have a crooked nose that's right but people like to know that you're human and I think that's terrific about the Hickory Apaches I can't get over that financing the movie I don't think they'd finance a John Wayne movie though if they read his playboy interview did you see that he said he didn't think that it was bad that we took this country away from the Indians because a lot of people needed land and the Indians were being selfish and thought that they ought to have it and is that the John Wayne you know movie no as a matter of fact I don't want to get involved in a conversation on John Wayne Louis I tell you I've made quite a closer to his size I am so going here no I I've made quite a few pictures with John Wayne and by the way I've always called him John everybody calls him Duke yeah I have never we have never seen eye-to-eye and a lot of things but professionally yeah I think he's one of the most professional actors I've ever worked with oh yeah and I've worked I don't know about four or five pictures with him the last one I did was war wagon we worked in harm's way and cast a giant shadow which was a picture done in Israel Wayne was the one who set it up Wayne is the one who called me in London hey Kurt I think there's a part you ought to play so we have never whenever we work in a picture we rarely maybe we'll have dinner together one night during the whole picture but we get along very well we never discussed politics politics best effect yeah but he's the first guy on the set he's the hardest worker I've ever worked with and I think he's quite a character as a matter of fact I just saw a picture of his Big Jake which were coming out soon and it's it's it's a really good John Wayne picture he really is a giant personality yes I mean has he been hurt by a horse would of course dare hurt yeah well I think he'd heard a horse probably they really can't get a horse big enough for him Canada how big is John Wayne I'm interested in dimensions uh I'd say John's about six foot four he is that tall oh yeah well sure no wonder you don't see eye to eye size again you made a Jules Verne film that I've heard about for some time and I don't I don't mean 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea there is that fact that's coming out it's coming out it opened in Washington it's coming out soon in this area and in the matter of fact the reason I did it was because of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea I always wanted to do another Jules Verne pictures a lot of good stuff in Jules Verne yeah you asked if they if they could get a little clip from that do we have we have a little bit of yeah I think they put together some things from a trailer I haven't seen it but I'll be glad to okay I have a grant to you know explain it okay this was all shot in Spain it's a very simple story and that the light represents goodness I play a good man and this and Yul Brynner plays the evil man and when the light is out you have the results of evil which is the records come in and wreck the ships this is beautiful country it's all in a place near where Salvador Dali lives in Caracas Spain this is a French actor Johnny rule was that Samantha yes and there he is the evil one himself but don't worry I don't want anybody to be frightened because at the end everything works out all right but I wanted to do a picture dick that's sheer entertainment that's in very simple terms doesn't try to make anything more profound than that good takes care of takes care of people yeah wait a minute we saw a horse with a horn and then you running I was being pursued that was a scene you will plays this game where he has this sharp like a unicorn on the horse where he tries to run me down that light at the edge of the world again is an example of the different ways of making movies we've talked about the Indian tribe financing one this was financed by a Spanish a Spanish bank and we shot this this was all shot in in Spain frankly I get a little tired of going to you know far-off places to make movies you know and get away from my family I prefer to be making more movies here yeah but you got to go where the where the scenery is exact we have a message we'll be right back talking with Kirk Douglas we haven't been terribly personal tonight do you ever get really depressed down through me sure I think I'm gonna go outside I mean isn't Eddie you know a human process I think everybody you go through different periods of your life where you sort of take self in an inventory and you wonder what am i doing am i doing what I want to do I think the person really happiness in life really is doing the work that you want to do and I think for someone to be working at what he wants to do is very fortunate so in that way I think that I'm more aware now how lucky I am than I used to be I think a lot of things that I used to take for granted I appreciate now because I think it's I'm lucky to have been able to do the thing that I want to do in life and then instead to make movies I think it's a I think it's a great contribution because I think the greatest contribution of moviemaking is not the statement that a movie might make it's fine for a movie to have a statement but I don't think there's anything dig more important than the fact that if you make a movie and four hour and a half or two hours meetings of people all over the world are taken out of their their problems the reason a person goes to a movie is to forget the problems of their life so if you permit them to forget their problems and get involved in what you're doing the screen I think that's the most important contribution and I think that sometimes there's a tendency to be pretentious with movies and become too concerned with making a statement I've been guilty of the same thing myself that's why in light at the edge of the world I wanted to make sheer entertainment if it could entertain someone for two hours I think that's great so you don't have any doubts about your life being misspent some actors say I met a man in the acting profession always wonders if it's a if it's a really manly profession should he be out engineer but he's in a manly profession it's a it's a childish profession you couldn't be a complete grown-up adult and be an actor you have to have a childish part of you I mean after all if I were sophisticated adult how could I say Here I am fighting evil represented by Yul Brynner you have to have a childish part of you for making a shirt off as my kids have grown up I've watched them you know children are natural actors they pretend they're cops and robbers and I think all actors retain a certain amount of that within themselves they have to or they couldn't function as actors and I think that's why they become self denigrating they think well it's not enough yeah I get the feeling that you here are capable of a terrific bad temper all right no idea I have that and and it's probably one that is very one of the many things that we have in common well I don't know that I wonder if you snappish can you get yes I think as a matter of fact that's been a healthy thing for me yeah I don't think it's given me a very pleasant reputation often but I think it's been a good escape valve I think very often I'm too quick to express myself in anger or whatever it might be it's healthy for me because it lets the steam out but very often if people don't understand it you know it yeah but he made a very favorable impression ft blow up at somebody that do you feel sad that terribly yeah why bother about what does he think why did I say this what a bully I was I shouldn't have said that it's awful yeah I have that too what whip them let's see do you how much sleep do you need how much sleep do I need five six hours we have nothing in common nope I can sleep literally round the clock oh really yeah yeah that's one no no I don't if I have five six seven hours would be you read a newspaper every day oh yes dude yes don't you yeah I mean don't you think actors are also concerned with what's going on in the world perhaps sometimes a little bit too consumer but I don't think they have to be I mean I don't think everybody has to be I don't see why they should apologize if they don't for example I mean some actors don't need to they should just act or do what they wanted no you mean they don't read the paper I mean you're still a part of the world you're living you don't divorce yourself from the world you live in you're interested in in knowing what's going on around you I think everybody owes it themselves to be aware of the world they live in to be a part of it yeah no I think it's good if they do I don't insist on it I mean I think a man could just write poetry if he wanted to and I wouldn't care if he ever read a paper or not oh I'm not concerned by that I just think they would be missing something by not being concerned with what's happened with your world to just cut yourself off from the world would be you know depriving yourself of your environment so to speak I can see why an artist's liking Mar Bergman for example would say he just cuts himself off from all life the whole time he's making