Originally posted by Nefertiti2
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Kirk Douglas, 103 and out
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I didn’t say he did. I just pointed out that there are a number of unsavoury stories about Douglas behaviour, some from his own autobiography.
the story I quoted wasn’t about him cheating on his wife.Last edited by Nefertiti2; 11-02-2020, 15:15.
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Originally posted by Nefertiti2 View PostThere are a number of other stories about Douglas though. If you read his autobiography The Ragman's Son written twenty years ago or more he admits to being a creep and a harrasser,
this is from his obituary in The New York Times
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Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View PostKubrick and KD didn't exactly hit it off."He was a bastard! Though a talented, talented guy." according to Douglas. They were at particular loggerheads over the famous "I am Spartacus!" scene. Kubrick hated it, Douglas wouldn't cut it. It sent Kubrick into therapy.
Natalie Wood's life seems to have echoes of Judy Garland. The movies are the last place that kids with toxic family backgrounds should have been around.
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There are a number of other stories about Douglas though. If you read his autobiography The Ragman's Son written twenty years ago or more he admits to being a creep and a harrasser,
this is from his obituary in The New York Times
Douglas very much lived like a movie star, or even a king, in the pre-#MeToo era. Marriage and other commitments didn’t keep him from being romantically linked with many of his female co-stars, among them Gene Tierney, Patricia Neal and Marlene Dietrich. He would recall playing Ann Sothern’s husband in “A Letter to Three Wives” and how he and the actress “rehearsed the relationship offstage.”
Speaking to The Associated Press about Douglas in December 2016, less than a year before the #MeToo movement caught on, the actress and dancer Neile Adams lightheartedly said of her friend, “You could not sit beside him without his hand crawling up your leg.”
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One of the primary sources for the rape story is Lana Wood, who was 8 years old at the time so could perhaps be hazy on the details. And she has a reputation for saying a lot of sensational things when there's a story about Natalie to be sold. In Lana's version, her and her mother are waiting outside whe a tearful Natalie emerges. In another version, Natalie returns home alone, confiding to a friend the next day that she is scared to tell her mother.
I used to be a big Natalie Wood fan and have read quite a few biographies and the stories in those books are remarkably inconsistent to say she was in the public eye from an early age. Which probably comes from her family's predeliction for embellishing the truth, or flat out making stuff up.
Her mother was insane, and caused major pyschological damage to the daughters as she pushed them/pimped them towards stardom. 16 year old Natalie was already in a sexual relationship with her 44 year old Rebel Without A Cause director Nicholas Ray.
None of which is to say that she wasn't raped, maybe she was. But 65 years on, for it to be an indisputable fact that Kirk Douglas was responsible is not backed up by any sort of reliable evidence.
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There was a TV movie bio about Natalie in 2004, The Mystery of Natalie Wood, and it does include her being raped by an older man who is influential in Hollywood, though it gives him a fake name. Even back then, people were mentioning Kirk Douglas as being this person.
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Originally posted by ad hoc View PostThe Harvey Weinstein of his day? The Natalie Wood rumour would certainly suggest so
The only source for this was a commenter on a blind-item gossip blog that commenters decided was Robert Downey Jr, based on some hints that you can easily find on Google. It piggybacks on a claim from Lana Wood that her sister was raped by a "powerful Hollywood figure" when she was 16. Obviously everybody else who would qualify is now dead, and so it doesn't work as decent gossip in 2012 unless you go with the one living guy who would qualify: Kirk Douglas.
This same commenter claimed Hayden Panittiere and Amanda Bynes were pimped out as children by their parents, and the proprietor of the blog is now basically trafficking mainly in "X is a secret pedophile!" blind items.
Wonkette had a pretty good takedown of the claim. People have got to stop believing everything they read on the Internet.
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Kubrick and KD didn't exactly hit it off."He was a bastard! Though a talented, talented guy." according to Douglas. They were at particular loggerheads over the famous "I am Spartacus!" scene. Kubrick hated it, Douglas wouldn't cut it. It sent Kubrick into therapy.
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That looks an interesting listen. I think Spartacus is so stiff as Kubrick only came on board after the film started. It's probably his weakest film. Not that it's not a great watch, but no masterpiece.
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Originally posted by MsD View PostI loved a couple of his films, of course, who doesn't love Spartacus?
But his treatment of women sucked.
I know his treatment of women was very poor, but if Trumbo is to be believed, he was squarely on the right side of the Blacklisting travesty. You know who is not on the right side of that? Fuckin' John Waye. FTG.
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Two separate news reports called him "The last star of Hollywood's golden age ". Olivia De Haviland is still alive.
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I'm not sure all men actors then were rapists. Hard to be sure, of course.
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A great actor.
His behaviour was, I suggest nothing out of the ordinary at the time, and you must remember that nearly all actors are dicks.
Nice story in the obits:
Kirk acquired the film rights to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest after originating the lead role on the stage. Several years of development hell follow, during which time he sells the rights to son Michael.
Michael finally succeeds in getting it greenlit by a studio, but then has to tell Dad the bad news - he's now too old for the role, they're going with Jack Nicholson.
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Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View PostAlso an early environmentalist. Can't remember its name but, in the early fifties, he starred in a film about a bunch of Puritans(?) trying to save the the redwoods
The Big Trees, amusingly enough.
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Blimey, that last paragraph was something indeed. Interesting to see that he was abused by a teacher when he was 14 too.
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Originally posted by slackster View PostThere’s a few memorable films he was in - Ace In The Hole & Paths To Glory standout alongside Spartacus for me - but when you look back over his career a hell of a lot of it was forgettable dross.
Originally posted by MsD View PostHe had a good side (don't they all) in promoting people of colour and fighting McCarthyism.
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He had a good side (don't they all) in promoting people of colour and fighting McCarthyism.
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His starring role in Lust for Life inspired the name of a clothing store in Aachen. A fitting trbute
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Yes. One of his "conquests" disappeared altogether. He admits in his autobiography he was a bit of a shit.
https://nypost.com/2016/12/08/how-ki...nest-beauties/
"Charming beauties" is one way of putting it, I guess.
The last paragraph
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