Chill Wills
from Stand by for Action (1942)
Born	Chill Theodore Wills (1902-07-18)July 18, 1902 Seagoville, Texas, U.S.
Died	December 15, 1978(1978-12-15) (aged 76) Encino, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, singer
Years active	1934–78
Spouse	Hattie Elizabeth "Bettie" Chappelle (1928–1971; her death) Novadeen Googe (1973–1978; his death)

Chill Theodore Wills (July 18, 1902^[1] – December 15, 1978) was an American film actor, and a singer in the Avalon Boys Quartet.

Biography[link]

Wills was born in Seagoville, Texas in 1902. He was a performer from early childhood, forming and leading the Avalon Boys singing group in the 1930s. After appearing with them in a few westerns, he disbanded the group in 1938 and struck out on a solo acting career.

One of his more memorable roles was that of the distinctive voice of Francis the Mule in a series of popular films. Wills' deep, rough voice and Western twang were perfectly matched to the personality of the cynical, sardonic mule. As was customary at the time, Wills was given no billing for his vocal work, though he was featured prominently on-screen as blustery General Ben Kaye in the fourth entry, Francis Joins the WACS. He provided the deep voice for Stan Laurel's performance of "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" in the 1937 movie Way Out West.

Wills also appeared in numerous serious roles, including that of Uncle Bawley in Giant, a 1956 film starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean.^[2] Wills was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 1960 for his role as Davy Crockett's companion "Beekeeper" in the film The Alamo. However, his aggressive campaign for the award was considered tasteless by many, including the film's star/director/producer, John Wayne, who publicly apologized for Wills. Wills' publicity agent, W.S. "Bow-Wow" Wojciechowicz, accepted blame for the ill-advised effort, claiming that Wills had known nothing about it. Wills was defeated for the Oscar by Peter Ustinov, who won for his role as Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus.^[3]

Wills was a poker player and a close friend of Benny Binion, the founder of the World Series of Poker and former owner of the Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas. Wills participated in the first World Series, held in 1970, and is seated in the center of the now famous picture with a number of legendary players.

From 1961–62, Wills starred in the short-run series Frontier Circus which aired for only one season on CBS. In 1966, Wills was cast in the role of a shady Texas rancher, Jim Ed Love, in the short-lived ABC comedy/western series The Rounders, with co-stars Ron Hayes, Patrick Wayne, and Walker Edmiston.

In 1963 and 1964, Wills joined fellow actors William Lundigan, Walter Brennan, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., in making appearances on behalf of U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater, the Republican nominee in the campaign against U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.^[4]

In 1968, however, Wills refused to support Richard M. Nixon for the presidency and served as master of ceremonies for George C. Wallace, former governor of Alabama, for the California campaign stops in Wallace's presidential campaign.^[2] He and Walter Brennan of The Real McCoys, The Tycoon, and The Guns of Will Sonnett, were among the few Hollywood celebrities to endorse Wallace's bid against Nixon and Hubert H. Humphrey. His last role was in 1978 as a janitor in Stubby Pringle's Christmas.

Death[link]

Wills died in 1978 of cancer in Encino, California, aged 76. He is interred in the Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale.

Partial filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chill Wills

• Chill Wills at the Internet Movie Database
• Chill Wills at Find a Grave

Johnny Cash
Cash in 1969.
Background information
Birth name	John R. Cash
Born	(1932-02-26)February 26, 1932 Kingsland, Arkansas, United States
Origin	Kingsland, Arkansas, United States
Died	September 12, 2003(2003-09-12) (aged 71) Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Genres	Country, rock and roll, folk, americana, gospel, blues, rockabilly
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician, actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, harmonica, mandolin
Years active	1955–2003
Labels	Sun, Columbia, Mercury, American, House of Cash, Legacy Recordings
Associated acts	The Tennessee Three, The Highwaymen, June Carter Cash, The Statler Brothers, The Carter Family, The Oak Ridge Boys, Area Code 615, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Website	johnnycash.com
Notable instruments
Martin Acoustic Guitars[1]

John R. "Johnny" Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003), was an American singer-songwriter, actor,^[2] and author,^[2] who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.^[3] Although he is primarily remembered as a country music icon, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—as well as blues, folk, and gospel. This crossover appeal led to Cash being inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice;^[4][5][6] for the "boom-chicka-boom" sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for his rebelliousness,^[7][8] coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor;^[4] for providing free concerts inside prison walls;^[9][10] and for his dark performance clothing, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black".^[11] He traditionally started his concerts by saying, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash."^[12][13] and usually following it up with his standard "Folsom Prison Blues".

Much of Cash's music, especially that of his later career, echoed themes of sorrow, moral tribulation and redemption.^[4][14] His signature songs include "I Walk the Line", "Folsom Prison Blues", "Ring of Fire", "Get Rhythm" and "Man in Black". He also recorded humorous numbers, including "One Piece at a Time" and "A Boy Named Sue"; a duet with his future wife, June Carter, called "Jackson"; as well as railroad songs including "Hey, Porter" and "Rock Island Line".^[15] Late in his career, Cash covered songs by several rock artists, most notably "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails - the resulting music video was voted one of the best of all time and is sometimes seen as Cash's epitaph.