a film because he just wants that tunnel vision on his work well he may do that sure I can understand why you're making a film you tend to block out the rest of the the rest of the the world I understand that I think that happens to all of us I think I too I think all actors tend to focus just on what they're doing but that's just for temporary period of time but then you have to go back into the world you're living though yeah what's the closest you ever were to death I tell you very honestly yeah it was in this picture a light at the edge of the world tell you a very true story we're shooting this picture it has very sharp jagged rocks all around and in one scene I did a stunt myself and I thought I was being very careful and I asked my stuntman to I was up on top of a roof and I had to jump down so I put a platform below the roof because the rocks were on the other side and I put the stuntman there just to double-check to to brace me I it was in a rehearsal I jumped off the roof onto the platform and went to him for support he fell off we both went right off the platform into the rocks and I think to me I was very fortunate because the the rocks there if just of hitting wasn't jagged rock it was about a 15 18 foot fall you could easily split your head open and I think that accidents you know they've been when accidents happen in pictures very often it's it's usually a silly thing it's something that you never anticipated and I try to anticipate people very often say I got a nose for danger people hey Kirk how does this smell because I think I'm not a I don't do things stupidly I've done lots of my own stunts but I try to work everything out carefully that in a scene with what he strode I wouldn't have done that if I wasn't confident in woody I knew that we could both work together spartacus a yes message we'll be right back would you let me make an experiment don't don't don't give away any clues here how many know what movie he won the Oscar for anyone who knows what what Spartacus who else doesn't guess the champion who else that's right number one it's interesting people don't know I mean it doesn't matter or maybe it does no I think a lot of people do know I know you know it's funny you just assume that a number of people have and you start to see the list of people who haven't won an Oscar it's astounding no I they get they get as honorary wins to make up for it after well then no I've been nominee making three times yeah your ass all the time it makes it big big difference I think every actor would really like to win an Oscar I won a New York Film Critics Award for lust for life when they had newspapers yeah but I think I think you'd like to win an Oscar has great significance because it's voted on you know by the people of your own industry yeah and and yet George Scott has made it respectable to turn one down there well I I thought George was very wrong I voted for him because I thought he gave the best performance yeah but I thought George was wrong as a matter of fact I put George won almost one of his first pictures list of Adrian messenger oh yes I thought he was wrong because if you do a picture like Patton which is done by a big studio it's done with big money you have an agent comes in and negotiates the biggest deal you can make for yourself then as a result of that if you're nominated then to turn against the system I think it's wrong but I'm glad that in spite of that that George won the Oscar because I think he deserved it yeah even though he didn't want it yeah we have less than a minute in this segment left it who got a part you wanted at some point well as a matter of fact I tell you this there are two people who got I'm not so smart this again what after all this whole program was to show my imperfections I'll give you a few more you see dick I'm not so smart because I turned down two parts both of them want Oscars what were they Stalag 17 bill Holden won an Oscar Kat Ballou Lee Marvin won an Oscar I turn them both down so you can add that to my imperfections that's pretty good and rise and fall of the Roman Empire you turned down and it went and made him have made a million and a half dollars or something like that no they offered me well they offered you there that much and that's another one that's another one my boo-boos oh you're really you're really heaping it on you know how to hurt a fellow oh the man is full of warts we have a brief message Kirk Douglas in spite of your imperfections you're a training example and it's really been a pleasure to meet you you've really been a thank-you that I've really enjoyed being on the side it's been fun no I've never had any hesitancy about playing so-called unsympathetic roles I've always been anxious interested in playing what I considered a an exciting dramatic role I suppose I played one of the first anti-heroes and the picture champion after all he raped his ex-wife he punched his crippled brother so he wasn't exactly a sympathetic character but in champion for example it intrigued me because it was a wonderful movie about the American system of success an ace in the hole of course was a wonderful opportunity to work with a giant like Billy Wilder and play again almost a similar theme you see the desire in America to get ahead to get on top and here we use something that was based on a true story it was a Floyd Collins case you know a ruthless reporter so no the fact that he was an unscrupulous fellow I think he had some redeeming qualities if I play a weak character I always try to find out where is he strong a very strong character I try to find out where is he weak you know chiaroscuro like the shade it's very important so to me it was a very exciting role to play and I thought one of the Billy's best movies even though it wasn't as successful in the United States as it was in foreign countries it was an interesting movie yes Jimmy you know Lily's a giant you know when I think of I mean I've been fortunate I've worked with Jo mankiewicz in Howard Hawks and Elia Kazan and you know it's so many Willie Wyler you know real big directors Billy is one of the Giants that will there will always be there yes he I like to think that I can contribute to a script and very often working with a director I do contribute and they're glad to take some of my suggestions or I like to think that I can come up with some interesting pieces of business but it's hard to come up with something with Billy that he can't top I mean I remember one piece of business where he had me sitting on the desk I put a cigarette my mouth I took a match and I just pressed the key of the of the typewriter and let the the typewriter shoot by I light the match I mean see just conceiving a piece of business like that was so eloquent potato about the kind of a character that I was he you know he was brilliant with little little touches and Billy worked in a way that so few people work today and are able to work I know when we were shooting ace in the hole we start shooting and I think he only had about two acts of the script I'm sure in his mind he had you know everything else more or less laid out the way he wanted to do but he had that it was almost audacious but it was always exciting you always you know were kept on your toes because you know Billy was so stimulating because he has a terrific sense of humor very often very biting but it was a challenge I'm sorry that I only did one picture with him he did want me I made a terrible mistake my life he asked me to play in Stalag 17 which I turned down because I had seen the play and wasn't so impressed with it my stupidity was not to realize what a talent like Billy Wilder would do with it matter of fact he'll hold and play the part won an Oscar but I've always you know maintained my friendship with Billy throughout the years very often I've run into him he'd be shooting something in Europe and I'd be shooting a movie we've always made a joke about I'd always ask him about improving the third act of whatever I was doing there's a matter of fact he'd always come up with ideas that I thought were much better than the script that I had for improving the third act but was a problem trying to sell someone usually be an audacious idea but Billy is a giant I think Billy is an arrogant director but I say that with affection his arrogance is well-deserved I mean he knows that he's good and as I say you know it would be a game I'd always try to think of something you know that might be a real big plus and usually he would always top it so that was a challenging a challenging thing he had a great sense of humor so he had a wonderful way of you know of keeping it relaxed which is so important you know to keep you and see an actor it's such a pathetic thing just like now he's I'm sitting here in front of a camera I risk making a fool of myself and every time you make a movie you risk making a fool of yourself you can't hide behind a book that you wrote or a painting that you painted you are the character so I think Billy with all of his biting wit has that understanding about actors and I think even though he would not be quick to admit it he