 FEBRUARY 13 • 2020 | 43

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

K

irk Douglas, the star of 
Spartacus, Vikings, Lust 
for Life and countless 
other Hollywood films, died last 
week at 103. Though known for 
his leading roles, I’
ll remember 
him better for his early-career 
turns in many a film noir.
With a prideful air of dignity 
hidden in a ruthless air of street-
wise grit, he brought shading 
to screen villains in works like I 
Walk Alone and Out of the Past.
Across a range of prideful but 
withdrawn characters, he embod-
ied a rough brand of masculinity 
not often associated with Jewish 
actors. His contradictions made 
anti-heroes of leading roles and 
brought character to simple parts.
He also contended with his role 
as a Jewish-American. Born Issur 
Danielovitch in 1916, he was 
raised in poverty by immigrant 
parents in Amsterdam, New 
York. Declining an offer to pur-
sue rabbinical studies early in life, 
he elected to gamble instead on 
the unlikely prospect of a career 
onscreen. Shortly after, he attend-
ed Sarah Lawrence University 
on a wrestling scholarship before 
serving in the Navy from 1942-
1944. Douglas legally changed his 
name before enlisting. 
His first Hollywood role came 
shortly after his return, opposite 
Barbara Stanwyck in 1946’
s The 
Strange Love of Martha Ivers, a 
sinuous gothic thriller.
His stature rose throughout 
the ’
40s and ’
50s, his first Oscar 
nomination coming with 1949’
s 
Champion — also his break-
through leading role. Harnessing 
a wiry physicality alongside his 
well-honed and wryly chipper 
inflections, his dynamism — 
already in evidence — was 
granted room to breathe.
At the height of his career, 

he rarely embodied his Jewish 
identity in a public way. Though 
he said he fasted on Yom Kippur 
while working, he rarely dis-
played that facet of his back-
ground onscreen. Like many 
American Jews, he had the priv-
ilege and ability to pass, integrat-
ing into a Hollywood mainstream 
that would likely have proved 
hostile to a clearer embrace of his 
identity or childhood faith.
Blond-haired and blue-eyed, 
he was able to move with relative 
freedom through an entertain-
ment industry that often required 
actors, directors and technicians 
to take on names that elided any 
visible form of recent immigrant 
or non-Christian heritage. There 
were notable exceptions — such 
as 1953’
s The Juggler (see page 
62).
His ambivalent stance 
towards Jewish identity shifted 
in 1991 following a near-death 
plane-and-helicopter collision, 
in which he sustained a spinal 
injury and several other pas-
sengers were injured or died. 
During a harrowing recovery, 
he re-embraced Judaism after 
years of repressing it in public, 
and — according to his memoir 
— alone. In 1999, he celebrated a 
second bar mitzvah at 83. 

George Elkind is a Metro Detroit film 

critic.

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remembrance

Kirk Douglas Grappled 
with Jewish Identity

GEORGE ELKIND CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Douglas on the set of the movie Eddie 
Macon’
s Run during its filming in 1983.