Cash, a troubled but devout Christian,^[16][17] has been characterized as a "lens through which to view American contradictions and challenges."^[18][19][20] A Biblical scholar,^[2][21][22] he penned a Christian novel titled Man in White,^[23][24] and he made a spoken word recording of the entire New King James Version of the New Testament.^[25][26] Even so, Cash declared that he was "the biggest sinner of them all", and viewed himself overall as a complicated and contradictory man.^[27][28] Accordingly,^[29] Cash is said to have "contained multitudes", and has been deemed "the philosopher-prince of American country music".^[30][31]

Personal life[link]

Early life[link]

Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas,^[32] the fourth of seven children to Ray Cash (May 13, 1897, Kingsland, Arkansas – December 23, 1985, Hendersonville, Tennessee)^[33] and Carrie Cloveree Rivers (March 13, 1904, Rison, Arkansas – March 11, 1991, Hendersonville, Tennessee).^[34][35] Cash was named John R. Cash because his parents couldn't think of a name, but he went by J. R. all throughout his childhood as a shortened version of his real name. When Cash enlisted in the Air Force, they wouldn't let him use initials as his name, so he began to use his legal name of John R. Cash. In 1955, when signing with Sun Records, he took Johnny Cash as his stage name.^[36]

The Cash children were, in order: Roy, Margaret Louise, Jack, J. R., Reba, Joanne and Tommy.^[37][38] His younger brother, Tommy Cash, also became a successful country artist.

In March 1935, when Cash was three years old, the family settled in Dyess, Arkansas. He started working in cotton fields at age five, singing along with his family simultaneously while working. The family farm was flooded on at least two occasions, which later inspired him to write the song "Five Feet High and Rising".^[39] His family's economic and personal struggles during the Great Depression inspired many of his songs, especially those about other people facing similar difficulties.

Cash was very close to his older brother, Jack.^[40] In May 1944, Jack was pulled into a whirling head saw in the mill where he worked and was almost cut in two. He suffered for over a week before he died on May 20, 1944, at age 15.^[39] Cash often spoke of the horrible guilt he felt over this incident. According to Cash: The Autobiography, his father was away that morning, but he and his mother, and Jack himself, all had premonitions or a sense of foreboding about that day, causing his mother to urge Jack to skip work and go fishing with his brother. Jack insisted on working, as the family needed the money. On his deathbed, Jack said he had visions of heaven and angels. Decades later, Cash spoke of looking forward to meeting his brother in heaven.

Cash's early memories were dominated by gospel music and radio. Taught by his mother and a childhood friend, Cash began playing guitar and writing songs as a young boy. In high school he sang on a local radio station; decades later he released an album of traditional gospel songs, called My Mother's Hymn Book. He was also significantly influenced by traditional Irish music that he heard performed weekly by Dennis Day on the Jack Benny radio program.^[41]

Cash enlisted in the United States Air Force on July 7, 1950.^[42] After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and technical training at Brooks Air Force Base, both in San Antonio, Texas, Cash was assigned to a U.S. Air Force Security Service unit, assigned as a Morse Code Intercept Operator for Soviet Army transmissions at Landsberg, Germany "where he created his first band named The Landsberg Barbarians."^[43] He was the first radio operator to pick up the news of the death of Joseph Stalin.^[44] After he was honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant on July 3, 1954, he returned to Texas.^[45]

Marriages and family[link]

On July 18, 1951, while in Air Force training, Cash met 17-year-old Vivian Liberto at a roller skating rink in her native San Antonio. They dated for three weeks, until Cash was deployed to Germany for a three year tour. During that time, the couple exchanged hundreds of pages of love letters.^[46] On August 7, 1954, one month after his discharge, they were married at St. Anne's Catholic church in San Antonio. The ceremony was performed by her uncle, Father Vincent Liberto. They had four daughters: Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy and Tara. Cash's drug and alcohol abuse, constant touring, and affairs with other women, and his close relationship with future wife June Carter, led Liberto to file for divorce in 1966.^[47]

In 1968, 13 years after they first met backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, Cash proposed to June Carter, an established country singer, during a live performance in London, Ontario,^[48] marrying on March 1, 1968, in Franklin, Kentucky. They had one child together, John Carter Cash (born March 3, 1970). They continued to work together and tour for 35 years, until June Carter died in 2003. Cash died just four months later. Carter co-wrote one of Cash's biggest hits, "Ring of Fire," with singer Merle Kilgore. She and Cash won two Grammy awards for their duets.

Vivian Liberto claims a different version of the origins of "Ring of Fire" in I Walked the Line: My Life with Johnny, stating that Cash gave Carter the credit for monetary reasons.^[49]

Heritage[link]

Cash's heritage was a British Isles mix. He learned upon researching his heritage that he was of Scottish royal descent on his father's side, traced back to Malcolm I of Scotland.^[50][51][52] After meeting with now-dead laird Major Michael Crichton-Stuart of Falkland, Fife, Scotland, Johnny traced the Cash family tree to eleventh-century Fife;^[53][54][55] Cash Loch and other locations in Fife bear the name of his family.^[53]

Cash also had English and Scots-Irish ancestry. Though he did not have American Indian ancestry, his empathy and compassion for Native American Indians were unabated. These feelings were expressed in several of his songs, including "Apache Tears" and "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", and on his album, Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian. Through his maternal grandmother, Rosanna Lee (Hurst) Rivers, Cash is distantly related to millionaire William Randolph Hearst and socialite Patty Hearst.^{[citation needed]}

Friends[link]

Cash was a long time friend of Woody Hayes (ex Ohio State Buckeyes football coach). The lyrics "I braided Twigs of Willows Made a String of Buckeye Beads" from the song Flesh and Blood was for Woody.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Early career[link]

In 1954, Cash and Vivian moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he sold appliances while studying to be a radio announcer. At night he played with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant. Perkins and Grant were known as the Tennessee Two. Cash worked up the courage to visit the Sun Records studio, hoping to get a recording contract. After auditioning for Sam Phillips, singing mostly gospel songs, Phillips told him that he didn't record gospel music any longer. It was once rumored that Phillips told Cash to "go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell," though in a 2002 interview Cash denied that Phillips made any such comment.^[56] Cash eventually won over the producer with new songs delivered in his early rock'a'billy style. In 1955 Cash made his first recordings at Sun, "Hey Porter" and "Cry! Cry! Cry!", which were released in late June and met with reasonable success on the country hit parade.

