In pictures: Kirk Douglas at 100
A selection of images from the life and career of US actor Kirk Douglas, who celebrates his 100th birthday on 9 December.
- Kirk Douglas, the American actor whose steely gaze, virility and distinctively dimpled chin made him one of Hollywood's most popular leading men, was born Issur Danielovitch on 9 December 1916.
- His early films include a 1947 adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's play Mourning Becomes Electra, in which he appeared alongside Rosalind Russell.
- His first Oscar nomination came in 1950 for boxing drama Champion. The same year, he was seen in Young Man with a Horn, for which he took lessons on playing the trumpet.
- Spartacus, in which he played a gladiator who leads a rebellion against the Roman empire, remains one of his most revered films.
- Douglas's insistence that Dalton Trumbo be credited for the 1960 release's screenplay was instrumental in ending the Hollywood blacklist.
- Douglas had a friendly rivalry with his Hollywood contemporary Burt Lancaster. The pair made a number of films together, among them Seven Days in May and Tough Guys.
- The twice-married actor is also responsible for siring a Hollywood dynasty. Here he is pictured in 1956 with sons Joel and Michael.
- Michael Douglas, pictured with his father in 1965, went on to become an Oscar-winning actor and producer in his own right.
- In 2003, three generations of the Douglas clan came together when Kirk made It Runs in the Family with son Michael and grandson Cameron.
- Douglas is also the proud father-in-law of Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who became Michael Douglas's wife in 2000.
- A near-death experience in 1991 led Douglas to embrace the Jewish faith in which he had been raised. Here he is shown in 2000 praying at Jerusalem's Western Wall.
- In 1996 Douglas had a severe stroke that impaired his ability to speak. He later wrote about the experience in a book called My Stroke of Luck.
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