Kirk Douglas died recently at the age of 103. Douglas, whose real name was Issur Danielovitch, made his film debut in 1946, and went on to perform and star in dozens of movies, in addition to writing, directing, and producing. He was nominated for and received numerous awards, including Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, Kennedy Center Honors, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award. After Douglas’s bar mitzvah, his synagogue offered to sponsor him to become a rabbi, but he declined, already knowing that he wanted to be an actor. Judaism was only a minimal part of his adult life until he was in a near-fatal helicopter crash, about which he later said “I came to believe that I was spared because I had never come to grips with what it means to be Jewish.” He did, however, make one reference to his religious observance during his acting career. What did he say?
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A. Referring to the 1950 film Young Man With a Horn, in which Douglas played Rick Martin, a character based on jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, Douglas said, “As a kid, I used to love hearing the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I tried it once, but couldn’t get out a single note. I thought that was hard, until I had to learn to play the cornet for this role.”
B. In the 1960 epic Spartacus, Douglas played a Roman Republic slave named Thracian. In the opening scene, Douglas refused to work in the mining pit, so he was sentenced to death by starvation. Said Douglas, “While I wasn’t an observant Jew, I did always fast on Yom Kippur, even though I never went to synagogue. So there I was on the set of Spartacus, being sentenced to death by starvation, and it was actually Yom Kippur, the day I wasn’t eating. It was just a crazy coincidence, but I never forgot that. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence.”
C. In 1966, Douglas starred as Colonel Mickey Marcus in the film Cast a Giant Shadow. The plot is based on the real-life story of David “Mickey” Marcus, a Jewish officer in the United States military who was recruited to help the fledgling Israeli Defense Forces in the 1948 War of Independence. Douglas told of his experience filming in Israel on Yom Kippur. “The shoot went on that day. I didn’t mind, I never celebrated Jewish holidays, and neither did the other cast and crew, almost none of whom were Jewish. I went into the food tent on the set during a break and got a sandwich. I sat down next to an Israeli actor who I was shooting a scene with that day. He wasn’t eating, just reading. I offered him a bite but he said he was fasting. I didn't understand that. He was working, but he wasn’t eating. I always thought Judaism was all or none. That was the first time I thought about how I could find my own place in my Jewish observance, and the next year, I began fasting on Yom Kippur.”
D. Douglas starred as Doc Holliday in the 1957 movie, Gunfight at the O. K. Corral. Douglas said of the role, filmed on location in the desert town of Tombstone, Arizona in September of 1956, “It wasn’t very comfortable. Especially on Yom Kippur. I worked on the holiday, but I still fasted. And let me tell you, it’s not easy riding horses in the hot Arizona sun on an empty stomach.”
E. Referencing his costar in the 1952 movie The Bad and the Beautiful, Douglas said about Yom Kippur, “I still worked on the movie sets, but I fasted. And let me tell you, it’s not easy making love to Lana Turner on an empty stomach.”