On December 4, 1956, Elvis Presley dropped in on studio owner Sam Phillips to pay a social visit while Carl Perkins was in the studio cutting new tracks, with Jerry Lee Lewis backing him on piano. Cash was also in the studio and the four started an impromptu jam session. Phillips left the tapes running and the recordings, almost half of which were gospel songs, survived and have since been released under the title Million Dollar Quartet.

Cash's next record, "Folsom Prison Blues", made the country Top 5, and "I Walk the Line" became No. 1 on the country charts and entered the pop charts Top 20. "Home of the Blues" followed, recorded in July 1957. That same year Cash became the first Sun artist to release a long-playing album. Although he was Sun's most consistently selling and prolific artist at that time, Cash felt constrained by his contract with the small label partly due to the fact that Phillips wasn't keen on Johnny recording gospel, and he was only getting a 3% royalty as opposed to the standard rate of 5%. Presley had already left Sun, and Phillips was focusing most of his attention and promotion on Lewis. The following year Cash left the label to sign a lucrative offer with Columbia Records, where his single "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" became one of his biggest hits.

In the early 1960s, Cash toured with the Carter Family, which by this time regularly included Mother Maybelle's daughters, Anita, June and Helen. June, whom Cash would eventually marry, later recalled admiring him from afar during these tours. In the 1960s he appeared on Pete Seeger's short lived Rainbow Quest.^[57]

He also acted in a 1961 film entitled Five Minutes to Live, later re-released as Door-to-door Maniac. He also wrote and sang the opening theme.

Outlaw image[link]

As his career was taking off in the late 1950s, Cash started drinking heavily and became addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates. For a brief time, he shared an apartment in Nashville with Waylon Jennings, who was heavily addicted to amphetamines. Cash used the uppers to stay awake during tours. Friends joked about his "nervousness" and erratic behavior, many ignoring the warning signs of his worsening drug addiction. In a behind-the-scenes look at The Johnny Cash Show, Cash claims to have "tried every drug there was to try."

Although in many ways spiraling out of control, Cash's frenetic creativity was still delivering hits. His rendition of "Ring of Fire" was a crossover hit, reaching No. 1 on the country charts and entering the Top 20 on the pop charts. The song was written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore. The song was originally performed by June's sister, but the signature mariachi-style horn arrangement was provided by Cash, who said that it had come to him in a dream.

In June 1965, his truck caught fire due to an overheated wheel bearing, triggering a forest fire that burnt several hundred acres in Los Padres National Forest in California.^[58][59] When the judge asked Cash why he did it, Cash said, "I didn't do it, my truck did, and it's dead, so you can't question it."^[39] The fire destroyed 508 acres (206 ha), burning the foliage off three mountains and killing 49 of the refuge's 53 endangered condors. Cash was unrepentant: "I don't care about your damn yellow buzzards." The federal government sued him and was awarded $125,172 ($923,127 today). Cash eventually settled the case and paid $82,001.^[60] He said he was the only person ever sued by the government for starting a forest fire.^[39]

Although Cash carefully cultivated a romantic outlaw image, he never served a prison sentence. Despite landing in jail seven times for misdemeanors, each stay lasted only a single night. His most infamous run-in with the law occurred while on tour in 1965, when he was arrested October 4 by a narcotics squad in El Paso, Texas. The officers suspected that he was smuggling heroin from Mexico, but it was 688 Dexedrine capsules and 475 Equanil tablets that the singer had hidden inside his guitar case. Because they were prescription drugs rather than illegal narcotics, he received a suspended sentence.

Johnny Cash and his second wife, June Carter

Cash was later arrested on May 11, 1965, in Starkville, Mississippi, for trespassing late at night onto private property to pick flowers. (This incident gave the spark for the song "Starkville City Jail", which he spoke about on his live At San Quentin prison album.)

In the mid 1960s, Cash released a number of concept albums, including Ballads Of the True West (1965), an experimental double record mixing authentic frontier songs with Cash's spoken narration, and Bitter Tears (1964), with songs highlighting the plight of the Native Americans. His drug addiction was at its worst at this point, and his destructive behavior led to a divorce from his first wife and canceled performances.

In 1967, Cash's duet with June Carter, "Jackson", won a Grammy Award.

