Met yesterday 101 years (December 9, 1916), which is said soon. Kirk Douglas, or Issur Danielovitch Demsky, has been in the world for more than a century and it seems that he intends to continue a little longer. Last year i wrote to him this article and today I want to make another one to go back to highlight your facet as a writer. As well played some well-known characters of literature And, like them, this movie legend will be immortal anyway. Let's go for the 102, Mr. Douglas. Or for whoever they are.

Let us remember that Kirk Douglas' facet of writer began when in 1988. He was already 72 years old and published his first memoirs under the title of The rag's son reference to his father's trade. But it also touched on the genre of the novel and children's literature.

Literary characters

It is not possible that there are moviegoers who have not seen 20 Leagues Under the Sea o Spartacus. And yes, it is possible that there are readers who have only seen these film classics but have not read the books. Well, you can do both and in the movies Douglas was great playing both characters.

Ned land

20 Leagues Under the Sea is a must-have adventure novel of all times. Perhaps also one of the best known, although almost all of them are, of that great French writer who was Julio Verne. In 1954 the director Richard Fleischer took her to the movies in a production of Walt Disney. It became the same classic of the adventure genre but on the big screen.

The book is narrated in the first person by the French professor Pierre aronnax, a famous biologist who, in the company of his Conseil assistant and Canadian harpooner Ned Land, they are taken prisoner by him captain nemo, whose submarine Nautilus is mistaken by everyone for a sea monster. Their voyages under the oceans, their fights with fantastic creatures and the conflicts between the characters trying to escape or understand the vengeful and suicidal mission of the deranged Nemo make up an extraordinary narrative both on the pages of paper and in the stills of the film.

Douglas perfectly embodied the likeable, boastful and courageous Ned Land in an unforgettable characterization thanks to his physique and charisma. Perhaps one of his most distant interpretations of his more serious roles of tough, ambiguous, rogue or heroic types that he cultivated so much.

Spartacus

Possibly his most remembered and praised performance, although there were a few. The American Writer Howard Fast (who also wrote under the pseudonym of EV Cunningham) I was at the prision when he started writing Spartacus. Affiliated with Communist party, had been called by the famous Un-American Activities Committee and they jailed him for three months for contempt of Congress.

The story about the uprising of the Roman slaves led by Spartacus was rejected by various publishers, who did not dare to publish such a story. Fast decided to publish it on his own Through his own publishing house Blue Heron Press and to his surprise, more than forty thousand copies of the work were sold in hardcover. After the end of the Senator era McCarthy millions were sold and it was translated into 56 languages.

Ten years after its publication Douglas convinced Universal to shoot the movie based on the book and insisted on including in the credits to Dalton trumbo, also a blacklisted writer who had adapted from the novel. The movie directed her Stanley Kubrick It was a box office success that also won four Oscars and was nominated for two more. And for all the face and figure of Spartacus will always be those of Kirk Douglas.

Books as a writer

Writing a book is an extension of being an actor. To make a movie you need a whole team; When you write, you are the director and all the characters.

After his first autobiography, Douglas was encouraged to continue writing. Thus, in 1990, public Dance with the devila fictional story in which the protagonist is a Jewish exile who travels to the United States, where he will become a film director and embark on a career determined by ambition. An argument he certainly knew. Y Last tango in Brooklyn published it in 1994, about the love story of a couple who meet in a movie session where they project Last tango in Paris.

En 1992 suffered a serious plane crash that almost cost him his life and the experience inspired him The gift. He was also the producer of her second biographical book, Ascending the mountain, which earned him the Deauville Festival Literary Prize in September 1999. He also wrote a couple of children's books, including the one entitled Young Bible Heroes. And already in 2008 he wrote another book entitled Let's face it: 90 years of living, loving and learning. The last? We'll see…