does have an appreciation and an affection for actors very often you work with a very talented director who really doesn't they don't like actors you know they're just necessary tools to bring across what they're trying to do the variety I mean Billy is capable he's so brilliant in comedy and he's so brilliant and hard hitting things ace in the hole the picture that I did was a very hard-hitting film so unlike some like it hot just such a brilliant comedy so Billy had a wide range frankly in the last few years I would have liked and I once mentioned it to him I would like to have seen him do another hard-hitting picture because I think his humor is so hep it's so in now it's that biting sardonic you know humor that he has and I I think it would it's modern it's not old-fashioned just like almost any movie of Billy Wilder's you know passes the test of time they're not old movies they there's something that would be difficult to compete against now by other filmmakers in many countries it's a big hit it was not a big hit here and I remember the time being shocked by that and I think that the it reveals something to me that very often people in the media who are in a position where they are making comments and criticisms of other people and other things are quite sensitive about being criticized herself and here I was portraying a ruthless unscrupulous reporter who kept someone and based on a true story remember who actually kept someone down there in that hole in order to generate a more dramatic story and I think that that movie is is significant more significant now because when we made the movie it was before television and you see now so money so much so often especially in television where they're almost becoming into show business they want to do something that's visual dramatic and sometimes in doing that they stretch the the objective reporting that they're supposed to accomplish you know you don't really know yourself and you're confronted with a certain situation if you were close to a million dollars and it looked as if no one would know it's not yours but no one would know if you took it would you take it you know it's really hard to know until you have that situation here the reporter that I played he was a tough guy it wasn't such a bad guy but he couldn't resist the opportunity to get back into the big time and he never meant to kill this fellow who was down in the hole if you remember before the picture was over he desperately tried to save the fellow of course by that time it probably was not only too late for the fellow in the hole but it was too late for the audience to even generate enough sympathy for the character that I played you know he had he had done he had done too much but those sort of dangerous roles have always been those that you know excite me I am never hesitated to play a role because I say oh he's too you know unlikable it reminds me of the situation that happened with John Wayne and me years ago and I did a picture called lust for life based on the life of Van Gogh and after the we had had a private screening of it and Wayne was there and we had a little after was a few drinks he had a few drinks and he kept looking at me wanted me to go out on the veranda and have a talk and he was furious with me he says how could you play a weak character like that and I said well John I'm I'm I'm an actor I'm not van Gogh I'm trying to portray I thought it was a challenge no he said we've got to play macho you know it kind of interested me because when you think of it Wayne has always tried usually is played a certain role that he's identified himself with I have tried to play a variety of roles but in spite of that the audience sort of pigeonholes you you see that in the imitations that people do of you you know what you're like and so on and they do capture a quality that you have but I have always felt that an actor has got to know much more clearly than other people what is the world of make-believe and what is the world of reality you know you don't get lost in the role that you're playing the audience gets lost if you get lost you wouldn't know how to hit your marks or the vu that you've got to be aware there's a camera there you know I mean suddenly I can't be going this way that you'll say I want to I want to see so you really when you're acting I don't mean they go into a dissertation on acting but you have to be aware of what you're doing for a scene the whole I went down to at that time the herald-examiner and I said look I'd like to work as a reporter for about a week I was there working and then one of the questions I asked the reporter that I was working I said look how do you get a byline in the newspaper well and he was explaining to me it takes years of working and so on so after a few days they sent me out on a story with a photographer something happened with two kids or something and we took pictures and I wrote up the story and the next day there was the story with the pictures and the byline by Kirk Douglas and the fella said to me he looked at me so you know I take it back the best way to get a story with a byline is first you I'm a movie star but I've always tried to you know you might call that method acting I tried to get the feeling you see working around the a newspaper gave me a feeling of what a newspaper is like I've always tried to do things like that if I'm doing a Western I work around with cowboys and you work with horses you do riding you get a you get a feeling of what it's like it's like a pendulum that swings it we've got to be very fashionable the director was the one it was his film I've always thought why isn't it the film of the man who wrote it that's why in the case of Billy Wilder I say well in his case he wrote the script and then he directed it but very often you know what what is it director doing but interpreting a script what is the act of doing but interpreting the script so in a sense I think one of the most important elements in a film that's usually neglected is the writer now very often there's certain directors who work very well with a writer in developing the script but I think the so called auteur thing has been abused except in cases of people like Billy Wilder writes the script and then he directs it then he had the right to say it's a Billy Wilder film my first guest has been in over 75 films he's also a best-selling author this book is on the New York Times best selling list let's bring him out legend Kirk Douglas you don't know what I have you know have a seat you probably think this is a reviews no no no I thought you had like something the racetrack or something yeah yeah yeah how come in this picture look at how beautifully dressed you are look at this I lost that suit by the way yes you do have a new hairdo uh yes and she were here it's a little new you know you know by the way that is very similar to the hairstyle that I had in Spartacus oh yeah is that somewhere that I'm ripping you off that should just evolve but I tell you but I tell you a problem that you have I have a lot of them but didn't know I drove down Sunset Boulevard and I saw this big billboard and you have a different hairstyle in the in the billboard there you have to change that billboard yeah you're right you're as mad fact we got to get rid of some of these covers and billboards for I started to make people noxious but anyway oh I also saw I have a billboard on the strip with my new book and ever I never and I was in the billboard before I liked it you have a nice screen when you go by your seat there you are sort of lying out yeah they said one day there was like a bird right above my head and I was like oh critics everywhere you know this book is really taking care of business uh New York Times top ten isn't best-selling they dance with the devil what is it about well you know writing a novel is something I never thought I'd do you know after I wrote my autobiography and it did pretty well you know people thought well I guess now he just sat down a rotor a novel but I started writing dance with a devil while I was making movies about eight or ten years ago and I've seen you what fascinated me I was always intrigued with what people will do in order to survive and in dance with the devil I have I tell the story of a man who lives a lie all of his life he pretends to be something that he's not and this is a charade that puts a parable burden on him then I have a girl who the rest a beautiful refugee from Poland who becomes a prostitute in order to survive and the relationship between these two is what my story is all about how do you like it so far it's doing very well what makes a good writer do you know well you know I really I never thought of myself I seen you as a writer I've worked with a lot of important screenwriters but I think that writing a novel really is an extension of being an actor because what I like is that it's not a lonely thing at all I thought you know you're right all alone in the room because you're always with the characters in the book and it's kind of an ego trip because as an actor I play the men the women the children and I decide