Johnny Cash's final arrest was in Walker County, Georgia where he was taken in after being involved in a car accident while carrying a bag of prescription pills. Cash attempted to bribe a local deputy, who turned the money down, and then spent the night in a LaFayette, Georgia jail. The singer was released after a long talk with Sheriff Ralph Jones, who warned him of his dangerous behavior and wasted potential. Johnny credited that experience for saving his life, and he later came back to LaFayette to play a benefit concert that attracted 12,000 people (the city population was less than 9,000 at the time) and raised $75,000 for the high school.^[61]

Cash curtailed his use of drugs for several years in 1968, after a spiritual epiphany in the Nickajack Cave, when he attempted to commit suicide while under the heavy influence of drugs. He descended deeper into the cave, trying to lose himself and "just die", when he passed out on the floor. He reported to be exhausted and feeling at the end of his rope when he felt God's presence in his heart and managed to struggle out of the cave (despite the exhaustion) by following a faint light and slight breeze. To him, it was his own rebirth. June, Maybelle, and Ezra Carter moved into Cash's mansion for a month to help him conquer his addiction. Cash proposed onstage to June at a concert at the London Gardens in London, Ontario on February 22, 1968; the couple married a week later (on March 1) in Franklin, Kentucky. June had agreed to marry Cash after he had "cleaned up".^[62] He rediscovered his Christian faith, taking an "altar call" in Evangel Temple, a small church in the Nashville area, pastored by Rev. Jimmie Rodgers Snow, son of country music legend Hank Snow.

According to longtime friend Marshall Grant, Cash's 1968 rebirth experience did not result in his completely stopping use of amphetamines. However, in 1970, Cash ended all drug use for a period of seven years. Grant claims that the birth of Cash's son, John Carter Cash, inspired Cash to end his dependence. Cash began using amphetamines again in 1977. By 1983, he was once again addicted, and entered the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, California for rehabilitation. Cash managed to stay off drugs for several years, but by 1989, he was dependent again and entered Nashville's Cumberland Heights Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center. In 1992, he entered the Loma Linda Behavioural Medicine Centre in Loma Linda, California for his final rehabilitation (several months later, his son followed him into this facility for treatment).^[63][64][65]

Folsom Prison Blues[link]

Cash felt great compassion for prisoners. He began performing concerts at various prisons starting in the late 1950s. His first ever prison concert was held on January 1, 1958 at San Quentin State Prison.^[66] These performances led to a pair of highly successful live albums, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968) and Johnny Cash at San Quentin (1969).

The Folsom Prison record was introduced by a rendition of his classic "Folsom Prison Blues", while the San Quentin record included the crossover hit single "A Boy Named Sue", a Shel Silverstein-penned novelty song that reached No. 1 on the country charts and No. 2 on the U.S. Top Ten pop charts. The AM versions of the latter contained a couple of profanities which were edited out. The modern CD versions are unedited and uncensored and thus also longer than the original vinyl albums, though they still retain the audience reaction overdubs of the originals.

In addition to his performances at U.S. prisons, Cash also performed at the Österåker Prison in Sweden in 1972. The live album På Österåker ("At Österåker") was released in 1973. Between the songs, Cash can be heard speaking Swedish, which was greatly appreciated by the inmates.

"The Man in Black"[link]

Cash advocated prison reform at his July 1972 meeting with United States President Richard Nixon.

From 1969 to 1971, Cash starred in his own television show, The Johnny Cash Show, on the ABC network. The Statler Brothers opened up for him in every episode; the Carter Family and rockabilly legend Carl Perkins were also part of the regular show entourage. However, Cash also enjoyed booking more mainstream performers as guests; such notables included Neil Young, Louis Armstrong, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition (who appeared a record four times on his show), James Taylor, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton (then leading Derek and the Dominos), and Bob Dylan. During the same period, he contributed the title song and other songs to the film Little Fauss and Big Halsey, which starred Robert Redford, Michael J. Pollard, and Lauren Hutton. The title song, The Ballad of Little Fauss and Big Halsey, written by Carl Perkins, was nominated for a Golden Globe award.

Cash had met with Dylan in the mid 1960s and became closer friends when they were neighbors in the late 1960s in Woodstock, New York. Cash was enthusiastic about reintroducing the reclusive Dylan to his audience. Cash sang a duet with Dylan on Dylan's country album Nashville Skyline and also wrote the album's Grammy-winning liner notes.

Another artist who received a major career boost from The Johnny Cash Show was songwriter Kris Kristofferson, who was beginning to make a name for himself as a singer/songwriter. During a live performance of Kristofferson's "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", Cash refused to change the lyrics to suit network executives, singing the song with its references to marijuana intact: "On a Sunday morning sidewalk / I'm wishin', Lord, that I was stoned."^[67]

By the early 1970s, he had crystallized his public image as "The Man in Black". He regularly performed dressed all in black, wearing a long black knee-length coat. This outfit stood in contrast to the costumes worn by most of the major country acts in his day: rhinestone suit and cowboy boots. In 1971, Cash wrote the song "Man in Black", to help explain his dress code: "We're doing mighty fine I do suppose / In our streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes / But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back / Up front there ought to be a man in black."

Cash attired in black performing in Bremen, Northern Germany, in September 1972

He wore black on behalf of the poor and hungry, on behalf of "the prisoner who has long paid for his crime",^[68] and on behalf of those who have been betrayed by age or drugs.^[68] "And," Cash added, "with the Vietnam War as painful in my mind as it was in most other Americans', I wore it 'in mournin' for the lives that could have been.' ... Apart from the Vietnam War being over, I don't see much reason to change my position ... The old are still neglected, the poor are still poor, the young are still dying before their time, and we're not making many moves to make things right. There's still plenty of darkness to carry off."^[68]

He and his band had initially worn black shirts because that was the only matching color they had among their various outfits.^[39] He wore other colors on stage early in his career, but he claimed to like wearing black both on and off stage. He stated that, political reasons aside, he simply liked black as his on-stage color.^[39] To this day, the US Navy's winter blue uniform is referred to by sailors as "Johnny Cashes", as the uniform's shirt, tie, and trousers are solid black.^[69]

In the mid 1970s, Cash's popularity and number of hit songs began to decline. He made commercials for Amoco, an unpopular enterprise in an era in which oil companies made high profits while consumers suffered through high gasoline prices and shortages. However, his autobiography (the first of two), titled Man in Black, was published in 1975 and sold 1.3 million copies. A second, Cash: The Autobiography, appeared in 1997. His friendship with Billy Graham led to the production of a film about the life of Jesus, The Gospel Road, which Cash co-wrote and narrated.

