Kirk Douglas fans have been remembering the Hollywood legend with an impassioned letter he wrote about the rise of Donald Trump.
The actor, who died on Wednesday at the age of 103, was a vocal critic of the US president, penning a piece for HuffPost in 2016 warning about the dangers of Trump prior to the election.
In the article, entitled The Road Ahead, Kirk – whose parents were emigrants from Russia – compared Trump’s rise to that of Hitler.
He wrote: “I’ve also lived through the horrors of a Great Depression and two World Wars, the second of which was started by a man who promised that he would restore his country it to its former greatness.
“I was 16 when that man came to power in 1933. For almost a decade before his rise he was laughed at ― not taken seriously. He was seen as a buffoon who couldn’t possibly deceive an educated, civilised population with his nationalistic, hateful rhetoric.
“The ‘experts’ dismissed him as a joke. They were wrong.”
Quoting a pre-election speech Trump made, Kirk also noted a correlation between comments he’d made about some immigrants, compared to how certain groups were being treated a century earlier.
“A few weeks ago we heard words spoken in Arizona that my wife, Anne, who grew up in Germany, said chilled her to the bone,” he said. “They could also have been spoken in 1933.
“These are not the American values that we fought in World War II to protect.”
With news of Kirk’s death coming shortly before the Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump in his impeachment trial, many people have been poignantly sharing the article again on social media:
Kirk’s son, actor Michael Douglas, confirmed his father had died on Wednesday night.
The actor was best known for films including Spartacus and Ace In The Hole, and his explosive acting style and masculine persona established him as a leading man throughout the 1950s.
Michael’s wife, Catherine Zeta Jones led the tributes to her “darling” father-in-law on Instagram.
“To my darling Kirk,” the Chicago actress wrote. “I shall love you for the rest of my life. I miss you already. Sleep tight...”
