Seven facts about actor Kirk Douglas, who is dead at 103:
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Born Issur Danielovitch of Russian-Jewish ancestry in New York, Douglas had two bar mitzvahs – one at the traditional age of 13 and another at 83 when he reaffirmed his faith.
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Because he was only about 5-foot-9-inches tall (1.75 meters), Douglas often wore lifts in his shoes on screen.
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He was to have starred with Sylvester Stallone in “First Blood,” the initial movie in the Rambo series, but left after Stallone rejected his suggested script changes.
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A 1996 stroke left Douglas with slurred speech and damaged facial nerves. It did not, however, keep him from attending the Academy Awards ceremony two weeks later to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Douglas starred in a 1963 stage version of Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and tried to make a movie of the book. He could not find an interested studio but his son Michael finally got the film made in 1975.
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Douglas was 75 when he survived a helicopter crash that killed two other people.
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President Jimmy Carter gave Douglas the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, in 1981.