He also continued to appear on television, hosting an annual Christmas special on CBS throughout the 1970s. Later television appearances included a role in an episode of Columbo (Swan Song). He also appeared with his wife on an episode of Little House on the Prairie entitled "The Collection" and gave a performance as John Brown in the 1985 American Civil War television mini-series North and South. Johnny and June also appeared in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman (TV series) as a recurring couple. Cash also had a starring role in a Columbo film.

He was friendly with every US President starting with Richard Nixon. He was closest to Jimmy Carter, with whom he became close friends.^[39] He stated that he found all of them personally charming, noting that this was probably essential to getting oneself elected.^[39]

When invited to perform at the White House for the first time in 1970,^[70] Richard Nixon's office requested that he play "Okie from Muskogee" (a satirical Merle Haggard song about people who despised youthful drug users and war protesters) and "Welfare Cadillac" (a Guy Drake song which denies the integrity of welfare recipients). Cash declined to play either and instead selected other songs, including "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" (about a brave Native American World War II veteran who was mistreated upon his return to Arizona), and his own compositions, "What Is Truth" and "Man in Black". Cash wrote that the reasons for denying Nixon's song choices were not knowing them and having fairly short notice to rehearse them, rather than any political reason.^[39] However, Cash added, even if Nixon's office had given Cash enough time to learn and rehearse the songs, their choice of pieces that conveyed "antihippie and antiblack" sentiments might have backfired.^[71]

Highwaymen[link]

In 1980, Cash became the Country Music Hall of Fame's youngest living inductee at age 48, but during the 1980s his records failed to make a major impact on the country charts, although he continued to tour successfully. In the mid 1980s, he recorded and toured with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson as The Highwaymen, making three hit albums which were released beginning with the originally titled "Highwaymen" in 1985, followed by "Highwaymen 2" in 1990, and concluding with "Highwaymen - The Road Goes on forever" in 1995.

During that period, Cash appeared in a number of television films. In 1981, he starred in The Pride of Jesse Hallam, winning fine reviews for a film that called attention to adult illiteracy. In the same year, Cash appeared as a "very special guest star" in an episode of the Muppet Show. In 1983, he appeared as a heroic sheriff in Murder in Coweta County, based on a real-life Georgia murder case, which co-starred Andy Griffith as his nemesis. Cash had tried for years to make the film, for which he won acclaim.

Cash relapsed into addiction after being administered painkillers for a serious abdominal injury in 1983 caused by an unusual incident in which he was kicked and wounded by an ostrich he kept on his farm.^[72]

At a hospital visit in 1988, this time to watch over Waylon Jennings (who was recovering from a heart attack), Jennings suggested that Cash have himself checked into the hospital for his own heart condition. Doctors recommended preventive heart surgery, and Cash underwent double bypass surgery in the same hospital. Both recovered, although Cash refused to use any prescription painkillers, fearing a relapse into dependency. Cash later claimed that during his operation, he had what is called a "near death experience". He said he had visions of Heaven that were so beautiful that he was angry when he woke up alive.^{[citation needed]}

Cash's recording career and his general relationship with the Nashville establishment were at an all-time low in the 1980s. He realized that his record label of nearly 30 years, Columbia, was growing indifferent to him and was not properly marketing him (he was "invisible" during that time, as he said in his autobiography). Cash recorded an intentionally awful song to protest, a self-parody.^{[citation needed]} "Chicken in Black" was about Cash's brain being transplanted into a chicken. Ironically, the song turned out to be a larger commercial success than any of his other recent material. Nevertheless, he was hoping to kill the relationship with the label before they did, and it was not long after "Chicken in Black" that Columbia and Cash parted ways.

In 1986, Cash returned to Sun Studios in Memphis to team up with Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins to create the album Class of '55. Also in 1986, Cash published his only novel, Man in White, a book about Saul and his conversion to become the Apostle Paul. He also recorded Johnny Cash Reads The Complete New Testament in 1990.

American Recordings[link]

Johnny Cash sings a duet with a Navy lieutenant c.1987.

After Columbia Records dropped Cash from his recording contract, he had a short and unsuccessful stint with Mercury Records from 1987 to 1991 (see Johnny Cash discography).

His career was rejuvenated in the 1990s, leading to popularity with an audience not traditionally interested in country music. In 1991, he sang a version of "Man in Black" for the Christian punk band One Bad Pig's album I Scream Sunday. In 1993, he sang "The Wanderer" on U2's album Zooropa. Although no longer sought after by major labels, he was offered a contract with producer Rick Rubin's American Recordings label, better known for rap and hard rock.