who sleeps with whom there was one guy in the book who bugged me I had a murder so you have a lot of control it's fun I've enjoyed it I'm already writing my second novel and it's something that really excites me I enjoyed by the way I had it I got a big thrill other meeting Isaiah talents yeah wait am i where do I tell my son Mike because you know he's a big basketball fan and we watched most of the games on TV together so he'll be pretty proud Oh Isaiah said something funny to me he said well what does Michael call you we mean he calls me dead oh he said he does what I said water you think he's going to see I think if you were Michael Douglas you're Kirk Douglas he's Michael Douglas yeah but I'm just dead yeah yeah that is the strain theory are you a basketball fan yeah I love it that guy was all yeah I mean it was it's a you know I think in our profession I've seen you and you've dealt with so many people and I think I see when I watch you and you're sure you always have that enthusiasm it's exciting to see people who are champions in their field and he's a real champion he's the champion on and off the court now we'll be right back with more Kirk Douglas great crowd great you have a character in the book called Danny Dennis that's right and you talked about how he has a problem liking himself accepting himself what does Kirk Douglas like about himself well you know my theory are seniors I think every person man or women they have to take inventory they have to kind of look back where they came from can't forget that you have to know where you are and where you're going and I think then you take you you take an evaluation of who you are you see the good things about yourself you see the bad things about yourself if I were saying to answer your question what do I like about myself I'd have to say I like the relationship that I have with my four sons I've worked on that all my life and it's nice for me to see four sons all in this business and not a senior I try to keep them out of the business but they're all in it and now they're grown up and I like the fact that I am able to have a good relationship with Michael Joe Peter and Erin that please what is that by the way oh this well you know that's funny my wife is a French we met in Paris and I was awarded the appreciator legend on earth and that's what this is now my son Peter he always gets annoyed when I wear this because I did get the Medal of Freedom which is a much more important honor in our own country so he says why do you why that's where your mother likes to wear this when we cut this like a little road you see so that's why she puts that on the benefactor would go good with this I may send you one yeah I'd love to have one cuz I'll probably never get one in the other you mentioned your wife I read in an interview that you said you liked women I think it was in your first book to UM you liked women with overbite that's right and I want to tell you yeah you know I looked back and I found that so many women in my life including my wife always had an overbite and I find that very sexy any women out there with an overbite I think that did I always found that very attractive I don't know why how do you feel about overbite well I've never had a woman with know about it sounds painful but [Music] but you know I'm young and so let's talk oh my you and your son we've been talking a lot about your son unions Michael are doing a movie together yeah Michael and I talked for quite some time about doing a movie as a matter of fact he's a little annoyed because I'm writing my second novel now and I'm enjoying it a new thing for me you know after all I've done almost 80 movies well maybe maybe people have seen enough of me in movies but Michael and I have always talked wait wait wait we get I think they got a vote up here they say no no but Mike and I have talked about doing a movie together mm-hmm and we're pretty close to one right now so maybe in the fall we'll start really working at it because Mike was getting into the noise they look bad put the pen down and get in front of the camera but I'd enjoy that I'd like to do it would be fun to do a movie with Michael and it would be a fun to do a movie with my youngest son Erik he's in Israel now doing a movie but I like that that would that would that would turn me on I'd like that dude this thing is going so good to writing but I agree with them I'd love to see you on the screen what suppose it didn't go good we all get good and bad reviews what would you do if you got a bad review well you know I've been in this business for about 40 years and you never get used to getting a bad review you don't like it it hurts and I know you read my autobiography and you know how important it was to me to get a pat on the back I wanted a pat on the back my father and I never get it got it I think all actors feel that way you learned to cover it up you're like your little kid somebody itchy say ha ha didn't hurt it hurts did you pretend that it doesn't so it's one of the things that you have to face a writing a novel I've seen you is much tougher than a movie because in a movie you can say well what could I do with Burt Lancaster she was hanging around them you know you can blame Burt you're gonna blame the cameraman you can blame your leading lady but when you write a book you have no one else to blame you know it's not a collaborative effort but that's the challenge of it I find that exciting but you don't like a bad review so you mean that's what I have to look for at when I am a veteran like yourself I will still look at a bear reviewing things it still will bother me I won't get a thick skin I think so no no you especially because you're very sensitive you're you're really a professional and if you are you're you have you don't lose that sensitivity if you get thick skin you lose the sensitivity that makes you a good performer so you will always be sensitive to a bad with you but you're not gonna get many bad reviews and I'm always gonna give you a good that's kind of all I need Kurt thank you this book is called dance with the devil if you like to read check this one out we'll be right back it's a milestone day for one of Hollywood's most enduring stars Kirk Douglas is 100 years old today and he sat down for a rare interview with our entertainment guru George Pinocchio okay thank you Kirk Douglas is a show business legend but he'd probably wince at that word because he considers himself to be just a regular guy well today nothing regular about this he is celebrating his 100th birthday Kirk invited me into his home recently to talk about his long life his career and the joy of giving I don't think you were trying to be a hundred I think you should friends there's still something worth what you know how people Kirk Douglas and his wife Ann have been helping people for several decades the longtime movie star grew up very poor but Hollywood made him very rich money being a camera and over the years Kirk and Anne have donated a lot of that money more than a hundred million dollars to causes close to their hearts the homeless Alzheimer's and refurbishing more than 400 playgrounds in the Los Angeles Unified School District when you have been born poor you have sympathy to help other people so I have given all my money away I wonder go out of this world the way a gay man was nothing 100 years of life has given Kirk a lot a successful movie career 3 Oscar nominations and an honorary Oscar and a signature roll watch your name slave Spartacus but the name of Kirk's personal favorite film of his the 1962 Western lonely are the brave alright whiskey girl just another 50 75 yards and we got pine trees rolling all the way to Mexico I love so many pictures does it ever make him want to act again everything maybe want to act again well now I look as laying in my bed and let see all my scripts the clerk's a room many movie thank you know Kirk has invited me back to his house when he turns a hundred and five and a hundred he still got it I'm talking about you and who there's no question about you it was hell for him Kirk and Ann remained very active together they've written a new book called Kirk and Anne letters of love laughter and a lifetime in Hollywood it's Kirk's 12th book and it's due out in May and today the family celebrated with an afternoon tea in a local hotel what a great a great honor and despite his stroke very sharp with a sense of humor and everything it's just fantastic he is completely intact funny as ever and still giving away money they have great story thank you George okay so we first of all thank you so much for doing this I've told Marcia how excited I am but it's a it's a great honor for me to do this absolutely absolutely so well I'll ask you specifically about the book in a bit but I hope we can I want to make this about the whole story so to begin with can you talk about where were you born and raised and what sort of a childhood did you just the small stuff right I was born in upstate New York absolutely and the good you can read all that in my first book like my Center we were several kids and successors and that