Gentlemen of the court, there are times that I'm ashamed to be a member of the human race and this is one such occasion.
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Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas (born December 9, 1916) is an American actor, producer, director, and author. He is one of the last living people of the film industry's Golden Age. After an impoverished childhood with immigrant parents and six sisters, he had his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s and 1960s, known for serious dramas, including westerns and war movies. During his career he appeared in more than 90 movies. Douglas is well known for his explosive acting style. 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. Other early films include Young Man with a Horn (1950), playing opposite Lauren Bacall and Doris Day; Ace in the Hole opposite Jan Sterling (1951); and Detective Story (1951). 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). In 1955, he established Bryna Productions, which began producing films as varied as Paths of Glory (1957) and Spartacus (1960
Hollywood is make-believe, and that’s confusing.
I was not a tough guy. I just acted like one.
I miss Burt Lancaster—we fought a lot, and I miss him a lot. And John Wayne, even though he was a Republican and I was a Democrat.
When you play a weak character, find a moment when he’s strong, and when you play a strong character, find a moment when he’s weak.
I never, ever thought I would live to be 100. That’s shocked me, really. And it’s sad, too.
Too often, I have not been what I wanted to be I've succumbed to pressures. Yes, I have. The things I've done that I liked, I've always done against advice. The bad films everybody was high on. The good films, they advised me against.
I love champions. A champion has something special about him.
Compared to Thoreau, Saint Francis of Assisi was peanuts.
The foreign directors are always fumbling about in obscurity, and the critics are always writing about the juxtaposition of black and white and the existential dilemma and all that shit, to disguise the fact that they don't understand the first damn thing about it, either.
I know Italians and I like them. A lot of my father's best friends were Italians. I responded to that in making the picture. I put a lot of warmth into that character. Those immigrants were tough, more intensive than people are these days.
Don't crucify me because of what your idea of a movie star is. I didn't start out to be a movie star. I started out to be an actor.
I believe much of the divisiveness in the world has been caused by religion, even in the time of Spartacus when they worshipped many gods. What is the purpose of religion? After ninety-five years on this planet, I have come to the conclusion that religion should be based on only one thing: helping…
So they became superpatriots. And to prove themselves right-minded, they were more than willing to sacrifice the lives of others, even their fellow Jews. They were like the Vichy government in France, collaborators who held on to their influence and position at the expense of their fellow…