Under Rubin's supervision, he recorded American Recordings (1994) in his living room, accompanied only by his Martin Dreadnought guitar – one of many Cash played throughout his career.^[73] The album featured covers of contemporary artists selected by Rubin and had much critical and commercial success, winning a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Cash wrote that his reception at the 1994 Glastonbury Festival was one of the highlights of his career. This was the beginning of a decade of music industry accolades and commercial success. Cash teamed up with Brooks & Dunn to contribute "Folsom Prison Blues" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization. On the same album, he performed the Bob Dylan favorite "Forever Young".

Cash and his wife appeared on a number of episodes of the television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman starring Jane Seymour. The actress thought so highly of Cash that she later named one of her twin sons after him. He lent his voice for a cameo role in The Simpsons episode "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)," as the "Space Coyote" that guides Homer Simpson on a spiritual quest. In 1996, Cash enlisted the accompaniment of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and released Unchained, which won the Best Country Album Grammy. Believing he did not explain enough of himself in his 1975 autobiography Man in Black, he wrote Cash: The Autobiography in 1997.

Last years[link]

In 1997, Cash was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Shy-Drager syndrome, a form of multiple system atrophy. The diagnosis was later altered to autonomic neuropathy associated with diabetes. This illness forced Cash to curtail his touring. He was hospitalized in 1998 with severe pneumonia, which damaged his lungs. The albums American III: Solitary Man (2000) and American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002) contained Cash's response to his illness in the form of songs of a slightly more somber tone than the first two American albums. The video that was released for "Hurt", a cover of the song by Nine Inch Nails, fits Cash's view of his past and feelings of regret. The video for the song, from American IV, is now generally recognized as "his epitaph,"^[74] and received particular critical and popular acclaim.

Cash's grave (top) and the Cash/Carter memorial (bottom)

June Carter Cash died on May 15, 2003, at the age of 73. June had told Cash to keep working, so he continued to record, completing 60 more songs in the last four months of his life, and even performed a couple of surprise shows at the Carter Family Fold outside Bristol, Virginia. At the July 5, 2003, concert (his last public performance), before singing "Ring of Fire", Cash read a statement about his late wife that he had written shortly before taking the stage:

The spirit of June Carter overshadows me tonight with the love she had for me and the love I have for her. We connect somewhere between here and heaven. She came down for a short visit, I guess, from heaven to visit with me tonight to give me courage and inspiration like she always has.

Death[link]

Cash died of complications from diabetes at approximately 2:00 a.m. CT on September 12, 2003, while hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Nashville - less than four months after his wife. It was suggested that Johnny's health worsened due to a broken heart over June's death.^[75][76] He was buried next to his wife in Hendersonville Memory Gardens near his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

On May 24, 2005, Vivian Liberto, Cash's first wife and the mother of Rosanne Cash and three other daughters, died from surgery to remove lung cancer at the age of 71. It was her daughter Rosanne's 50th birthday.^[77]

In June 2005, Cash's lakeside home on Caudill Drive in Hendersonville was put up for sale by his estate. In January 2006, the house was sold to Bee Gees vocalist Barry Gibb and wife Linda and titled in their Florida limited liability company for $2.3 million. The listing agent was Cash's younger brother, Tommy Cash. During a major restoration of the property by the new owner, Cash's home was accidentally destroyed by workers using linseed oil products in a spontaneous combustion-ignited fire on April 10, 2007.^[78]

One of Cash's final collaborations with producer Rick Rubin, entitled American V: A Hundred Highways, was released posthumously on July 4, 2006. The album debuted in the No.1 position on the Billboard Top 200 album chart for the week ending July 22, 2006.

On February 23, 2010, three days before what would have been Cash's 78th birthday, the Cash Family, Rick Rubin, and Lost Highway Records released his second posthumous record, titled American VI: Ain't No Grave.

Legacy[link]

From his early days as a pioneer of rockabilly and rock and roll in the 1950s, to his decades as an international representative of country music, to his resurgence to fame in the 1990s as a living legend and an alternative country icon, Cash influenced countless artists and left a large body of work. Upon his death, Cash was revered by the greatest popular musicians of his time. His rebellious image and often anti-authoritarian stance influenced punk rock.^[79][80]

Among Cash's children, his daughter Rosanne Cash (by first wife Vivian Liberto) and his son John Carter Cash (by June Carter Cash) are notable country-music musicians in their own right.

Cash nurtured and defended artists on the fringes of what was acceptable in country music even while serving as the country music establishment's most visible symbol. At an all-star concert which aired in 1999 on TNT, a diverse group of artists paid him tribute, including Bob Dylan, Chris Isaak, Wyclef Jean, Norah Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Dom DeLuise and U2. Cash himself appeared at the end and performed for the first time in more than a year. Two tribute albums were released shortly before his death; Kindred Spirits contains works from established artists, while Dressed in Black contains works from many lesser-known artists.

In total, he wrote over 1,000 songs and released dozens of albums. A box set titled Unearthed was issued posthumously. It included four CDs of unreleased material recorded with Rubin as well as a Best of Cash on American retrospective CD.

In recognition of his lifelong support of SOS Children's Villages, his family invited friends and fans to donate to that charity in his memory. He had a personal link with the SOS village in Diessen, at the Ammersee Lake in Southern Germany, near where he was stationed as a GI, and also with the SOS village in Barrett Town, by Montego Bay, near his holiday home in Jamaica.^[81] The Johnny Cash Memorial Fund was founded.^[82]

In 1999, Cash received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Cash^[83] No.31 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[84]

In a tribute to Cash after his death, country music singer Gary Allan included the song "Nickajack Cave (Johnny Cash's Redemption)" on his 2005 album entitled Tough All Over. The song chronicles Cash hitting rock bottom and subsequently resurrecting his life and career.

