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May 30, 2003/Iyar 28 5763, Vol. 55, No. 40
Kirk Douglas returns to Judaism
GOLDA SHIRA and
PAULINE DUBKIN YEARWOOD
Chicago Jewish News
The chin is as impressive as ever. The dimpled, heroic, manly, movie-star chin. The Kirk Douglas chin.
But while the chin has not changed, clearly the 86-year-old Hollywood icon it belongs to has. Talking to him is to see a man transformed, one resolved to bring meaning into his life by putting Judaism at the center of his life, a man whose sense of spirituality and reconnection with the wellspring of Judaism permeates his art, his family, his very being.
This day finds him sitting in the hospitality suite of a downtown Chicago hotel, submitting to the change-interviewers-every-25-minutes ritual that often accompanies a press tour for a new movie. A sandwich and a glass of milk sit, untouched, on a side-table; Douglas says he would rather talk than eat.
Stars of Kirk Douglas' magnitude don't often do such intensive press tours, nor are writers for Jewish newspapers usually invited to them. But this time is different. Douglas requested that the Chicago Jewish News be included in the publicity stop promoting his new movie, "It Runs in the Family" and, according to publicists, he wanted to do the tour.
The movie stars three other members of Douglas' extended family: his famous son, Michael; Kirk Douglas' ex-wife and Michael's mother, Diana; and Michael's son Cameron, Kirk's grandson.
Kirk Douglas wanted to talk about the movie and he wanted to talk about Judaism. It's well known from the first volume of his autobiography, "The Ragman's Son," that he experienced a resurgence of interest in his religion after a helicopter crash and, later, a stroke that left him partially disabled. He even had a second bar mitzvah at the age of 83, and he continues to recommit himself to the richness of the very heritage from which he had been so estranged for so very long.
He even makes time to learn Torah every single day.
In "It Runs in the Family" he appears in a role that was adapted slightly to make his character, Mitchell Gromberg, the highly successful patriarch of a Jewish family, a stroke survivor.
Douglas had a lot to do with getting "Family" made in the first place. He had never before made a movie with his actor-producer son Michael, although they have been trying for more than 20 years. After Sept. 11, 2001, which affected both Douglas men deeply, they decided to work harder to find a vehicle they could both appear in.
Around the same time, a young screenwriter, Jesse Wigutow, submitted a script to Michael Douglas, with whom he was working on another project. That script eventually became "It Runs in the Family."
To make it a real-life family affair, Diana Douglas was cast as Mitchell Gromberg's wife. She and Kirk Douglas were divorced more than 50 years ago, but have remained good friends, and she has had a long career acting in films, theater and television. Cameron Douglas, the 24-year-old son of Michael Douglas and his first wife, was not an actor, but took acting lessons and screen-tested for the part of the third-generation Asher Gromberg. Australian filmmaker Fred Schepisi directed.
"It Runs in the Family" is a warmhearted comedy-drama about a mildly dysfunctional upscale New York Jewish clan. The generational tangle begins to come undone at the family's Passover seder, among other events, and threatens to unravel completely. Finally, various troubles force the Grombergs to confront their own failings as family members and to turn their attention back to nurturing their relationships, however frustrating they may be.
Kirk Douglas says that making the family Jewish was the script writer's decision, not his, but that everything about the movie, including the Gromberg's Jewishness, felt right to him. In his 86th year, he says, both family and Judaism are on his mind.
Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch, the son of illiterate, poverty-stricken Russian-Jewish immigrants in Amsterdam, N.Y. He worked his way through college as a wrestler and eventually won a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, a move that launched his career on Broadway.
After serving in World War II, and with an assist from his friend Lauren Bacall, who suggested him for a screen test for his first film, "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" in 1946, he went on to spectacular Hollywood success. He won Best Actor Oscars in 1950 and 1953 for "Champion" and "The Bad and the Beautiful" respectively and picked up a Golden Globe and New York Film Critics Circle Awards for "Lust for Life," one of his most famous films, in 1956. In 1996, he received an honorary Oscar "for 50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community."
Douglas also was known for his philanthropy - even before his resurgence of interest in Judaism. His Douglas Foundation has been instrumental in launching a homeless mission and women's shelter in Los Angeles and funded Harry's Haven, an Alzheimer's unit, named after his father, at the Motion Picture Relief Home.
The foundation recently committed funds for a theater opposite the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Yet another step signifying Douglas' return to the source, return to the many facets of his heritage that continue to nourish his life and his work.
"I have worked through the Torah twice and I am still studying it because it fascinates me," he continues.
"Studying the Torah is very demanding. I say to screen-writers, you want to write? Study the Torah. There is every story, every plot that you can think of in there, and it is very dramatic.''
Dramatic, too, has been the story, the evolution of a man who had turned his back on his roots, only to rediscover and embrace them. And now, with this movie, he offers us an opportunity to share in his heartfelt celebration of Judaism's glorious treasure.
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