was the owner board and aware there were very poor and we live by the mill and Lulu trucks and that's when I was a young boy hobos access from the train would come in and knock on the door and I was scared to hell because they all were disheveled and hobos were act for food and my mother who were never afraid and even though we have that much school she always found something for them and she said to me Sammy he was that I have never forgotten he said even a beggar must gift to I never break for needed more and I always remember that phrase and as you can encourage me you have other people thanks we give form on the playground for this schools what I have Oh Judith Harris haven for the Hanson right one thing that I read in preparing for this was that you've encountered a lot of anti-semitism as a kid and that and that that was difficult it was not it was not fun in your community someone to the pole and always someone again the dude the anthem was a part of my life also my life and it's something that every Jew you will and in spite of the fact I think the Jewish race pretty well is it true that some members of your community were impressed by your I made maybe your Hebrew school studies were something to the point where they wanted you to send you off to become a rabbi [Music] everything when I was a kid in second grade I did that play my wife my mother made me a black apron and I play the shoemaker in the second grade and my father who never answers his himselves and what I was doing was in the back and I didn't know her and evidence performance he gave me my first Oscar and that it was a ice cream cone [Music] so at what point did you first know that you wanted to be an actor for the long run was there a moment that you can remember I mean obviously you said you tried it but when did you know that's what you wanted to be around well from from your small from your town where you grew up in you've decided I believe that you needed to get out and so how did you go about doing that when it came time for college and beyond what was how did you how did you leave sure when at some point I I gather that you decided you needed out of Amsterdam you wanted to go beyond there how did you go about going off to school and getting into school and studying acting eventually I didn't have any money and a friend of mine big Riccio he was enough to cover it so when he came back to first year he said what to me come on why don't you go with me it was not his second year so as it was the one where I have a hundred and sixty three dollars in my pocket and with his sex to cancerous st. Louis University is the longest Iranian border and when we were last right wouldn't a perverse or true into the dean's office didn't believe my I was I said I wanted to go to Paris I have 166 hours but I also have my papers from high school and have one best speaking why but it's a birthday so I had a pretty good record so he said okay we take a chance on you surely after that how did you end up at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts what was that how did that how did you swing that one good action school so I went to New York that's a difficulty because I always didn't have money but they think it was Superman and I went to the American hegemony was one of us and Spencer Tracy and Hepburn lots of big stars had come from there and then spent two years at the American Academy and young girl was there Lauren Bacall and he was I will in the senior class and he was 15 16 years old he will and we became friends and I had a sense code that someone had given me and he was with her and he looked at the code oh my god I must be freezing so she went to her uncle and talked him out over overcoat and he gave it to me and that water for two years so that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship and at that time she was she was Betty Joan Persky write a question that I think will be of interest to a lot of people is when and why did mr. Daniel lavash become izzy demske and then Kirk Douglas how did those changes in any he became [Laughter] to me when I think of myself Sacre ho in the other one next time I play house and then with the first job was kind of Alden and 2y plus woman who came before me cago water and while I was working there the older side you have a very different name and everybody went suggestions and they make okay so you're you were in New York and doing very well and you get so how does how did you come to the attention of Hal Wallis I think it comes back to MS Persky again fully killed in nothing [Music] [Laughter] what Quentin when they gave me and sugar and then serveth working on the stage my first job in Broadway and went off sayenko with a big birthday Katharine Cornell McClintock directing I think Judith Anderson people as we went and it was Chekhov's three sisters and then the part of young wasn't soldiers that I wanted to play and here they sing when he goes off to war and extensions goodbye to the maybe and when the although tentrees loose masses and then I was in the play bill McCoy wasn't our doing a movie wood from bamboo bud and they were the producers have was who were going through the org and he did listen when you go down you might see an actor Kirk Douglas and again she plays a part in my life and he he saw me and offered me access to in the picture with Barbara Stanwyck this rail of rival and so just before I ask you more about starting out in the movies I just have to ask a question because when you were when you were coming up as an actor that was a time when some different new approaches to acting we're becoming popular for some of these guys it was the method for some of them it was something else for you were you could you describe your approach to acting in any way or would you or was it just whatever came naturally to you their action message I am done almost 90 a movie my conclusion is acting dependent and the satyrs quality they're really changing even when you go up we could if you look around okay and that ranchers do they play cowboy they play with any you your sink over over yet the person you play any becoming Cyrus professor you become a tailor and my barking become I think that's that's right well when you first arrived when you got off the train out here what was Hollywood the town what were your first impressions of Hollywood the town and then of the studio where you for the first studio that you went to to work out I believe it was paramount [Music] and wanted to go do some pseudo and then we a person to forever by summer yelling if they were expect and there were a group of people all around the studio and when we went through the gate they booth for there was workers work and I found the first thing my gotcha Lois my soul what simple legs right so he was and the corners look so sleepy there for three days now I've read a number of your a lot of your other interviews and articles that over the years that sort of to prepare for this and I got the sense that that first movie was not a wonderful experience for a few different reasons and I wonder if you can share [Laughter] to my dressing room but smoke to three packs a day and thanks to a Millie much my son I gave it up about 40 years ago and let me tell you how my father who was a bull one you know tough guy he used to smoke and the doctor said he was going to die you give smoking to better self he kept one thing with in the best pocket when he felt the urge to smoke he's a girl singer he said amazing the other thing that I just quickly Barbara Stanwyck wasn't it wasn't so lovely at first right [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is it correct that after that film Wallace wanted to put you under a multi-year contract and whether the Kirkman there's the send you up of several pictures that were years Burt Lancaster had a sense of conflict so he said I won't have you before pictures I want you to send a seven-year deal or rupture someone that made me mad without the contract which was window day but that's a friend and if two years liver have was want me to play in the gunfight okay but with will burn Lancaster and birth sesame cook if I do this picture is my last picture and I love the country all right so I do this and I get paid for the the next I guess two years three years before champion you sort of popped up in in a number of very good movies you weren't yet a big star but you were you are in some very good movies so just quickly I have to ask you out of the past I think verse unlike Martha Ivers where you'd been a little bit weak this was the first time we saw you as a tough guy and you know it's still considered one of the it's one of the film though are classics did you like getting to be a tough guy under the past whatever making wonderful your time the other one that I just have to mention that was I believe just before champion was a letter to three wives where no you should have been but it was they waited until champ they chose champion instead they were the same year so was for it was for champion instead yeah but that's alright but you know what I rewatched this morning just in preparation we have