Activities

Anne Douglas, Philanthropist and Widow of Kirk Douglas, Dies at 102

Created on Friday, 30 April 2021

Written by Mike Barnes

--Hollywood Reporter, April 30, 2021

Anne Douglas, a film publicist who first met Kirk Douglas on the Paris set of Act of Love in 1953 and married him a year later, died Thursday. She was 102.

Douglas died at the longtime Beverly Hills home she shared with the legendary actor and husband of 66 years, her family announced. He died at age 103 on Feb. 5, 2020.

She worked for director John Huston as a location scout and assistant on Moulin Rouge (1952), then began a three-year stint in 1953 as head of protocol at the Cannes Film Festival, scheduling parties and making sure they were filled with celebrities and media.

Kirk was divorced from actress Diana Dill and secretly engaged to Italian actress Pier Angeli and Anne was married to a Belgian, Albert Buydens, when they met. He offered her a job as her assistant, and she immediately turned him down.

"She finally agreed to work with me on a trial basis, making it clear our relationship would be strictly business," he wrote in Kirk and Anne: Letters of Love, Laughter, and a Lifetime in Hollywood, the 2017 book he co-authored with his wife.

"We talked for hours, and I had a strange feeling in my heart that I could fall in love with this man," she wrote. "I didn't want to, because I had seen too many young women enter into intense affairs with visiting movie stars — Dean Martin, Marlon Brando, Cary Grant among them. Then the film wrapped and the men returned to their wives and families."

Still, they began a complicated relationship on the Anatole Litvak-directed Act of Love that continued when Kirk relocated to Italy to shoot Ulysses (1954) — she was a publicist on that film, too — and then to the Bahamas, Jamaica and the U.S. making 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954).

Finally, during a rare moment when both were in Los Angeles, they spontaneously flew to Las Vegas and were married by a justice of the peace on May 29, 1954. Their sons, Peter and Eric, were born in 1955 and 1958, respectively. (Eric died in 2004 at age 46 of an accidental drug overdose.)

Hannelore Marx was born on April 23, 1919, in Hanover, Germany. Her father owned textile stores in the city and was the exclusive importer of a strain of silk that the government purchased to make parachutes. Her mother was a socialite.

After her parents divorced, she attended boarding school in Switzerland and became fluent in English, French and Italian.

She married Buydens, and they fled Belgium and moved to Paris during World War II. She got a job writing German subtitles for movies, then was hired in 1948 to produce a program for NBC called Paris Cavalcade of Fashion.

She later became president of Kirk's independent film outfit, the Bryna Co., and received producer credit on Peg Leg, Musket & Sabre (1973) and Posse (1975), two films directed by and starring her husband.

Kirk was married to Dill (the mother of two-time Oscar winner Michael Douglas and his brother, Joel) from 1942 until their divorce in 1951. He said their marriage began to fray as he was preparing for his star-making turn in Champion (1949).

The couple split amicably, and Kirk and Anne became good friends with Diana and her new husband, Broadway producer and novelist Bill Darrid.

In 1958, Anne refused to allow Kirk to travel on a private plane from Palm Springs to New York with director Michael Todd. "I don't know what came over me, but I had a strange feeling," she wrote in their book. "Absolutely not, Kirk. I don't want you on that plane. You can fly commercial and meet him there."

Kirk was furious and said that if he couldn't fly with Todd, well, he wouldn't go at all.

On the car ride back to Los Angeles the next day, they heard on the radio that Todd's plane had crashed in New Mexico and that he and the three others on board had been killed. They pulled off to the side of the road and embraced.

"Darling, you saved my life. I will always trust your intuition from now on," Kirk told her.

As Dorothy Chandler's "lieutenant" in the campaign to build the Los Angeles County Music Center, she convinced moguls and movie stars to double and triple their initial contributions to the cause. After it opened in 1964, she served on the boards of the Mark Taper Forum and the Center Theater Group for decades and arranged the Douglas Foundation's large gift to build the CTG's Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

In 2012, Anne and Kirk announced pledges totaling $50 million to five nonprofit organizations, including the Motion Picture & Television Fund, through their foundation. They donated another $15 million to the MPTF home in 2015. To date, their foundation has contributed more than $118 million to worthy causes.

