Happy 101st birthday, Kirk Douglas!

Various | Dec 09, 2017 | n/a

[Ken H]

A living legend, born December 09, 1916. My 3 favorite movies of his are Spartacus, In Harm's Way, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Also a real life hero =>

"He enlisted in the United States Navy in 1941, shortly after the United States entered World War II, where he served as a communications officer in anti-submarine warfare. He was medically discharged for war injuries in 1944."

Wikipedia

[laplata]

Happy 109th to your Grandma.

[laplata]

I just watched “Lonely Are the Brave” again. Great movie.

[GreyFriar]

‘The Final Countdown’ — It is an enjoyable movie with great shots of aircraft carrier operations and F-14s. And a nice Pearl Harbor ‘what if’ scenario for alternate/counter-factual buffs.

For an ‘alternate’ view of Pearl Harbor see Chapter 3, ‘Pearl Harbor, Irredeemable Defeat’ of “Rising Sun Victorious” edited by Peter Tsouras; This is an excerpt:

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The following events take place during the first of three Japanese strikes:

“The ad hoc strike group under the command of Lieutenant Commander Shigeharu Murata separated from the main force at 0745 to seek out Task Force 8. They found their prey at 0830, steaming south at 30 knots. On Enterprise and her escorts all hands stood at their battle stations. They had long since heard the radio message ‘Air raid Pearl Harbor. This is no drill.’ Circling at 20,000 feet was their combat air patrol of ten Wildcats. Enterprise’s thirty SBDs and six remaining TBDs were circling over the island of Maui, sent out of harm’s way by Halsey. His plan was to recall, refuel, and arm them to strike the Japanese fleet, once he had an idea of their location.

Commander Murata ordered his veteran torpedo pilots to split over their force in half, his element engaging the Enterprise while the others hit her escorts. The Vals were to strike after the Kates had made their run. Murata’s ten Kates began their runs at both sides of Enterprise, charging through a hail of anti-aircraft fire much heavier than that which their comrades were facing at Pearl. Three went down before launching their fish, but the remaining planes successfully loosed their torpedoes. Three hit Enterprise on her starboard side in quick succession, followed by another two on her port. She began to slow. Her advanced damage control design matched the effects of the five massive torpedo holes, but once the modified battleship shells dropped by the Vals exploded within her hull, destroying her watertight integrity, she began to settle slowly to the bottom of the Pacific.

Meanwhile her Wildcats had been engaged by the Zeros as they dived to attack the Kates. In a whirlwind fight, seven Wildcats went down, taking with them three Zeros and two Kates. The remaining Kates and Vals made their runs on the cruisers Northampton, Chester, and Salt Lake City. Swerving wildly and putting up a dense canopy of triple A, Chester and Salt Lake City took repeated hits and were soon ablaze and sinking. Of the nine escorting destroyers, Blach, Dunlop, and Benham were sunk. Northampton, flagship of Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, escaped with one torpedo hit and one bomb strike.

His job done, with Enterprise sinking, Murata led the remains of his strike force back to the home carriers.”

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[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

The best Doc Holliday.

No F way. Val Kilmer destroyed that role. Greatest supporting actor in a movie not to be nominated.

[Parley Baer]

I have seen him in person in the 1960’s. This was in Palm Springs Ca.

[Bonemaker]

God bless them all from that era. It was a bitch.

[Rummyfan]

A living legend, born December 09, 1916. My 3 favorite movies of his are Spartacus, In Harm's Way, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Spartacus, Paths of Glory... and a toss-up between Cast a Giant Shadow and Lonely Are the Brave.

[sparklite2]

In Harm’s Way is based on a book of the same name. The movie is faithful to the book but can’t cover as much as the book does. If you read the book, I think you’d enjoy it, too.

[Bonemaker]

“He did his duty, and he did his best. All such men are heroes.”
You are a truth teller.

[Conservative Gato]

Rumor has it that he raped Natalie Wood, not in some movie but in real life, when she was very young but so far there’s been no direct accusation. The story is that when the rapist dies, Lana Wood will name the perp.

Interesting you say that. I was actually reading this article last night about the so-called secret tunnels under the Playboy Mansion. Playboy did the article and they found actual blue prints of the tunnels.

Whether they were built or not, no one from Playboy or the mansion will say. The interesting thing about the tunnels, if true, is they connected to some of the Hollywood stars homes so they had secret access to the Playboy Mansion.

According to the blueprints, tunnels were built to the homes of “Mr. J. Nicholson,” “Mr. W. Beatty,” “Mr. K. Douglas” and “Mr. J. Caan.”. If they are who we think they are, I was surprised to see Kirk Douglas on the list. I did not know about the Natalie Woods rape allegations till your post and it got me to thinking about this article. I'll post the article for anyone to check it out for themselves.

http://www.playboy.com/articles/tunnels-to-celebrity-homes-playboy-mansion?utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=

[Bonemaker]

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mr. Douglas. Your catching up to my Grandma, who’s going to be 109 this June.”

Gid bless her and may you match and raise her!

[elcid1970]

I remember that SNL skit! IIRC it was “What if Spartacus had a Piper Cub at the final battle with the Romans?” Kirk Douglas is directing his rebel troops from the tiny cockpit.

His views on gun control utterly suck. In 1975 he defended his gun toting movie roles with “you don’t understand, this is about make believe”. His friend replied, “No, Kirk, this is about make money!”

Anyway, glad to know Kirk Douglas is still with us.

[EvilCapitalist]

What about Hedley Lamarr?

[dsc]

20,000 Leagues was the first movie I ever saw. I must have been three or four years old.

[elcid1970]

Geez! I completely forgot to mention Kirk Douglas as Gen. Mickey Marcus in “Cast a Giant Shadow”, about the building of the `Burma Road’ supply route between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during the 1948 Israeli war for independence. He was superb because he put his full heart into it.

[laplata]

Thank you. I’ll do that. I’m a history nut and WW II is fascinating. What a horrendous war.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Just wow, what a life!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks for the recommendations. I just added Spartacus, In Harm’s Way, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Gunfight at the OK Corral to my Netflix and public library queues. I’ve been on a movie watching binge lately.

[luvbach1]

Ace In The Hole, not often mentioned, was memorable.

[Kartographer]

'Last Train to Gun Hill'

Marshal Matt Morgan: Takes guts not to. Be too easy on ya. You'd die too quick. I know an old man who'd like to kill you, Belden - the Indian way: slow. That's how I'm gonna do it: slow - but the white man's way. First you stand trial. That takes a fair amount of time, and you'll do a lot of sweating! Then they'll sentence ya. I never seen a man who didn't get sick to his stomach when he heard the kind of sentence you'll draw. After that you'll sit in a cell and wait, maybe for months, thinking how that rope will feel around your neck. Then they'll come around, some cold morning, just before sun-up. They'll tie your arms behind you. You'll start blubbering, kicking, yelling for help. But it won't do you any good. They'll drag you out in the yard, heave you up on that platform, fix that rope around your neck and leave you out there all alone with a big black hood over your eyes. You know the last sound you hear? Kind of a thump when they kick the trapdoor catch - and down you go. You'll hit the end of that rope like a sack of potatoes, all dead weight. It'll be white hot around your neck and your Adam's Apple will turn to mush. You'll fight for your breath, but you haven't got any breath. Your brain will begin to boil. You'll scream and holler! But nobody'll hear you. You'll hear it. But nobody else. Finally you're just swingin' there - all alone and dead.