this great you probably your very up on your technology I know so YouTube I went and pulled up your your diatribe in a letter to three wise where you get very angry about the radio and advertising you do you remember and and I thought you that was such a great show stopping scene you remember where you but but as you say the the one that really made you [Music] [Laughter] so full right because I think for kid danger right well I have to this is a big one the next question which is yeah we know but I champion was the one that made you a star but your agents said don't do it now why do you think you wanted to play a tough guy so badly I mean if you think about midge he he would you could call him selfish you could call him cocky you could call him cold he leaves pretty Ruth Roman you just ditch her so what but yet there was something that you must have connected to in the character right also though I've heard you talk about the fact that there's one line that midge said it says or I guess yeah that he says that you really related to at that time in your life about how he wants to be regarded by others not another hey you right that's great so it's amazing so now that film was and your performance were so well received the movie was a hit you got your first Oscar nomination suddenly you're this big star how did you handle this change it must have been a pretty sin your life yes now just quickly you you mentioned that you've always had you always had a strained relationship with your own father and that he saw champion and you went to him for feedback [Laughter] [Music] my father never pays attention Michael said there is still looking for a bag so I did the picture yeah do you see yeah do you like it yeah well you as you say though suddenly now you had the power to say yes and no to things that you it was the ball was now in your court and I know that one thing that was happening at that time that was threatening the movies was the the arrival of television and so the studios would tell their actors don't have anything to do with television and what did you have to say in response to that no I think you just went on television and I I promise we won't spend as much time on every movie as as we did on champion but I have to just touch upon a number of the other ones that will always be associated with you and that people still love and I think the first one that I want to do after champion young man with a horn suddenly again Betty Joan Persky now you're in a movie with her and I wonder you it was really the first in this wave of movies that lead [Laughter] [Music] yeah the next year you and Billy Wilder made ace in the hole which I think I don't know if it was in Europe it was called the big carnival but here it was ace in the hole I believe at one point you know your character again in this case well I should say you as you sort of referred or indicated a little while ago you didn't mind playing unlikable characters in this case this guy was very unlikable and you at one point asked Billy Wilder should you tone it down a little bit and What did he say [Music] grab the cameras choking as I said before we did that same year you did another movie that is on every list of especially of the film noir the greatest movies but I've seen it on top 100 all-time list just a great movie detective story and I think that that actually a lot of people believe inspired all of the police procedurals that we now see law and order all these different crime dramas that now happen so for you here again not a not a especially loveable guy was that a good one for you a fun one for you yeah well that was just detective story do you have any I know you I know you enjoyed in your in your book here I read about working with Lee grant who had had her own issues during the blacklist I think she believed this small part except lips in the addictive story if I'm not mistaking together absolutely I remember that and I just have to point out a statistic that I put together if somebody may have done this before but I haven't seen it you must have been a great scene partner because you managed to bring out the best in so many people that even though the Academy never got it right and gave you an Oscar three of your co-stars won Oscars for their performances opposite you and I just have to tell you Gloria Grahame for the bad and the beautiful Best Supporting Actress anthony quinn for lust for life Best Supporting Actor Peter Ustinov for Spartacus Best Supporting Actor I don't know how many other people have the the next year after after doing ace in the hole and detective story in the same year which it would be enough for some careers the next year you did the bad and the beautiful which is a lot of people say probably the best movie ever made about movies [Music] [Music] why do you think that is yeah absolutely yeah now was your portrayal of this ruthless producer was that based on anyone that actually worked in the business that you really and you got your second Oscar nomination yes so that's that must have been nice that same year was the Big Sky and Howard Hawks you're talking about great directors that you worked with what did you make of working with him he was people always said he was like a guy's guy is that true [Music] prayer he was a good he he directed bill call to have yeah and or the big yeah yeah yeah and he got you to sing was pretty good and I remember reading that I think there was a there was some stunt or something in the movie involving the the the rope on a horse that John Wayne had refused to do in another movie with hawks because he didn't think he could make it could be funny but he saw that you did it and after that John Wayne said to him if you ask me to be in a funeral because it will be funny I'll believe you like after you so that you you were impressive with that one but I believe that you're most commercially successful movie ever was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is that right now that did you do that because you had young kids that they might enjoy it and they must have loved your own kids must have loved seeing you now on [Music] [Laughter] you then I guess it make sense that after having your most commercially successful movie you did that was the time that you chose to do something that very few other actors had done I believe at that point maybe the only one that had done it was your friend Burt Lancaster which was to start your own production company why did you choose to do that and and some of the some you made at Brian productions you made some of your best films that you were a part of I I know that just to quickly highlight the fact that during with with that company path of glory the Viking Spartacus lonely are the brave seven days in May so before I ask you specifically about any of those do you think those films could have been made by a regular studio or would have been made or did they need somebody that was willing to do them in an independent way like your production company they're cold do you have a kiss yes I have a plan though what I want to do and he simply best drawer and they sent me this picture won't make on liquor what we have increasingly popular is absolutely certain countries like friends yeah crazy before you did paths of glory though between when you fought in 55 is when you formed the production company in 57 is when paths of glory came out but in between you did the movie that I think a lot of people still associate with you more than any other movie lust for life and I just have to ask you you've written that you quote never had a movie take so much out of me close quote why because me [Music] I have never felt that way in any other picture but just I think it's worth noting though that you when you made the picture you were the same age as van Gogh was when he committed suicide I have heard you talk just one last thing about lust for life you mentioned that the shoes that you wore and the way that you wore them really helped you to develop that character interesting now chronologically is where paths of glory comes in and uh why do you think why did it take so many years for that great very disturbing story to become a movie why did it take so long people don't want to see a movie when it went to apps one of the great great horror movies and I guess though what it's in a lot of ways one of the things that it's remembered for aside from your terrific performance is the fact that you have this young you chose to have this young director come in and do it as his first sort of major film why what what about Stanley Kubrick made you say I want to work with this guy right but was he were there any major issues involving him on paths of glory I know there were four Spartacus which we'll get to but with paths of glory was the production itself a pretty smooth one [Music] [Laughter] [Music] all right so now we get to the main course Spartacus how did you and I know that a lot of these questions I know the answer to from reading the book but just to remind people and preview the book a little bit how did you first hear about the book Sparta conspired Spartacus and