Survivors include children Peter, Michael and Joel; daughters-in-law Catherine and Lisa; grandchildren Cameron, Dylan, Carys, Kelsey, Tyler, Jason and Ryan; great-grandchildren Lua Izzy and Ryder; and sister Merle.

"She brought out the best in all of us, especially our father," Michael Douglas said in a statement. "Dad would never have had the career he did without Anne's support and partnership. Catherine and I and the children adored her; she will always be in our hearts."

Donations in her memory may be made to the Anne Douglas Center at the Los Angeles Mission, 310 Winston St., Los Angeles, CA 90013.

Palm Springs gives historic status to Kirk Douglas home in Old Las Palmas neighborhood

Created on Monday, 13 January 2020

Written by Shane Newell

--Palm Springs Desert Sun January 10, 2020

The Palm Springs home that once belonged to legendary actor Kirk Douglas has been awarded historic status by the Palm Springs City Council.

On Thursday, the City Council voted 5-0 to designate the home as a Class 1 historic site. It will join a list of more than 100 historic homes and structures in the city that possess Class 1 or Class 2 historic status.

Built in the early 1950s on West Via Lola in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood, the home was owned and occupied by the star of "Spartacus" and "Lust for Life" from 1959 to 1999, according to the city.

With the historic designation, the property owner may now apply for a Mills Act contract that could lead to reduction in property taxes. The designation also ensures a citizens group must weigh in before significant changes are made to the home's exterior.

The home, which is located about a block west of Palm Canyon Drive, qualified as a historic site, according to the city, since it had historic integrity, an association with a significant person and possessed certain design characteristics.

The Diane Budman Bald Family Trust, which purchased the $3.5-million home in 2016, sought the designation.

When it was on the market in 2016, the listing agent Jim Schweitz, with Bennion Deville Homes said of the home: "There are a lot of houses in Las Palmas that are million-dollar celebrity homes, but very few estates with famous architects and iconic celebrity ownership that have been maintained with the integrity of the period."

Designed by Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison, the home was one of their earliest commissions, according to the city. The Douglas home featured many of the designers' iconic tenets: minimal use of materials, post and beam construction and roof eaves protecting large expanses of glass from the sun.

It was originally built for Robert Howard, then-owner of the Colony Palms hotel. It was sold to Douglas a few years later.

One wing of the nearly 4,000-square-foot house has four ensuite bedrooms. Another, separated from the living area by butler doors, includes a kitchen refurbished in the 1980s and another bedroom.

After purchasing the home, Douglas added a carport, pool, spa, pool house and gym. One of the home's most stunning features is the tennis pavilion, which was added in 1976 and designed by Wexler and Michael H. Morrison.

In addition to featuring unique features, the house also has ties to old Hollywood stars.

In 2016, then-listing agent Schweitz called one of the home's bedrooms the "Kate and Spencer" room since Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy allegedly had an affair there.

Frank Sinatra also occasionally cooked meals in the home's kitchen. A gate was installed between the Douglas home and the adjacent home that formerly belonged to Dinah Shore so the guests could go back and forth.

There's even a plaque on the Douglas side that describes Shore's tennis court as "the Douglas B-Court."

In 2016, when the house was on the market, longtime real estate agent Nelda Linsk described its location as being in one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in Palm Springs.

"It's considered the Bel Air of Palm Springs. People that live in Palm Springs want to live in Las Palmas," Linsk said, adding that the south side of  Via Lola, when Douglas lived there, was known as "Millionaires Row."

Historic site preservation has been going on for decades in Palm Springs.

In 1981, the City Council created the Historic Site Preservation Board, which identifies potentially historic sites and districts. The city's historic site and district ordinance preserve certain areas to promote civic beauty, strengthen the economy and "promote the use of specific buildings for the education and welfare of the citizens of Palm Springs."

To ensure historic homes aren't permanently altered, owners wishing to substantially alter the home's exterior must complete an architectural application and have it approved by the preservation board.

Kirk Douglas Is 103!

Created on Thursday, 12 December 2019

Written by Megan Stein

--countryliving.com  December 9, 2019

Kirk Douglas is celebrating a milestone birthday. The legendary actor turned 103, and his famous family, specifically Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas, are sending him plenty of love once again.

