Kirk and Anne Douglas, 202 years old combined, celebrate 65 years of marriage

The anniversary

Actor Kirk Douglas, 102 years old on 9 December 2018, and his wife Anne Buydens, 100 years old on 23 April 2019, cross another important milestone: yesterday they celebrated 65 years of marriage (married in 1954). No one would bet on such a strong and lasting union, but “we are soul mates” explained the star of “Spartacus” in an interview.

Laughing together

They say that laughing together is one of the secrets of a successful marriage. Kirk and Anne never fail to show themselves smiling, even though they are now both in a wheelchair, surrounded by the affection of children and grandchildren. The two always hold hands and exchange tender gestures. The couple had two children: Peter, 63, who is a television producer, and Eric who died in 2004 at the age of 46.

The difficult moments

A lot of love helped the couple overcome difficult times, such as the premature death of their son Eric, who had problems with drug addiction. She has fought and won against breast cancer and he came out almost unscathed from a stroke that hit him in 1995 (after heart surgery) that caused him difficulty speaking. Years later Kirk confessed to attempting suicide after the stroke because he had fallen into depression.

“Now I am convinced that suicide is a stupid and selfish thing,” he said. But at certain times you don’t understand the harm you cause to others when you are depressed.”

The first time they met

For Kirk, it was not easy to win Anne (born in Hanover Germany in 1919 and moved to Belgium as a child). The actor met his future wife in 1953 in Paris where she was working as a film publicist. The first meeting of the two was on the set of the film “Act of Love”. He invited her to dinner, but she refused, and he got angry. He proposed to hire her as an assistant, she refused again, but then accepted. This was the first step towards falling in love and marrying him the following year.

“She was impossible”

“She was impossible,” told the actor in the book celebrating their love. Today we would call her a “b…”. How did I win her over? “I stopped talking about myself and started listening to her,” explained the actor.

She, on the other hand, tried not to let his charm lead her astray: “I promised to myself not to get involved,” said Anne, “I knew he would leave, return to America and never see him again. Moreover, he was engaged with an Italian actress, Pier Angeli, not to mention all the other women who were lurking around”.

His many betrayals

The marriage between Kirk and Anne had ups and downs. In the early years, he wasn’t faithful, just as he had not been faithful to his first wife Diana Dill. She forgave him and they managed to move on. “After so many years of marriage we have overcome many obstacles,” said Lady Douglas.

“Anne saved my life”

It was 1958, at the time, the couple owned a house in Palm Springs, California, and had as neighbors Elizabeth Taylor and her husband and producer Mike Todd. One day Todd asked Kirk to accompany him to New York: they would fly there with the producer’s private plane. Anne said to Kirk not to go because she had a bad feeling.

“Don’t board that plane, promise me,” Anne told him. Douglas reluctantly said he wouldn’t. “I was very angry that I couldn’t accompany Todd”, he said. That plane crashed and there were no survivors.

Not just his wife

Anne was not just the love of his life. She was a friend, a confidant, a counselor, a partner and his number one fan. A philanthropist and art collector, Anne has a great sense for business. It was she who realized that Kirk’s manager in the 1950s was not managing the star’s assets very well. And so she took over the financial management of the star, and become director of Kirk’s production company at a time when women weren’t assigned senior management level roles.

Their legacy

The Douglas Foundation founded in 1964 supports many charitable causes, helping people in need and funding hospitals, theaters, schools and universities around the world.