then were you immediately convinced after you read it that it would that it could be a great movie or did you have your doubts yourself that it could be a that it could be made into a great movie [Music] and because the Romans were embarrassed that this live almost over so I like today there's so many revolution of strength if you like the pork meat I've been there the other day and I was intrigued was it tell with Spartacus to make the same thing we were gonna sue McCarthy era it was terrible example I mean people will put in jail my books with the healing and stop this humble o5 of being the most plentiful as last time he was sentenced though year in jail and of course you know the story how the header was still you clear the blackface you've got one of them when you did the losers I sue them when I think of it it hurts me because that was good as they say my book is by making some break-ins of absolutely and they're trying to really give their sales of making the film lines in the toilets or I'm serious people who love the book well what was interesting is that I think Howard fast rate had bent had been accused himself of being a communist he admitted that he was a but he as part of the terms for making a movie out of the book you we will [Music] yeah and and if it had become widespread knowledge during the making of the film that Trumbo was actually writing it what would have happened and this is universal absolutely you had went when the when the Hollywood ten and all of that was first taking place you were just started I don't even think you had a rut or you were just coming up in Hollywood at that time did you know people who at that time were personally affected by it and also how did you feel I mean it was a death there was there was a sense that communists might be inserting propaganda into movies what did you make of all this at the time whirring well what can you get their names become to better because yeah she went yeah well as the as the not only the star but the producer it was as you talked about in the book it was largely on your shoulders to put together this cast and also to get the director choose a director and there were you we end up the film that people can see today has this incredible cast and everybody knows that the director was Stanley Kubrick and that you were the star but what they don't necessarily know is that there was a time when somebody else wanted to play Spartacus when somebody else was directing it when somebody else was playing the gene Simmons part so I wonder if you can without that's all in here right but the gist of it was that I in terms of you were you always always gonna play Spartacus or did somebody did somebody try to push his way in okay make play because I say oh we want Wasserman to making the play when we when we were we here we came back to came back to make it into a movie for 10 years the movie my son would come out TV show [Music] that was interesting out there and also just for as long as we're talking about parts that you didn't play but almost played I believe that you at one time we're looking at Stalag 17 and Cat Ballou right well the other big one was only only Cat Ballou right that was the only other one well but coming back to Spartacus which I think the year that that was released was the year that Jack Lemmon won Best Actor for the apartment I don't know I mean I think Spartacus is hard to compete with but anyway but but with that you the point I just wanted to make is that you almost in order to get Olivier to be in the film with you you had he thought at one time he was gonna play Spartacus right and direct right and these women oh I don't know why she got a squib as it begins when so anxious to play later but I didn't think didn't simply because I seen young English every this river cannot be heated so I was trying to get a foreigner to play before finally and you have a very funny I won't make you tell it but just so people know that in the book you when you she had to do a nude scene and she said you were very convincing at getting getting her to do it [Music] [Music] the last question just in terms of personnel on that movie why did why did originally you you you were sort of imposed anthony mann was imposed upon you you weren't so into it so how did it wind up that he was replaced by Kubrick three weeks and the same time Brando fire Kubek I will give you [Music] Oh weekend and I think the the best well the most famous scene I think it's fair to say in Spartacus is well you know what I'm gonna say I am Spartacus I am Spartacus I'm Spartacus and I never knew until I read your book how that all came together and that the idea that Stanley Kubrick didn't even want to entertain the idea of that it was your idea and he didn't want to have anything to do with it but I guess looking back I know you [Music] that was great no we'll come we'll sell somewhere an event but but what where did that idea come from for that scene I am Spartacus I'm Spartacus science parties and and why I know you just you just watch the film again recently you mentioned in the book you can see it's people if you watch it with an audience that is the most I think as powerful is maybe except for the last scene where your or your child but yeah but did you know just what's the story behind that scene because it's really great have you ever been able to go a day in your life when you're out in public without somebody asking you to to say I am Spartacus it's probably and then just the the tail end of the Spartacus story which is what you will you know it might be remembered even longer than any of the movies is the fact that at the end of the day you did put the name of Dalton Trumbo on the film and when when you when you told him that you that you were going to do that he had he had recently said the heck with the movie because people were rewriting lines and all this stuff but you told him that and he was very moved wasn't he [Music] something because ofyou be you know stubborn Oh Wordsworth why there's someone else whether people say do whatever work but when you're young enough you have that but you always fought injustice you always reacted to injustice I mean always wanting to take the credit oh yeah well there was a time where yeah so maybe I think it's worth mentioning Kubrick was ready to very happy to have his name put on it anyway [Music] but which was Trumbo very grateful for what you did [Music] the the last movie that I want to just quickly ask you about is one that I believe you say is your personal favorite of your movies and that is lonely great why is it your personal favorite [Music] [Music] was writing film starting that and then interesting interesting okay so that's how you knew him I just watched lonely are the brave again for the first time in a while this week and then I wanted to read what I read what a lot of other you know critics and people with the how they what they interpreted it to be about as opposed to just the surface story and people were suggesting that maybe it's about a guy resisting conformity he's trying to remain an individual in a world where it's harder to do that these days is that what you saw in the story that you responded to because that really is also in a way the story of Spartacus and of champion and have a lot of the movies you know a one guy going his own way freedom of expression free country right now that the most important thing all over the world every bill again kill you so free person is the most important thing because people are saying what the thing that it will be a sad day so then because that was very important for as I said I know it happened in the workshop for me there to be food well the very last little bit is that I just want to bother you back up of thoughts big picture questions just first of all the the the third act of your life in a way you've had to deal with a lot of difficult things with your own health with loss with different things and so I wonder people you know you so many people say how much they admire the fact that after the stroke you actually maybe kept going harder some people would lay down and quit but you have kept you know kept at it more than anybody and I just wondered do you remember what do you remember of the stroke itself and why have you been able to persevere but is it something that you consciously remember do you kind of kawaii when they're in the helicopter to people see you and it was interesting that I know another one of your books there and there's four people that are curious there's now I think 10 total another one of your books you talk about the fact that you have use I think you say you're not more religious but you're more spiritual as you've gotten older and I just wonder you know I know you've had 83 you had a second Bar Mitzvah because I guess 70 is sort of rebirth and now in another one that is warning me I believe in God but I don't know who he is if people say man was created in where the God was meant that he go to the bathroom I mean I think see when I look it makes me bringing God but I I don't think God in some power that we can understand people make up