Death of a legend: Hollywood star Kirk Douglas dies, aged 103

Kirk Douglas, the cleft-chinned movie star who fought gladiators, cowboys and boxers on the screen and the Hollywood establishment, died on Wednesday at the age of 103.

Douglas was a Hollywood icon who starred in Spartacus, Gunfight at the OK Coral, Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful and Lust for Life in a long cinematic career.

He was the head of a showbiz family that included his producer sons Joel and Peter, and Oscar winner Michael Douglas.

Michael announced his famous father’s death on social media and to People magazine on Thursday morning (Australian time).

“It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103,” Michael wrote.

“To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the Golden Age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to.”

Feb 07, 2020, updated Feb 07, 2020

1/16Kirk Douglas and daughter-in-law Catherine Zeta Jones in 2003.

2/16Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas died on Wednesday, February 5, aged 103.

3/16Kirk Douglas, with son Michael, at a ceremony to award him with a Hollywood star in 2018.

4/16Kirk Douglas starred in 1960 film Spartacus.

5/16Kirk Douglas celebrated with family and friends, including son Michael Douglas (R).

6/16Kirk (right) and Michael Douglas on the set of Cast a Giant Shadow</-> in Rome in 1965.

7/16Douglas with his wife, Anne, in 2013.

8/16Douglas, ready to fight, as Spartacus.

9/16Cameron, Michael and Kirk Douglas, with Catherine Zeta Jones.

10/16The Douglas family: Anne, Kirk and his four sons in 1965.

11/16Douglas and artist Novella Parigini and actress Lilly Greco on Venice's Lido beach in 1953.

12/16Kirk Douglas (left) with Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past in 1947. It was just his second movie.

13/16Kirk and Michael Douglas at a 2003 movie premier.

14/16Kirk Douglas and John Travolta after Douglas presented Travolta with an award in 2007.

15/16Douglas and Omar Sharif junior at the 2011 Academy Awards.

16/16Douglas as Vincent van Gogh in Lust for Life, 1956.