The main street in Hendersonville, Tennessee, Highway 31E, is known as "Johnny Cash Parkway"; the Johnny Cash Museum is located in the town.

On November 2–4, 2007, the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival was held in Starkville, Mississippi. Starkville, where Cash was arrested over 40 years earlier and held overnight at the city jail on May 11, 1965, inspired Cash to write the song "Starkville City Jail". The festival, where he was offered a symbolic posthumous pardon, honored Cash's life and music, and was expected to become an annual event.^[85]

JC Unit One, Johnny Cash's private tour bus from 1980 until 2003, was put on exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum in 2007. The Cleveland, Ohio museum offers public tours of the bus on a seasonal basis (it is stored during the winter months and not exhibited during those times).

WWE Superstar The Undertaker used Cash's song "Aint No Grave" (from American VI: Ain't No Grave) to announce his return following an absence in February, 2011, and as his entrance music for Wrestlemania XXVII. Independent circuit wrestlers Tyson Dux and Brodie Lee also use "God's Gonna Cut You Down" (from American V: A Hundred Highways) as entrance music. Other professional wrestlers who have used Cash's songs as entrance music include Austin Aries, who used his cover of the Depeche Mode's song "Personal Jesus" (from American IV: The Man Comes Around), and Necro Butcher, who used both "The Man Comes Around" and "Hurt". WWE also used "Hurt" in a special video package that was aired on Monday Night RAW in November 2005 as a tribute to Eddie Guerrero, a popular WWE Superstar who had died of heart failure while he was still contracted with the company. It is also noted that current WWE Superstar Ted DiBiase, Jr. is a huge fan of Cash, as is former WWE Diva and current TNA Knockout Mickie James.

The television show "The Deadliest Catch" is using the song "Ain't No Grave" as the theme song in many of their commercials.

One of Cash's greatest hits, "Hurt", was also used to advertise Prototype 2 in the trailer called "The Power Of Revenge".

Portrayals[link]

The Canada Trust company used his name and images for their Johnny Cash automatic bank machines during the late 80s and early 90s.

In 1998, country singer Mark Collie was the first to portray Cash, in the short film, I Still Miss Someone.

In November of 2005, Walk the Line, an Academy Award-winning biopic about Cash's life starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny (for which he was nominated for the 2005 Best Actor Oscar) and Reese Witherspoon as June (for which she won the 2005 Best Actress Oscar), was released in the United States on to considerable commercial success and critical acclaim. Both Phoenix and Witherspoon have won various other awards for their roles, including the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy and Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, respectively. They both performed their own vocals in the film, and Phoenix learned to play guitar for his role as Cash. Phoenix received the Grammy Award for his contributions to the soundtrack. John Carter Cash, the first child of Johnny and June, served as an executive producer on the film.

On March 12, 2006 Ring of Fire, a jukebox musical of the Cash oeuvre, debuted on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, but closed due to harsh reviews and disappointing sales on April 30, 2006.

On April 11, 2010, Million Dollar Quartet, a musical portraying the early Sun recording sessions involving Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins, debuted on Broadway. Actor Lance Guest portrayed Cash. The musical was nominated for three awards at the 2010 Tony Awards, and won one.

Discography[link]

See Johnny Cash discography, and Johnny Cash Sun Records discography.

Awards and honors[link]

For detailed lists of music awards, see List of Johnny Cash awards.

Cash received multiple Country Music Association Awards, Grammys, and other awards, in categories ranging from vocal and spoken performances to album notes and videos.

In a career that spanned almost five decades during which he rose to recording industry icon status, Cash was the personification of country music to many people around the world. Cash was a musician who was not tied to a single genre. He recorded songs that could be considered rock and roll, blues, rockabilly, folk, and gospel, and exerted an influence on each of those genres. Moreover, he had the unique distinction among country artists of having "crossed over" late in his career to become popular with an unexpected audience, young indie and alternative rock fans. His diversity was evidenced by his presence in three major music halls of fame: the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1977), the Country Music Hall of Fame (1980), and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1992). Only thirteen performers are in both of the last two, and only Hank Williams Sr., Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, and Bill Monroe share the honor with Cash of being in all three. However, only Cash was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the regular manner, unlike the other country members, who were inducted as "early influences." His pioneering contribution to the genre has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.^[86] He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1996. Cash stated that his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, in 1980, was his greatest professional achievement. In 2001, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.^[87] He was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for best cinematography for "Hurt" and was supposed to appear, but died during the night.

In 2007, Cash was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.^[88]

Further reading[link]

• Graeme Thomson The Resurrection of Johnny Cash: Hurt, Redemption, and American Recordings Jawbone Press ISBN 978-1-906002-36-7

Sources[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

Published works[link]

• Cash, Johnny. Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975. ISBN 99924-31-58-X.
• Cash, Johnny, with Patrick Carr. Cash: The Autobiography. New York: Harper Collins, 1997. ISBN 0-06-101357-9.
• Cash, Johnny, with June Carter Cash. Love liner notes. New York: Sony, 2000.
• Cash, Johnny, The Man in White, 1986.

