He was one of the brightest stars in Hollywood, a hard-charging actor
whose intensity on the screen was mirrored in his personal life. As Kirk
Douglas grew older, he became less impetuous and more reflective. In
this poignant and inspiring new memoir, Douglas contemplates what life
is all about, weighing current events from his frame of mind at ninety
while summoning the passions of his younger days.
Kirk Douglas was a born storyteller, and throughout Let's Face It he
tells wonderful tales and shares favorite jokes and hard-won insights.
In the book, he explores the mixed blessings of growing older and looks
back at his childhood, his young adulthood, and his storied, glamorous,
and colorful life and career in Hollywood. He tells delightful stories
of the making of such films as Spartacus, Lust for Life, Champion, The
Bad and the Beautiful, and many others. He includes anecdotes about his
friends Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Lauren Bacall, Ronald Reagan, Ava
Gardner, Henry Kissinger, Fred Astaire, Yul Brynner, John Wayne, and
Johnny Cash. He reveals the secrets that kept him and his wife, Anne,
happily married for more than five decades, and talks fondly and
movingly of times spent with his sons, Michael, Peter, Eric, and Joel,
and his grandchildren.
Douglas's life was filled with pain as well as joy. In Let's Face It,
he writes frankly for the first time about the tragic death of his son
Eric from a drug overdose at age forty-five. Douglas tells what it was
like to recover from several near-death episodes, including a helicopter
crash, a stroke, and a cardiac event. He writes of his sadness that many
of his closest friends are no longer with us; the book includes many
moving stories such as one about a regular poker game at Frank Sinatra's
house at which he and Anne were fixtures along with Gregory Peck, Jack
Lemmon, and their wives. Though many of the players are gone, the game
continues to this day.
In Let's Face It, Douglas reflects on how his Jewish faith became more
and more important to him over the years. He offers strong opinions on
everything from anti-Semitism to corporate greed, from racism to
Hurricane Katrina, and from the war in Iraq to the situation in Israel.
He writes about the importance in his life of the need to improve
education for all children and about how we need to care more about the
world and less about ourselves.
A must-read for every fan, this engrossing memoir provides an indelible
self-portrait of a great star - while sharing the wit and wisdom Kirk
Douglas accumulated over a lifetime.