His daughter-in-law, 50, posted an adorable photo of the two on Instagram. “This guy on my knee, is 103!!!!! Happy birthday Pappy!!! I love you with all my heart,” she wrote.

Michael, 75, posted a similarly sweet tribute. “Happy Birthday Dad! You are a living legend and your entire family sends you all the love in their hearts!” he captioned a picture of Michael laying a kiss on his father's head.

Kirk was born on December 9, 1916. He’s known for films like Spartacus, The Vikings, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and so many more. (He has 95 acting credits on IMDB!). He’s also served as an executive producer on 31 projects and been featured on 17 soundtracks.

Kirk was married twice, first to Diana Douglas from 1943-1951. Kirk and Diana, who passed away in 2015, shared two children together: Michael and Joel, 72. Kirk tied the knot with his current wife Anne Buydens, 100, in 1954, and they had sons Peter, 64, and Eric, who died in 2004.

The Ace in the Hole star also has a slew of grandchildren, including Michael’s son, Cameron, 40, from his former marriage to Diandra Luker, and Michael and Catherine’s two kids, son Dylan, 19, and daughter Carys, 16.

With a big family like that, you know they have something special planned for Kirk’s party. Happy birthday Kirk!

Review | SBIFF Martin Scorsese Tribute

Created on Sunday, 24 November 2019

Written by Josef Woodard

--Santa Barbara Independent  November 18, 2019

For 14 years, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival has had as a pre-festival teaser and fundraiser (for its educational arm) the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film evening.

But what made Thursday’s gala event at the Bacara something special had to do with timing and legendary status. The recipient: Martin Scorsese, reasonably called “America’s greatest living director” and one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. His film-of-the-moment: the soon-to-be-released and strong contender for Oscars and Top 10 lists The Irishman, a grand, visceral yet also elegiac epic, starring his frequent muse, “Bob” De Niro, Al Pacino (remarkably, in his first Scorsese project), and Joe Pesci.

As SBIFF head Roger Durling noted in his glowing introduction, “At age 76, he has taken on one of his most ambitious films to date. … You are cinema, Martin Scorsese. Long live you.”

In the house this night were Pacino and another Scorsese regular, Leonardo DiCaprio (Gangs of New York, Shutter Island, The Aviator, The Wolf of Wall Street). Although not in the new film (Scorsese hinted DiCaprio would be in his next project), the actor spoke glowingly of The Irishman, which he said “plays like an elegy. It’s a movie about looking upon what you’ve left behind and squaring off with all of it. For me, what’s more astounding about this film is that Marty transcends his own signature genre and creates a film that methodically transforms itself into an exploration of our very own, universally shared mortality.”

Working on The Irishman, Pacino said, “As an actor, he makes you feel safe. He sets the stage for you. You take chances, push things as far as you can go.” Speaking more broadly, Pacino commented that Scorsese “doesn’t care about success, or failure. He’s not gonna stand still or rest on his laurels. He’s gonna go on.”

In a video appearance, Kirk Douglas called Scorsese a great director but quipped “I forgive him for not using me in Raging Bull or Taxi Driver or Cape Fear. …When you do your next movie, I’m available.” Scorsese, a passionate cineaste and film historian who recently critiqued Hollywood’s reliance on the box-office bonanza of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a New York Times op-ed piece, ended his acceptance speech with a word of warning about the value system and artistic integrity in modern cinema. “Today,” he said, “it’s a new world, and we have to be extra-vigilant. Some actually believe that these qualities we’re talking about can be replaced by algorithms and formulas and business calculations. But please remember that’s all an illusion, because there’s no substitute for individual artistic expression, as Kirk Douglas knew and expressed through his long film career.”

Martin Scorsese Loves Kirk Douglas

Created on Tuesday, 19 November 2019

Written by Pete Hammond

--Deadline November 15, 2019

Speaking of Scorsese, if you made the long trek up the coast to Santa Barbara last night (sadly, I couldn’t make it this year due to too many conflicts), you would have been among the lucky to see him receive the 14th annual Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film presented by the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. When this starry evening began in 2006 with Douglas attending, the veteran star was a mere 89 years old. It’s still going strong — and so is he at 102. In fact he turns 103 in less than a month on December 9. At this rate Douglas is going to outlive every one of his KD Dinner honorees. Frequent Scorsese star Leonardo DiCaprio and The Irishman co-star Al Pacino presented the award to him in an evening that also included words from SBIFF director Roger Durling and Board Chairman Lynda Weinman.

