GERMANY: SCREEN LEGEND KIRK DOUGLAS IS TO RECEIVETHE GOLDEN BEAR FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD AT THE BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL

Record ID: 390945

  • Title: GERMANY: SCREEN LEGEND KIRK DOUGLAS IS TO RECEIVETHE GOLDEN BEAR FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD AT THE BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL
  • Date: 14th February 2001
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 14-16, 2001)(REUTERS -ACCESS ALL) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) KIRK DOUGLAS "You see I have had lots of things happen to me in life. I got almost killed by a helicopter crash. Then I had my stroke. When you realize that things can always be worse, you feel better. Yes I have had a stroke but now I am here talking to you. Maybe my speech is not as go
  • Embargoed: 1st March 2001 12:00
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  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVAAHWFQJGSYCO1W711CJKDMQVDL
  • Story Text: Screen legend Kirk Douglas is at the Berlin Film Festival where he is to receive the Golden Bear for lifetime achievement tonight. Reuters met the 84 year old actor to talk about his trademarks, dimples and what movies he perhaps shouldn`t have made...
    Screen legend Kirk Douglas is guest of honour at Berlin`s International Film Festival. The 84 year old actor is to receive the Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement, a distinction he responded to with grace and humour when he arrived in the German capital: "Listen, I must confess, if you live long enough, you receive all the awards."
    Kirk Douglas has done over 80 movies, wearing lots of different hats. From rebel slave in "Spartacus" to French painter Vincent Van Gogh in "Lust for Life" he swopped shoes for sandals and put on different accents.
    But he`s also had to deal with life`s tougher lessons. In 1991 a helicopter he sat in crashed with a sports plane, killing the two young people who flew the plane. Years later, he suffered a stroke that left his speech impaired.
    "You see I have had lots of things happen to me in life.
    I got almost killed by a helicopter crash. Then I had my stroke. When you realize that things can always be worse, you feel better. Yes I have had a stroke but now I am here talking to you. Maybe my speech is not as good as it once was, but there was a time after my stroke when I couldn`t talk at all.
    So when you realize that things can always be worse and you develop a sense of humour, then you can laugh at yourself, it helps you."
    Douglas is the son of poor Russian immigrants, his real name being Issur Danielovitch. "A great name ... if you want to be a ballet dancer", he says.
    His trademark is perhaps the famous dimple on his chin, which, by the sounds of it is destined to remain in the Douglas family: "I have a dimple in my chin it`s my trademark.
    I am very happy. The son of Michael and Catherine has a big dimple in his chin and I said, look at that, he`s a Douglas."
    In Berlin to receive a Golden Bear award for lifetime achievement, Douglas confessed, not without humour, that many of his films were less than outstanding.
    "Oh my God. We don`t have time to go into all the movies that I shouldn`t have made. I`ve been making over 80 movies. I can only think about 20 or 25 that I like. So that leaves a lot of movies that I shouldn`t have made."
    Kirk Douglas` biggest battle now is with the after-effects of the stroke he suffered five years ago.
    Yet he made a film last year -- "Diamonds" with son Michael, which turned that handicap to advantage -- and displayed a still sparkling wit in Berlin, lapsing into fluent German or Spanish and cracking jokes that made light of his disability -- "Some of you speak better English than I do," he told a German reporter.
    The lifetime achievement award is well deserved, and by the looks of it Kirk Douglas is still up and about much to delight of his many many fans.
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