ICONIC HOLLYWOOD STAR KIRK DOUGLAS & HIS WIFE ANNE ARE GIVING AWAY THEIR FORTUNE

USPA NEWS - For most of his career, Douglas enjoyed good health and what seemed like an inexhaustible supply of energy. Much of that vitality he attributes to his childhood and pre-acting years. He credits his mother, Bryna, for instilling in him the importance of "gambling on yourself,"...

For most of his career, Douglas enjoyed good health and what seemed like an inexhaustible supply of energy. Much of that vitality he attributes to his childhood and pre-acting years. He credits his mother, Bryna, for instilling in him the importance of "gambling on yourself," and he kept her advice in mind when making films.



Douglas realized that his intense style of acting was something of a shield: "Acting is the most direct way of escaping reality, and in my case it was a means of escaping a drab and dismal background."

Kirk Douglas with Anne, his wife of 61 years, is giving away his fortune estimated at $80 million dollars, to a range of causes, from Children's Hospital Los Angeles & the Anne Douglas Center for Women to their biggest passion, the Motion Picture & Television Fund.

Kirk Douglas didn't get paid the kind of money they do today, but he still became a very wealthy man. In 1955, Douglas demonstrated his independent streak and formed his own movie company, Bryna Productions, named after his mother. To do so, he had to break contracts with Hal Wallis & Warner Brothers, but then began producing his own films, as varied as Paths of Glory (1957), Spartacus (1960), Lonely are the Brave (1962) & Seven Days in May (1964), all of which he starred in.