My stroke taught me so much, and for all that it stole, it gave me even more. In the process of healing, my life has changed for the better. Now I want to share what I have learned.

In this vivid and very personal reflection upon his extraordinary life as an actor, author, and legend in his own time, Kirk Douglas offers a candid and heartfelt memoir of where it all went right in his life -- even after suffering a debilitating stroke. Revealing not only the incredible physical and emotional toll of his stroke but how it has changed his life for the better, Douglas shares the lessons that saved him and helped him to heal. Alongside his heartfelt advice and insight, he also recalls warm memories of some of the most famous figures of our time -- including Burt Lancaster, Michael J. Fox, and Gary Cooper -- as well as others who have soared to greatness in the face of adversity.

Charming, soulful, and filled with personal photographs, My Stroke of Luck is an intimate look at the real person behind the fabulous talent -- and at a life lived to its very fullest.

Kirk Douglas's skilful and passionate autobiography charts the rise of the son of an illiterate Russian-Jewish ragman who became one of the last surviving legends from Hollywood's golden era, who died aged 103 in February 2020. With unflinching humour and frankness he reveals the inside story of more than forty years of stardom, working alongside Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, John Wayne and Laurence Olivier - and his relationships with movie goddesses like Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth and Marlene Dietrich. He starred in numerous films that have gone on to become enduring classics, such as Spartacus, The Glass Menagerie, Lust for Life, Paths of Glory and Gunfight at the OK Corral. He was nominated for an Oscar three times, and won a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1996. He campaigned against the Hollywood blacklist, giving opportunities to young directors such as Stanley Kubrick and, after starring in the play One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, he gave the film rights to his son Michael Douglas, who produced the Oscar-winning movie that followed. Rich in unforgettable anecdotes that capture the true spirit of the golden years of Hollywood and Broadway, this is an autobiography that reads like a novel, narrated by the unmistakable voice of a true superstar.

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.

In this, his most satisfying novel so far, Kirk Douglas exhibits the brilliant versatility that he has showcased so vividly in his many decades as an actor. Here he tells the story of two ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances - circumstances that wait right around the corner for each one of us. Ellen, a small-town girl from upstate New York, is trying to make it as a modern woman in the big city. She is doing well in her career as the librarian of a large Brooklyn hospital, but her personal life is a mess. Her boyfriend, Richard, a world-renowned heart transplant specialist, is unfaithful. Her roommate has moved out leaving her with a mountain of unpaid bills. She is broke. Then she meets Ben at a screening of Last Tango in Paris. Ben, a fitness instructor, is twice her age, but he is a vigorous man able to challenge and out-perform men young enough to be his sons. A recent widower, Ben is frantically scrambling to find a temporary place to live, because his house in Flatbush has sold much faster than he expected. Ellen rents Ben a room, but what begins as friendly business relationship slowly turns into something more. Ben feels a surge of vitality in which passion knows no age and no limits. Ellen, full of life spirit, and mischief, seems his perfect match. Yet Ellen and Ben's startling and consuming affair faces a gulf even wider than the gap that separates May and December. Ellen's best friend is appalled, Ben's daughter, a psychologist, condemns their relationship as a Freudian nightmare. A terrible accident and then a mysterious death - which could be murder - threaten to doom their love. Soon, life's expectations shatter on the rocks of the unexpected. Roleschange in astonishing ways. Yet, ultimately, Ellen and Ben's love will prove stronger than reason - in a powerful finale than will haunt the reader long after he or she has closed the book.

He's one of the best-known and best-loved actors around the globe - the dynamic star of classic films like Spartacus, Lonely Are the Brave, and Seven Days in May. In recent years, Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas has surprised and delighted the world with an entirely new career. Once more, here is Kirk Douglas - author. Now, the man behind the bestselling novel Dance with the Devil - hailed by the Chicago Tribune as "steamy", "bold", and "compelling" - has created The Gift, his most intriguing and gripping book to date. Summoning what the New York Times Book Review calls "the instincts of a natural storyteller", Douglas tells an enthralling tale of romance, passion, and suspense that sweeps the reader across two continents. Its protagonists are two unlikely lovers: Patricia Dennison, an orphaned American heiress, unsure about her future and her enormous fortune, a beautiful young woman surrounded by death; Miguel Cardiga, a rising star of the Portuguese bullring, whose meteoric ascent to fame is suddenly cut short by tragic injury. Patricia and Miguel are brought together by Ultimato, a magnificent gray stallion that unites them in an unexpected link of intimacy while, at the same time, they clash in frequently agonizing conflicts. As Patricia's right to her legacy is betrayed by those closest to her, as Miguel fights to reclaim his destiny as a bullfighter in the face of raging sexual jealousy - and murder - they both struggle toward a redeeming love that can defeat the darkest secrets the past can conceal. The Gift proves - again - that Kirk Douglas can entertain as wonderfully, as satisfyingly, on the printed page as he does on the motion-picture screen.