stories but did anybody come back but so the future though for the country we have this election that's coming up a pretty big presidential election Romney Obama so the in terms of the country and then personally as you look at the future are you optimistic are you pessimistic you know that what do you how do you feel going forward and the last question what would you like well you can hear I told you we're gonna do one last selling so if you take the book what would you like people especially young people who read I am Spartacus your your new and latest of ten books you've written what would you like them to take away from it you know I have learned so much from my helicopter crash there's from my stroke because first of all you learn that thing can always be worse I'm here I don't speak as well as they used to but my wife says that's there's too much talking anyway just finishing a book I call the book my stroke of luck anything I try to maybe help other people with handicaps for example depression I know depression the lack of scientific causes of it but I think one of the big goals of depression is Nasus ISM you are thinking too much about yourself you have to start thinking about other people another thing and you can that's the way I got my paper so when it first happened to you were depressed you thought why me God why me and am I going to do well what is an actor who can't talk you know and at the beginning I couldn't talk at all then then I started study with a speech therapist and Michael will Micah and I were always going to do a movie together so much cuz it was there you keep working with your speech therapist and then we'll do with the movie I think I met Michael why do you work well in my speech therapy and then Michael when you talk the way I took will do the move it takes the basic fact is that you had to learn how to speak again yes yes you know when you think of it we talk all you people you do you talk you think of self lamb and you say it and you never think what it requires just I have to learn to make every sound and you know but the first every thing is my thoughts are here but my strength is crawling around so it gets frustrating if you're like me you can't begin to imagine what working in Hollywood for more than a half a century is like you also wonder how after a devastating and debilitating stroke iconic actor Kirk Douglas was able to overcome the resulting physical and emotional challenges and continue his work as an actor author and philanthropist one thing's for sure he didn't do it alone thanks to an his wife and business partner Kirk Douglas has been able to make movies and make a difference I recently sat down with this remarkable couple in their Los Angeles home to discuss their personal and professional longevity and their lifelong commitment to helping others take a look so Kirk I don't normally start interviews by saying Wow but you deserve more than one Wow it's amazing your body of work the fact that you're ever ready bunny you just keep going and going and going so what are the characteristics about you I thought I would be doing the interview but get I guess no but I look back my I don't know 50 years of making a movie and then sacrifice and what is it about him the what are the characteristics you see in him that there are many phases you know characteristic in his work in his photography and with women now which one would you like maybe you're a woman why don't we start there and I think with time he is what I would say matured in the best way whatever he didn't have before and I don't repossession it within him as a character he has it now and he has it little by little it came more more listen to you and I don't think me because myself everybody has their favorite Kirk Douglas movie so I want to give the two of you a crack at it is there a favorite film of yours can he ask you I have made almost named a movie a movie I don't wanna make another movie but the movie I like you know Kirk's talked a lot about his youth and growing up poor but your childhood helped shape who you are - I can you talk a little bit about growing up and some of the things that you had to go through in your lifetime my upbringing was that I spoke English French and German and when I came to Paris during the occupation I was able to make some money by doing subtitles German subtitles under French movies and later on I continued to do the same thing with English subtitles under French movies and it brought me into Public Relation and and I became the assistant of the assistant that took the south to Hollywood this was my dream of all dreams I had a very interesting and fascinating life I was in America taking the star for the Hollywood premiere about de toulouse-lautrec movie when the director who was a friend of mine wanted me for a movie with Kirk Douglas as the PL lady and I said I can do it I am going to Hollywood and that was more important than anything I came back and the director cotton cording he said I want you on the set tomorrow and he said let me take you to the Lions Den and it was his dressing room and he came in and they told me all about so he was perfect for my because he support swimming with it and I was very happy there when she gave me teach me to be treated the way but then circle to the charity ball with the exit there were the legs with everything in France axes were elephant and when they stock saddle there the word the thing to do that and 62 years later here we are Wow so that's the key to a great marriage yeah follow the elephants yes let me ask you all the philanthropic work that you do is there one that's closest to your heart the one that you feel the strongest about in I went was Kurd Thanksgiving to the homeless shelter a friend of my husband wanted him to come alone because Kirk had an experience in his use about Thanksgiving and his friend Sidney Sheldon right so you come with me and tell the man what Thanksgiving meant to you and Kirk head to speech and he Thanksgiving was standing in line to try to get a meal in they were running out of meal just two people before him so that was his story while he was making the routes and talk to the man I looked where are the women oh the women are here this with English bump it's and then there came a white sheet and that was for the women all other facilities when the same I was so appalled I called the mayor who also helped me with the homeless now and gave some money and I was trying to build a building because the facility for the man was already going to be replaced with a new facility because the earthquake had made it insecure so I prayed a lot to God to see how I can find some money and so God called and a couple of his friends and my end sent a bill 22 years ago so 28 in halts 500 and more that come in and out for closing showers very very three movies God told you to make three movies sitting here talking to the two of you you can't help but notice the love and it's been there for years and years and years and I want to talk about 96 you got the Academy Award thunderous applause standing ovation you talked about your boys how they were out in the audience and they were proud but then you dedicated it to an and you told her you loved her talk to me about that moment how important was that to confess your love to this woman that you've loved all these years when the I have never been memorable as it was always I have to tell you something there very few people know the emotion about when he went to receive the actor the Barska you have to know that my husband just had a stroke he could hardly talk he's taking speech lesson and we are rehearsing at home thank you thank you very much thank you all day long thank you thank you thank you very much all right he got that out the night of the Oscar now we all know that he can say it thank you the night of the Oscar you saw it or you heard it I am proud too proud to be a part of Hollywood for 50 years but this is for my wife and I love you the fact that he could say all this broke us totally with emotion somehow somewhere and we don't know to this day he was in a corner in his room and said to himself or learn these words said he said we didn't know you could do it what was that like for you that was them so if you think it was not only the emotion that he gave it to me but as he could talk thank you both so much this has just been an absolute delight thank you both thank you very much thank you thank you would it what a pleasure

Channel: Media Collection

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Keywords: kirk douglas, kirk, douglas, kirk douglas childhood, kirk douglas young, kirk douglas as a child, kirk douglas biography, kirk douglas films, kirk douglas 2018, kirk douglas oscar, kirk douglas scene, kirk douglas golden globes, kirk douglas father, michael douglas, catherine zeta-jones, kirk douglas transformation, kirk cameron, micheal douglas movie, kirk douglas 2019, nominees, news, access hollywood, golden globes, golden globe, spartacus, dalton trumbo

Id: MOkvnCKSLDU

Length: 203min 36sec (12216 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 08 2019