Although this evening is perfectly timed to awards campaigns, and certainly Scorsese’s latest The Irishman is in the thick of it, no one could be a better choice especially  –since you just knew that Scorsese, more than anyone else, would throw the spotlight on Douglas (who sent his best wishes and a couple of barbs on tape) and know more about the impact of this legendary actor than anyone else. In his acceptance speech, Scorsese made note of many classic Douglas films and their importance, but he pointed out interestingly that he was so obsessed by the two movies about the Hollywood film industry he starred in for Vincente Minnelli, that he had wanted to remake them. Those films are 10 years apart: 1952’s multi-Oscar-winning The Bad and the Beautiful and 1962’s Rome-set Two Weeks in Another Town. I am equally obsessed with them but had no idea until I read press reports of Scorsese’s speech that he wanted to do new versions for years and even had writers including Paul Schrader and Richard Price working on them. Scorsese said he had the gorgeous one-sheet from Bad and the Beautiful hanging on his office wall for 30 years. No one knows movie classics better than Scorsese, or has done more to preserve them, so I would give him an award just for that.

Santa Barbara International Film Festival Fetes Martin Scorsese with Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film

Created on Tuesday, 19 November 2019

Written by Owen Gleiberman

--Variety November 14, 2019

When Martin Scorsese is directing a movie on all cylinders — and that, more or less, is the only way he knows how to direct — he can give you a rush you won’t get from any other filmmaker. The camera isn’t just gliding, it’s dancing, as if hypnotized into a trance by the characters it’s staring at. The music on the soundtrack is probably some kind of vintage rock ’n’ roll, but it’s the last song you’d expect to hear at that moment, which is what makes it the perfect song — one that fuses in electric counterpoint with the images, so that we’re not just watching the scene, we’re in the scene. And the actors are doing something that Scorsese invented, and a lot of filmmakers have imitated, but never with his bravura: They’re confronting each other, maybe shouting at each other, talking a blue streak of four-letter rage — and somehow it all plays not as a lowlife scuffle but as poetry, a kind of sense-quickening opera of ego.

Scorsese’s legendary body of work will be feted on Nov. 14 at the Santa Barbara Intl. Film Festival, when he will receive the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film.

Looking back over his career, which has thrived for half a century, the first thing a lot of people would probably say about Scorsese is that he’s married to the mob — not literally, of course, but artistically. The (mostly) Italian underworld of organized crime has been his passionate and obsessive subject, the muse he keeps returning to. Yet it’s worth noting that in Hollywood movies, the gangster has never been just a gangster. He was, and remains, a mythological figure who acts out the impulses — the power, cunning, appetite and violence — that all of us carry on some level inside. Scorsese, in his mob films, has taken the underworld and made it our world.

He did it in “Mean Streets,” the 1973 landmark film in which he drew on his upbringing in New York’s Little Italy to craft an answer to “The Godfather,” by capturing the flavor of the mob as it’s actually lived on the streets, in the bars, among the penny-ante hoodlums. And he did it in 1990’s “GoodFellas,” the mobster-as-suburban-sociopath masterpiece that was like the original version of “The Sopranos.” And he does it again, on a grand canvas, with a venerable filmmaker’s wistful vision, in “The Irishman,” a drama that sums up the life (and death) of the mob with a chill that will leave you exhilarated and devastated.

If Scorsese had made nothing but those three films, he’d be one of cinema’s timeless maestros. But, of course, he has given us so much more, from the indelible urban inferno of 1976’s “Taxi Driver” to the tormented romantic yearning of 1993’s “The Age of Innocence,” from the tumultuous religious passion of 1988’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” to the sinister noir stylings of 1991’s “Cape Fear,” from the self-destructive brute tragedy of 1980’s “Raging Bull” to the money-fever madness of 2013’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

It’s a fabulously eclectic slate of movies, yet what is it that binds them together? I think it’s that Scorsese, in nearly every film he has made, is looking at characters who push themselves to a kind of everyday extreme, because they’re searching for something — a way to reach into the raw experience of their lives and find a kind of redemption. It is, in essence, a religious quest. But though Scorsese, in discussing his films, has often invoked his Catholic background, the truth is that the people in his movies don’t seem to be able to find God in the world around them; they’re forced to look for God within themselves. And that’s true even of Willem Dafoe’s Jesus in “Last Temptation.” The brilliance of Scorsese as a filmmaker is that he absorbs us directly into that journey, inviting us to touch the hidden sanctity of everyday experience. Some people make feel-good movies. Scorsese does something more transcendent: He makes movies that you make you feel fully and divinely alive.