From Kirk Douglas, Hollywood royalty and bestselling author of The Ragman's Son and My Stroke of Luck, comes the candid story of the making of Spartacus, the blockbuster film that broke the blacklist One of the world's most iconic movie stars, Kirk Douglas has distinguished himself as a producer, philanthropist, and author of ten works of fiction and memoir. Now, more than fifty years after the release of his enduring epic Spartacus, Douglas reveals the riveting drama behind the making of the legendary gladiator film. Douglas began producing the movie in the midst of the politically charged era when Hollywood's moguls refused to hire anyone accused of Communist sympathies. In a risky move, Douglas chose Dalton Trumbo, a blacklisted screenwriter, to write Spartacus. Trumbo was one of the "Unfriendly Ten," men who had gone to prison rather than testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee about their political affiliations. Douglas's source material was already a hot property, as the novel Spartacus was written by Howard Fast while he was in jail for defying HUAC. With the financial future of his young family at stake, Douglas plunged into a tumultuous production both on- and off-screen. As both producer and star of the film, he faced explosive moments with young director Stanley Kubrick, struggles with a leading lady, and negotiations with giant personalities, including Sir Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, and Lew Wasserman. Writing from his heart and from his own meticulously researched archives, Kirk Douglas, at ninety-five, looks back at his audacious decisions. He made the most expensive film of its era-but more importantly, his moral courage in giving public credit to Trumbo effectively ended the notorious Hollywood blacklist. A master storyteller, Douglas paints a vivid and often humorous portrait in I Am Spartacus The book is enhanced by newly discovered period photography of the stars and filmmakers both on and off the set. "Kirk Douglas is many things . . . But he is, first and foremost, a man of extraordinary character. The kind that's formed when the stakes are high. The kind we always look for at our darkest hour." -George Clooney Kirk Douglas is a renowned actor whose work on and off the screen has been rewarded by three Academy Award nominations, an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement, and the Medal of Freedom. Through his production company, Bryna, Douglas has produced acclaimed films such as The Vikings, Lonely Are the Brave, Paths of Glory, and Seven Days in May. He has penned ten novels and memoirs, including The Ragman's Son (1988). His 1960 epic, Spartacus, based on the Howard Fast novel of the same name, is credited with helping to end the practice of blacklisting film professionals who had refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee. Douglas appeared in some-ninety movies before retiring from film acting in 2004. In 2009, he starred in an autobiographical one-man show called Before I Forget at the Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles. Douglas maintains an active life in Beverly Hills and Montecito, where he resides with his beloved wife Anne.

He was the son of an illiterate immigrant Russian-Jewish ragpicker and junkman. Raised in poverty, longing for his father's approval, Issur Danielovitch went on to become a legendary Hollywood star--Kirk Douglas. Here, in his own words, is the story of his life: his acting triumphs in Sparticus," Lust for Life," The Vikings," Paths of Glory," and Champions" (to name a few); his fabled love affairs (among them, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, and Pier Angeli); his long, happy marriage to Anne Buydens and tales of his four sons who sometimes do outrageous imitations of their famous father--all at once
In fascinating insider's detail, Kirk Douglas recalls more than forty years of Hollywood, from breaking the blacklist to his epic confrontations with studio bosses. With a cast of characters that includes scores of renowned show business personalities, The Ragman's Son" is the passionate, vivid, lusty life of Kirk Douglas: man, actor, lover, husband, father--and enduring star.

With the simple power and astonishing candor that made his 1988 autobiography, The Ragman's Son, a number one international bestseller, Kirk Douglas now shares his quest for spirituality and Jewish identity -- and his heroic fight to overcome crippling injuries and a devastating stroke.

On February 13, 1991, at the age of seventy-four, Kirk Douglas, star of such major motion-picture classics as Champion, Spartacus, and Paths of Glory, was in a helicopter crash, in which two people died and he himself sustained severe back injuries. As he lay in the hospital recovering, he kept wondering: Why had two younger men died while he, who had already lived his life fully, survived?

The question drove this son of a Russian-Jewish ragman to a search for his roots and on a long journey of self-discovery -- a quest not only for the meaning of life and his own relationship with God, but for his own identity as a Jew. Through the study of the Bible, Kirk Douglas found a new spirituality and purpose. His newfound faith deeply enriched his relationship with his own children and taught him -- a man who had always been famously demanding and impatient -- to listen to others and, above all, to hear his own inner voice.

Told with warmth, wit, much humor, and deep passion, Climbing the Mountain is inspirational in the very best sense of the word.