Jerusalem Post,
Internet Edition, 16th July, 2000:
Kirk
Douglas: An active legend comes to town
By Eli
Muller
JERUSALEM (July 16) - American screen legend Kirk Douglas might
have regaled the audience at Thursday night's opening of the 16th
Jerusalem International Film Festival with the tale of his triumphant
return to the screen, following a stroke that threatened to leave him
wheelchair-bound and mute a few years before.
Instead, his words unmistakable despite his slightly slurred
speech, the 83-year-old actor offered an extended greeting in Hebrew
to the admiring throng as he described a lifetime of Zionist and
Jewish commitment.
Douglas, one of whose most famous roles was the portrayal of War
of Independence hero Mickey Marcus in Cast a Giant Shadow, is in
Jerusalem to receive a life achievement award at the festival and to
be honored by Mayor Ehud Olmert for his philanthropic work and love
for the city. Douglas has sponsored playgrounds and community centers
in both Jewish and Arab areas of the capital.
The festival will include a screening of Douglas's return to the
screen in Diamonds, a comedy in which he plays a Jewish boxer
recovering from a stroke.
"Diamonds was very important to me," Douglas said at a press
conference Friday afternoon. "I thought that I would never be able to
make another picture."
Douglas said that his stroke has given him a renewed commitment to
Judaism and philanthropy. "They say that tragedy brings people
together. The tragedy of my stroke brought my self together, and made
me think about the need to do something on behalf of other
people."
Offering a prayer for the success of Prime Minister Ehud Barak at
the Camp David summit, Douglas bemoaned the division he sees in
Israeli society.
"It is a tragedy that the secular Jews here do not see the beauty
of the religious world, and that the religious do not see the beauty
in the secular world," he said. "The depth of your piety is not
measured by size of your skullcap or the length of your peot
[earlocks].
"I feel very close to Israel," Douglas continued. "Maybe I will
move to Israel someday."
Although he has been named one of 25 screen legends by the
American Film Institute, Douglas insists that he will remain active
and is currently at work on a memoir about his stroke and a book
about his mother.
"I don't like the idea of being a legend; it makes you feel like
you're already dead. Still, it's flattering that people think that
you've done something right."
