Let's Face It : 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning

by Douglas, Kirk

• ISBN13: 9780470376171
• ISBN10: 0470376171
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-22
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

He has been one of the brightest stars in Hollywood, a hard-charging actor whose intensity on the screen has been mirrored in his personal life. As Kirk Douglas has grown older - he turned ninety in December 2006 - he has become less impetuous and more reflective. In this poignant and inspiring new memoir, Douglas contemplates what life is all about, weighing current events from his present frame of mind while summoning the passions of his younger days.Kirk Douglas is a born storyteller, and throughout Let's Face It he tells wonderful tales and shares favorite jokes and hard-won insights. In the book, he explores the mixed blessings of growing older and looks back at his childhood, his young adulthood, and his storied, glamorous, and colorful life and career in Hollywood. He tells delightful stories of the making of such films as Spartacus, Lust for Life, Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful, and many others. He includes anecdotes about his friends Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Lauren Bacall, Ronald Reagan, Ava Gardner, Henry Kissinger, Fred Astaire, Yul Brynner, John Wayne, and Johnny Cash. He reveals the secrets that have kept him and his wife, Anne, happily married for more than five decades, and talks fondly and movingly of times spent with his sons, Michael, Peter, Eric, and Joel, and his grandchildren.Douglas's life has been filled with pain as well as joy. In Let's Face It, he writes frankly for the first time about the tragic death of his son Eric from a drug overdose at age forty-five. Douglas tells what it was like to recover from several near-death episodes, including a helicopter crash, a stroke, and a cardiac event. He writes of his sadness that many of his closest friends are no longer with us; the book includes many moving stories such as one about a regular poker game at Frank Sinatra's house at which he and Anne have been fixtures along with Gregory Peck, Jack Lemmon, and their wives. Though many of the players are gone, the game continues to this day.In Let's Face It, Douglas reflects on how his Jewish faith has become more and more important to him over the years. He offers strong opinions on everything from anti-Semitism to corporate greed, from racism to Hurricane Katrina, and from the war in Iraq to the situation in Israel. He writes about the importance in his life of the need to improve education for all children and about how we need to care more about the world and less about ourselves.A must-read for every fan, this engrossing memoir provides an indelible self-portrait of a great star - while sharing the wit and wisdom Kirk Douglas has accumulated over a lifetime.

Author Biography

Kirk Douglas has been a household name for six decades, appearing in more than eighty films. A three-time Academy Award nominee, Douglas received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981, a special Oscar in 1996, and the National Medal of the Arts in 2001. He is also the author of the bestselling The Ragman's Son, Climbing the Mountain, and My Stroke of Luck.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
My Birthday	p. 5
Two Heads Are Better Than One	p. 9
A Day in My Life	p. 16
Hoops of Steel	p. 20
Amsterdam, New York	p. 27
Children	p. 33
My Sons	p. 36
Eric	p. 40
Dealing with Death	p. 44
Harry's Haven	p. 49
Don't Put Your Daughter (or Son) on the Stage!	p. 51
Fans	p. 57
Inside of Me	p. 63
Romance Begins at Eighty	p. 65
Never Forget	p. 71
Be the Person Your Dogs Think You Are	p. 76
Cemeteries	p. 82
A Whale of a Tale	p. 88
I Love Dogs	p. 92
Trying Our Best	p. 95
Some of My Best Friends Are Actors	p. 98
Can We Talk?	p. 104
Anne in Orbit	p. 108
Decisions	p. 111
Almost Dying	p. 117
Mama's Boy	p. 123
The Dangers of Celebrity	p. 127
Thinking about Death	p. 130
Passion Plays	p. 136
Second Wedding	p. 143
Hate	p. 150
Real Heroes	p. 154
Reading Obituaries	p. 159
Laugh, Clown, Laugh	p. 166
Knees	p. 172
Put Your House in Order	p. 178
Both Semites	p. 183
Writing	p. 188
Technology	p. 191
Does God Laugh?	p. 194
Greed Is Not Good	p. 198
Stones and Flowers	p. 202
Am I a Good Father?	p. 207
Don't Be Too Religious	p. 211
Hold the Gefilte Fish	p. 215
Who's Minding the Store?	p. 220
Israel	p. 225
Sunset	p. 232
Epilogue	p. 234
Credits	p. 236
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