Kirk Douglas hasn’t left a single penny of his $61 million fortune to his family, but has still proven his generosity.
The Spartacus actor died on February 5 at the age of 103. The legendary Hollywood icon amassed a sizeable income over the years, but his son Michael Douglas, 75, won’t see anything in the way of inheritance.
His entire fortune will be go towards good causes, with at least $50 million to be distributed through the Douglas Foundation, which aims to ‘help those who cannot otherwise help themselves’.
In a 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Douglas explained his wife Anne set up the trust 50 years ago, and it had ‘been growing ever since’. In 2012, there was $80 million in it – and Douglas wanted to give it all away.
The actor said:
Sometimes we didn’t have enough to eat, but very often there would be a knock at the door and it would be a hobo wanting food, and my mother always gave them something. My mother said to me: ‘You must take care of other people.’ That stayed with me.
The Douglas Foundation has a number of beneficiaries, including the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Westwood’s Sinai Temple (which houses the Kirk and Anne Douglas Childhood Centre), and a St Lawrence University scholarship for underprivileged students.
The foundation’s website reads:
The Douglas Foundation’s principal goal is to help those who cannot otherwise help themselves. Its primary focus is improving the education and health, fostering the well-being, and most importantly developing new opportunities for the children who hold our future in their hands.
Recognising the crisis in health care today, the Douglas Foundation also lends its support to medical research, equipment, and programs within the health system that strive to enhance the quality of care in local communities.
His son, star of Fatal Attraction and Ant-Man, has a net-worth estimated at around $300 million. Following his dad’s death, Michael released the statement, acknowledging his legacy as an ‘actor from the golden age of movies’ while remembering him fondly, simply as his father.
He wrote:
Kirk’s life was well lived, and he leaves a legacy in film that will endure for generations to come, and a history as a renowned philanthropist who worked to aid the public and bring peace to the planet. 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.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.