Kirk Douglas has died at the age of 103. His wife (still very much living) is 100.
In memoriam, here's a Kirk Douglas story.
Kirk bought the rights to Ken Keysey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest” for $10,000. Ken went to Mexico and bought a big jug of LSD (legal) and came back to the US and bought a bus. The driver of the bus was Stewart Brand (later to create the Whole Earth Catalog), and Mountain Girl (later Jerry Garcia’s wife) was one of the Merry Pranksters tripping out farmers and putting on light shows across the US — the story told in Tom Wolfe’s book, The Electric Koolaid Acid Test.
No studio would bank a movie with Kirk Douglas as McMurphy. The script languished until Kirk gave it to his son, Michael Douglas, as a birthday present. Michael directed the movie, putting in Jack Nicholson as lead. Michael’s old NYC roommate got the role of Martini — a young Danny DeVito.
And that’s how one of the greatest movies got made.
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