Michael Douglas and his wife Catherine Zeta Jones paid tribute to Kirk Douglas on social media.
Kirk’s son, Michael Douglas, wrote a moving statement on Instagram about his father’s passing. He wrote, “It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103,” Michael wrote, captioning a photo of his father.
“To the world he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to.”
“Let me end with the words I told him on his last birthday and which will always remain true. Dad- I love you so much and I am so proud to be your son,” he concluded.
Michael’s wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, also paid tribute to Kirk on Instagram. She wrote, “To my darling Kirk, I shall love you for the rest of my life,” she wrote, alongside a photo of a precious moment between her and her father-in-law. “I miss you already. Sleep tight…”
Douglas became an international star through positive reception for his leading role as an unscrupulous boxing hero in Champion (1949), which brought him his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. His other early films include Young Man with a Horn (1950), Ace in the Hole opposite Jan Sterling (1951), and Detective Story (1951), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actor in a Drama.
He received a second Oscar nomination for his dramatic role in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), opposite Lana Turner, and his third nomination for portraying Vincent van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956), which landed him a second Golden Globe nomination.
