Legends: Kirk Conquers A Stroke

Michael Douglas has a lot to live up to: A father who is one of the last of his kind. Richard Schlesinger reports on a legend who has stood the test of time.

"They don't make too many like him anymore," Michael says of his father Kirk. Kirk Douglas, who is 85 years old, is making his 85th movie.

He is still confident in his ability to convey strength. "If I can't, they won't pay me. Then I won't have a job," the elder Douglas says.

His career almost ended seven years ago, when he suffered a stroke that left him speechless.

"I have always been an actor. An actor talks. Suddenly I had a stroke. I can't talk. What is an actor who can't talk?" he says.

The physical effects of the stroke were dramatic but the psychological effects were almost more tragic. The stroke left him very depressed.

"He couldn't understand what happened to him," says his wife Anne, to whom he has been married for almost 50 years.

Douglas describes his dark period in his book "My Stroke of Luck." "One minute a pampered movie star, the next a babbling idiot," he says.

At his lowest point, he found himself alone in his bedroom with a gun. He says he was serious about suicide, and put the gun in his mouth.

But one of the classic tough guys was saved from suicide by sensitive teeth and a sense of humor. The gun hit his teeth and he started to laugh. Now he says he is embarrassed: "Suicide is stupid and selfish."

Douglas needed his wife to beat back the depression. She says she forced him to stop feeling sorry for himself and work with a speech therapist.

The 1996 Academy Awards were just six weeks away when Douglas had his stroke. He had to learn his lines and more importantly how to say them because he was getting an Oscar for lifetime achievement.

He was scared of speaking before such a large audience. But he rose to the occasion and so did the crowd. He spoke for several minutes that night. He has not stopped talking since.

"He has shown us another side of him that he can be every bit as heroic as the people he portrayed on screen, probably more so," says Hollywood writer Larry Gelbart, who has known Douglas for years.

"He's certainly much more touchy feely," says Michael. "He's more fuzzy and, truthfully, a much nicer person."

Today Kirk Douglas is happiest in a role he started playing late in life. He and his wife have given away millions to children's causes here and overseas.

Their latest project is rebuilding all the playgrounds in the Los Angeles school district. They have done 170, and plan to do 130 more.

"I think I have become a human being," he says.

Kirk's latest movie includes his son and his grandson.

Says Michael: "We're having the best time in our lives. It's just kind of a magical feeling."

The movie is called "A Few More Years." In it Michael Douglas plays Kirk Douglas's son. Kirk Douglas's grandson Cameron plays the grandson. Kirk plays a man who's had a stroke.

Kirk says he is most proud of having broken the Hollywood Blacklist. During the Cold War, Douglas risked his career by hiring a writer on "Spartacus" who had been denounced as a communist by congressional investigators. Most of Hollywood shunned the people on the blacklist.

His speech may be slurred but he still has a lot to say. "I'm out to be what I am and do what I can. And if you don't like it, screw you," he says.

How does he want to be remembered? "I tried. God damn it, I tried. I think all you can do in your life is try. You cannot do any more than try your best."