Martin Scorsese To Receive SBIFF’s 14th Annual Kirk Douglas Award For Excellence In Film

Created on Tuesday, 27 August 2019

Written by Pete Hammond

--Deadline.com August 26, 2019

Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese, whose latest film is the much-anticipated The Irishman, has been selected to receive the 14th annual Kirk Douglas Award For Excellence In Film from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The honor, which benefits SBIFF’s year-round educational programs, will be presented on Thursday November 14 at a Black Tie dinner at the Ritz Carlton Bacara.

Since 2006, the annual Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film has been awarded to a lifelong contributor to cinema through their work in front of the camera, behind, or both. Mr. Scorsese will be the fourth Director to receive this prestigious honor, joining the ranks of past honorees Hugh Jackman, Dame Judi Dench, Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda, Jessica Lange, Forest Whitaker, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford, Quentin Tarantino, Ed Harris, and John Travolta.

“Martin Scorsese is a brilliant filmmaker. He has made countless unforgettable films and is a true cinematic treasure. I am honored and grateful that he will receive the 14th annual Kirk Douglas Award.” states Kirk Douglas who incidentally will turn 103 in December.

Scorsese’s films including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, his Oscar-winning The Departed, Hugo, The Wolf of Wall Street, Silence, and many more from a remarkable career spanning over 50 years.

His next film, The Irishman is long-awaited  and brings him together again with Goodfellas and Casino stars Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, as well as working for the first time with Al Pacino. The film is set to be released by Netflix, first in theaters and then the streaming service this fall.

The 35th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place from Wednesday, January 15 –25, 2020.

Kirk Douglas, 102, poses for epic family photo featuring four generations

Created on Tuesday, 27 August 2019

Written by Pritha Paul

--meaww.com August 21, 2019

Michael Douglas' eldest son, Cameron, shared a photo of their big family on Instagram on Monday, August 19, that showed members spanning across four generations, including his 102-year-old grandfather, Kirk.

Kirk sat at the head of the table in the rare picture taken at the family reunion, while his wife Anne Buydens, 100, sat two seats away from him.

Apart from Michael, the picture also featured his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones and their two children – son Dylan, 19, and daughter Carys, 16.

Cameron was seen standing at the farthest corner of the picture, holding his 19-month-old daughter, Lua, with his girlfriend Viviane Thibes.

Lua and her father represent the fourth and third generations of the family, respectively.

Also present at the reunion were Kirk's son Joel, 72,  and Peter, 63.

In the picture, Peter's wife Lisa Schoeder, and their two kids, Kelsey, 27, and Jason, 16, were also present.

The picture was captioned #FamilyFirst.

Kirk Douglas Celebrates Wife Anne Buydens’s 100th Birthday, Shares How Their Love Started

Created on Monday, 29 April 2019

Written by Louise Bevan

The Epoch Times  April 29, 2019

Can we all say “couple goals?”

Between them, they’ve lived 202 years on this glorious planet. Just four months after Kirk Douglas’s 102nd birthday celebrations on Dec. 9, 2018, the Spartacus icon steered his soul mate and wife of 64 years, Anne Buydens, into the spotlight for her 100th.

The couple’s star-studded family includes Kirk’s son, the Hollywood actor Michael Douglas, and his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones. Evidently, the family is close.

Catherine posted a sweet birthday message to her “beautiful” father-in-law on her Instagram account for all the world to see. “Happy 102nd birthday to the most beautiful man,” she wrote. “We love you Kirk.”

The heartfelt tribute to the actress’s father-in-law featured a slideshow of family photos and a girl singing Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” at the piano. USA Today intimated that the young musician may in fact be Kirk’s granddaughter, Carys, and if it’s true, then talent really does run in the family.

