Kirk Douglas: Champion

Kirk Douglas was born in Amsterdam, in the state of New York in December 9, 1916 from a family of Russian immigrants of Jewish origin arrived in the US in 1910.
After completing his studies, he attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts and began his career as a stage actor on Broadway.
After the war, in 1946, the producer Hal Wallis, at the suggestion of Lauren Bacall, offers him $ 5,000 a week for the film The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, opposite Barbara Stanwyck who becomes his first appearance on the screen.
The following year, in 1947, will be with Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer in the beautiful noir directed by Tourneur, Out of the Past.
1949 will be the year of innovation thanks to the Boxer role unscrupulous in Champion by Mark Robson which brought him his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Followed other movies:
Young man with a Horn (1950), Ace in the Hole (1951), Detective Story (1951).
He received a second nomination for the dramatic role in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and a third nomination for the role of the painter Van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956).

In 1954 plays the role of Ulysses directed by Mario Camerini.

In 1955, he established Bryna Productions, which began producing films as varied as Paths of Glory (1957) and Spartacus (1960), Lonely Are the brave (1962).
In those two films, Paths of Glory and Spartacus, he starred and collaborated with then relatively unknown director, Stanley Kubrick.

In 1957 he starred opposite Burt Lancaster in western as Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

After six nominations and no wins in 1996 he received the Honorary Academy Award for 50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community.

Douglas starred in the thriller, noir, westerns, adventure films, historical, bringing on the big screen something more than simple athletic body.
Intelligence, magnetism and vitality that led him to become the new male hero of American cinema after World War II.

Films in this video:
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Out of the past
Champion
Ace in the Hole
Detective Story
The Big Sky
The Bad and the Beautiful
Ulysses
20000 Leagues Under the Sea
Lust for Life
Paths of Glory
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
The Vikings
Last Train from Gun Hill
Spartacus
Lonely Are The Brave

Music for this tribute is soundtrack Dragonheart by Randy Edelman.