Read Michael Douglas: Acting on Instinct for Free Online
Authors: Michael Douglas, John Parker
subcommittee, then conducting
its witchhunts against suspected communists.
Kirk Douglas found himself a single man again at exactly the right time of his career and his life; if it was freedom he sought,
he’d got it. And the brilliance of the man shone through in movies like
Ace in the Hole
and
The Bad and the Beautiful
which followed rapidly in a fast-moving career in which he built on his reputation as an SOB, both on and off the screen.
Diana Dill, meanwhile, established herself as a single parent in a modest apartment on West 84th Street within sight of Central
Park, where she would take the boys riding on Sunday mornings. Though she had not bitten Kirk for every last cent in alimony,
as she had been pressed to do by her lawyers, he was making plenty of money and – unlike his own father – ensured that he
was a decent provider for his boys.
Michael and Joel were enrolled at a private school on 78th Street, not far from the academy where their parents had first
met. They had to conform to strict rules, wearing uniforms and even a cap.
Michael was five when they moved to New York. As often happens when the father goes walkabout, the two brothers formed a strong
bond. Kirk was a regular visitor, calling in to see them whenever he was passing through and having them over to Los Angeles
for the holidays. But best-laid plans began to drift as work commitments increased and prevented his being a regular figure
in their lives.
He tried to compensate by taking an extra interest in everything they did, even to the point of getting angry if their school
work showed signs of slipping. But if one can be accused of patronising one’s children, then that is perhaps a good description
of Kirk’s attitude towards his sons.
Michael was confused, and Joel would join him in the confusion when he was old enough to understand what confusion meant.
He could not understand why his parents shouted at each other when they were together but fondly embraced now that they lived
apart. Michael especially found the gulf between father and son widening; there was a void in their relationship which he
could not understand.
Later, when he was much older, Michael analysed his own feelings when a boy. He decided that it was not that he especially
disliked his father; it was simply that ‘I didn’t want anyone rattling my cage’.
Kirk noticed the difference in Michael almost from the moment they moved to New York. The boy was old enough to be affected
by what happened, father admitted, and he became quiet and uncooperative. Kirk would say that telephone conversations with
young kids are always difficult. Face-to-face conversations also became less comfortable. It would be years before Kirk felt
any warmth from Michael. And, on Kirk’s own admission, months might pass between his seeing his sons, through pressure of
work. It is as well that this aspect of Michael’s childhood is recorded here, in that a very similar situation developed with
his own son, Cameron, years later.
Michael, being the elder, was the first to suffer the effects of the public side of his father’s life, too. The cruel innocence
ofthe schoolboys often sent him home bitter and resentful after being teased about Kirk’s very public love life after the divorce
from Diana. Hollywood’s newest heart-throb attracted much publicity, and he obliged by dating a string of the most famous
of female faces: Evelyn Keyes, who was just divorcing John Huston, Ava Gardner, while she was still heavily involved with
Frank Sinatra, Gene Tierney, Rita Hayworth … He also had a long-running affair with the nineteen-year-old Italian actress
Pier Angeli, to whom he became secretly engaged in 1953 – secret, because her mother, a strict Roman Catholic, wanted her
daughter to marry an Italian, not a divorced, high-profile star nudging forty. The affair, which started when they worked
together on
The Story of Three Loves
, was to
its witchhunts against suspected communists.
Kirk Douglas found himself a single man again at exactly the right time of his career and his life; if it was freedom he sought,
he’d got it. And the brilliance of the man shone through in movies like
Ace in the Hole
and
The Bad and the Beautiful
which followed rapidly in a fast-moving career in which he built on his reputation as an SOB, both on and off the screen.
Diana Dill, meanwhile, established herself as a single parent in a modest apartment on West 84th Street within sight of Central
Park, where she would take the boys riding on Sunday mornings. Though she had not bitten Kirk for every last cent in alimony,
as she had been pressed to do by her lawyers, he was making plenty of money and – unlike his own father – ensured that he
was a decent provider for his boys.
Michael and Joel were enrolled at a private school on 78th Street, not far from the academy where their parents had first
met. They had to conform to strict rules, wearing uniforms and even a cap.
Michael was five when they moved to New York. As often happens when the father goes walkabout, the two brothers formed a strong
bond. Kirk was a regular visitor, calling in to see them whenever he was passing through and having them over to Los Angeles
for the holidays. But best-laid plans began to drift as work commitments increased and prevented his being a regular figure
in their lives.
He tried to compensate by taking an extra interest in everything they did, even to the point of getting angry if their school
work showed signs of slipping. But if one can be accused of patronising one’s children, then that is perhaps a good description
of Kirk’s attitude towards his sons.
Michael was confused, and Joel would join him in the confusion when he was old enough to understand what confusion meant.
He could not understand why his parents shouted at each other when they were together but fondly embraced now that they lived
apart. Michael especially found the gulf between father and son widening; there was a void in their relationship which he
could not understand.
Later, when he was much older, Michael analysed his own feelings when a boy. He decided that it was not that he especially
disliked his father; it was simply that ‘I didn’t want anyone rattling my cage’.
Kirk noticed the difference in Michael almost from the moment they moved to New York. The boy was old enough to be affected
by what happened, father admitted, and he became quiet and uncooperative. Kirk would say that telephone conversations with
young kids are always difficult. Face-to-face conversations also became less comfortable. It would be years before Kirk felt
any warmth from Michael. And, on Kirk’s own admission, months might pass between his seeing his sons, through pressure of
work. It is as well that this aspect of Michael’s childhood is recorded here, in that a very similar situation developed with
his own son, Cameron, years later.
Michael, being the elder, was the first to suffer the effects of the public side of his father’s life, too. The cruel innocence
ofthe schoolboys often sent him home bitter and resentful after being teased about Kirk’s very public love life after the divorce
from Diana. Hollywood’s newest heart-throb attracted much publicity, and he obliged by dating a string of the most famous
of female faces: Evelyn Keyes, who was just divorcing John Huston, Ava Gardner, while she was still heavily involved with
Frank Sinatra, Gene Tierney, Rita Hayworth … He also had a long-running affair with the nineteen-year-old Italian actress
Pier Angeli, to whom he became secretly engaged in 1953 – secret, because her mother, a strict Roman Catholic, wanted her
daughter to marry an Italian, not a divorced, high-profile star nudging forty. The affair, which started when they worked
together on
The Story of Three Loves
, was to
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