Carys and her brother Dylan both posted their own enthusiastic birthday congratulations to their “Pappy,” with Dylan adding a special message to his role model: “Though you are adored by millions,” he wrote, “my love for you is by far the greatest.”

The centenarian actor’s wife, Anne Buydens, was born in 1919 in Hanover, Germany. She moved to Paris as a young woman to work as a film publicist where, at the age of 34, she was noticed for her captivating beauty by her future husband. Kirk, smitten, quickly proceeded to ask her for a date.

Speaking to USA Today, Kirk recalled his wife’s unexpected refusal, jokingly calling her “terrible.”

“I invited her to dinner and she said, ‘Oh thank you very much, but I’m so tired,'” he shared. “She was the most difficult woman I ever met!”

Anne remembers it differently. “[He] took a look at me and then he said, ‘Would you like to have dinner tonight with my friends at some chic restaurant?’” Anne recalled. “And I said, ‘No, thank you, I think I’ll go home and make myself some scrambled eggs.'”

Anne’s reticence eventually thawed, as the couple married on May 29, 1954. Kirk’s secret? “I stopped talking about myself and began to listen to her,” he admitted. They soon had two beautiful children together.

Over the decades that followed, Anne became a well-respected philanthropist, producer, and art collector. To add a sartorial string to her bow, Anne has also been a member of Vanity Fair‘s International Best Dressed List since the 1970s.

She still looks amazing at 100.

Michael Douglas paid fitting tribute to his father while receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one month before his father’s 102nd birthday. Reuters posted the video in which Douglas addresses his father off-stage: “I’ll say it simply and with all my heart,” he shared. “I’m so proud to be your son.”

Kirk and Anne published a book together in 2017, titled Kirk and Anne: Letters of Love, Laughter, and a Lifetime in Hollywood. As they celebrated their happiness and longevity, the 64-years-married couple posed for photographs sitting in adjacent wheelchairs, holding hands.

We dare you not to swoon!

The Centennial Couple – Kirk Douglas is 102 and his Wife Anne Just Turned 100!

Created on Wednesday, 24 April 2019

Written by Nancy Bilyeau

--Vintage News  April 23, 2019

Many movie fans are aware that Kirk Douglas is 102 years old, but he’s only part of the longevity equation in his home. Douglas’ wife, Anne Buydens, turns 100 on April 23, 2019. The two have been married for 64 years and in interviews the actor has said she is his soul mate. In the famous Douglas clan, populated by Kirk’s oldest son, Michael, and his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Anne is someone who may not win as many headlines. But her life has been an interesting one.

She was born in 1919 in Hanover, Germany, moving with her family to Belgium. She was well educatied, achieving fluency in English, German, and French, and was living and working in Paris when an actor named Kirk Douglas asked her for a date in 1953.

Buydens was working as a film publicist in Paris when she was introduced to Douglas, then filming Act of Love, according to the couple’s joint memoir, Kirk and Anne. She met him in his trailer, known as “the lion’s den” by those working on the film, because the divorced actor was such a playboy.

According to their memoir, Douglas “took a look at me and then he said, ‘Would you like to have dinner with my friends at some chic restaurant?’ And I said, ‘No, thank you, I think I’ll go home and make myself some scrambled eggs.’ That was not what he expected.”

Although Douglas was annoyed by her refusal, he later hired her to be his publicist. They got to know each other on a platonic basis. “With no romance in the picture, I stopped trying to impress Anne. Instead I stopped talking about myself and began to listen to her,” they wrote in their book.

They married on May 29, 1954, and had two children. (Michael is Kirk’s son by his first marriage to actress Diana Dill.) Their son Eric passed away in 2004. In Kirk and Anne, Douglas shared that he had affairs with actresses like Rita Hayworth, Patricia Neal, and Joan Crawford’s daughter, Christina Crawford. “Kirk never tried to hide his dalliances from me,” Buydens said in the book. “As a European, I understood it was unrealistic to expect total fidelity in a marriage.”

Anne Buydens is a well-respected philanthropist and art collector. She has a better sense of money than Kirk, both agree, starting with helping him see that his money manager in the 1950s was not doing a good job, they wrote in their memoir.