Legendary 'Spartacus' actor Kirk Douglas dead at 103

Legendary Hollywood actor Kirk Douglas who starred in legendary films like Spartacus has died, his family announced Wednesday. He was 103. 

“It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103,” his 75-year-old son Michael Douglas, also an actor said in a statement posted on Facebook, “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.”

Born into a family stricken with poverty,  Kirk Douglas had risen to Hollywood royalty in the 1960s. In his 60-year career, he starred in some 90 films and TV series. 

He had attended St. Lawrence University and was dating his teacher Mrs. Livingston, who had seduced him when he was just 14 years old.  Douglas had then gotten into a liberal arts school.

Born in 1916 as Issur Danielovitch to Russian-Jewish immigrants, he had married twice- first wife Diana Dill and second wife Anne Buydens and has two sons from each wife- actor Michael Douglas, producer Joel Douglas, producer Peter Douglas, and late actor Eric Douglas. 

Regarded as a serial flirt, Douglas had affairs with several women including Hollywood starlets during his second marriage. He never hid his infidelities from his second wife, who was accepting of them explaining, “As a European, I understood it was unrealistic to expect total fidelity in a marriage."

Speaking about the 2003 film It Runs in the Family, which starred his son Michael and grandson Cameron Douglas, he had told the Post, “The first requirement for an actor is vitality. Not only the physical kind — every kind. You have to be able to do the jumping, the crawling, and the running yourself.”