Gone but not forgotten. Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones continue to honor the late Kirk Douglas months after his passing.
“There wasn’t anyone like him. There’s another generation, that was the great generation, post-World War II … and Dad was one of a kind,” Michael, 75, told Entertainment Tonight on Friday, May 15, of his father who died in February at the age of 103.
“I think he’s very happy. I know he takes particular pride — not so much in whatever I worked with and [what] I’m doing with the Motion Picture Television Fund — but I know he loves Catherine [and] the work that she’s doing.”
Michael added that his dad used to tease him and flirt with Zeta-Jones, 50. “We would call him up and he would be like, ‘Enough with you, let me talk to your wife,’” Michael quipped. “He was a flirt until the very end.”
Zeta-Jones agreed, adding her own memories of her late father-in-law. “What was so admirable about him was he was always involved with courage events. He wrote 11 books, he worked with his rabbi, he worked with his philanthropic endeavors — and he always created something to do and he taught me that lesson. He always said to us, ‘Write a book, do something else. What are you doing?’ And he’d be working on something right now, I’m sure.”
The late actor passed away on February 5 and was laid to rest on February 7 in Los Angeles. At the time of his passing, Michael posted a tribute to his father on Instagram, honoring his legacy.
“It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103,” the Wall Street actor wrote alongside a photo of the beloved performer. “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.”
Michael continued, “But to me and my brothers Joel [Douglas] and Peter [Douglas] he was simply Dad, to Catherine, a wonderful father-in-law, to his grandchildren and great grandchild their loving grandfather, and to his wife Anne, a wonderful husband.”
He concluded: “Let me end with the words I told him on his last birthday and which will always remain true. Dad- I love you so much and I am so proud to be your son. #KirkDouglas.”
Kirk — who who received a SAG Lifetime Achievement Award, a Golden Globe and the Presidential Medal of Freedom during the course of his career — is survived by his wife, Anne Buydens, 100, sons Michael, Joel and Peter, and grandchildren Cameron, Carys Douglas, Dylan Michael Douglas, Ryan Douglas, Tyler Douglas, Kelsey Douglas and Jason Douglas.