External links[link]

	Book: Johnny Cash
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Johnny Cash

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Johnny Cash

• Official website
• Johnny Cash Official Label Website
• Official Johnny Cash Lost Highway Artist Page
• at the Country Music Hall of Fame
• at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame
• at the Hit Parade Hall of Fame
• Larry King's November 26, 2002 interview With Johnny Cash on CNN
• Johnny Cash: Best Photos – slideshow by Life magazine
• Johnny Cash at the Internet Movie Database
• Johnny Cash at AllRovi

v t e Johnny Cash Studio albums With His Hot and Blue Guitar Sings the Songs That Made Him Famous The Fabulous Johnny Cash Greatest! Sings Hank Williams Now, There Was a Song! Now Here's Johnny Cash The Sound of Johnny Cash All Aboard the Blue Train Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash I Walk the Line Orange Blossom Special Everybody Loves a Nut Happiness is You Old Golden Throat More of Old Golden Throat Hello, I'm Johnny Cash Man in Black A Thing Called Love Any Old Wind That Blows Ragged Old Flag Junkie and the Juicehead Minus Me John R. Cash Look at Them Beans One Piece at a Time The Last Gunfighter Ballad I Would Like to See You Again Gone Girl Silver Rockabilly Blues The Baron The Adventures of Johnny Cash Johnny 99 Rainbow Johnny Cash is Coming to Town Classic Cash: Hall of Fame Series Water from the Wells of Home Boom Chicka Boom The Mystery of Life American Recordings Unchained American III: Solitary Man American IV: The Man Comes Around American V: A Hundred Highways American VI: Ain't No Grave Concept albums Songs of Our Soil Ride This Train The Lure of the Grand Canyon Blood, Sweat and Tears Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian Sings the Ballads of the True West From Sea to Shining Sea America: A 200-Year Salute in Story and Song The Johnny Cash Children's Album The Rambler Gospel albums Hymns by Johnny Cash Hymns from the Heart The Holy Land Sings Precious Memories A Believer Sings the Truth Believe in Him My Mother's Hymn Book Christmas albums The Christmas Spirit The Johnny Cash Family Christmas Classic Christmas Johnny Cash Country Christmas Collaborations Carryin' On with Johnny Cash and June Carter Johnny Cash and His Woman The Legend of Jesse James The Survivors Live Highwayman Heroes Class of '55 Highwayman 2 The Road Goes on Forever VH1 Storytellers Live albums At Folsom Prison At San Quentin The Johnny Cash Show På Österåker Strawberry Cake At Madison Square Garden A Concert Behind Prison Walls Soundtrack albums I Walk the Line Little Fauss and Big Halsy The Gospel Road Return to the Promised Land Compilation albums Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 Heart of Cash The World of Johnny Cash Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 Sunday Morning Coming Down International Superstar Five Feet High and Rising Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 The Unissued Johnny Cash Johnny & June Tall Man Encore Biggest Hits The Man in Black 1954–1958 The Man in Black 1959–1962 Come Along and Ride this Train Wanted Man The Man in Black 1963–1969 16 Biggest Hits Love, God and Murder The Essential Johnny Cash Unearthed The Legend The Legend of Johnny Cash 16 Biggest Hits: Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash Personal File The Legend of Johnny Cash Vol. II Songs "25 Minutes to Go" "Any Old Wind That Blows" "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" "Ballad of a Teenage Queen" "Big River" "Blistered" "A Boy Named Sue" "Busted" "Cat's in the Cradle" "Cocaine Blues" "Cry! Cry! Cry!" "Daddy Sang Bass" "Dark as a Dungeon" "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" "Engine 143" "Flesh and Blood" "Folsom Prison Blues" "Get Rhythm" "Goodnight, Irene" "Green, Green Grass of Home" "Greystone Chapel" "Guess Things Happen That Way" "Hey Porter" "Home of the Blues" "Hurt" "I Still Miss Someone" "I Walk the Line" "If I Were a Carpenter" "It Ain't Me Babe" "In My Life" "In the Jailhouse Now" "Jackson" "Kate" "The Man Comes Around" "Man in Black" "The Matador" "Oh Lonesome Me" "One Piece at a Time" "Oney" "Orange Blossom Special" "The One on the Right Is on the Left" "Remember the Alamo" "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" "Ring of Fire" "Rock Island Line" "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" "Tennessee Flat Top Box" "A Thing Called Love" "Understand Your Man" "What Is Truth" "What'd I Say" Family June Carter Cash John Carter Cash Rosanne Cash Carlene Carter Vivian Liberto Tommy Cash Carter Family Related articles Discography Sun Records discography Highwaymen Walk the Line Book:Johnny Cash

Kirk Douglas
File:Douglas 1956 still-updated.jpg 1956 photo
Born	Issur Danielovitch (1916-12-09) December 9, 1916 (age 95) Amsterdam, New York
Other names	Izzy Demsky
Education	St. Lawrence University
Alma mater	American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Occupation	Actor, producer, director, author
Years active	1942–present
Religion	Conservative Judaism[1]
Spouse	Diana Dill (m. 1943-1951; divorced) Anne Buydens (m. 1954-present)
Children	Michael Douglas (b. 1944) Joel Douglas (b. 1947) Peter Douglas (b. 1955) Eric Douglas (1958–2004)
Relatives	Cameron Douglas (grandson)
Signature

Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch, Russian: И́сер Даниело́вич;^[2] December 9, 1916) is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past (1947), Champion (1949), Ace in the Hole (1951), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Lust for Life (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Spartacus (1960), and Lonely Are the Brave (1962).

He is No.17 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time, making him the highest-ranked living person on the list. In 1996, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for 50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community."

Early life[link]

Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch in Amsterdam, New York, the son of Bryna "Bertha" (née Sanglel) and Herschel "Harry" Danielovitch, a businessman.^[3] His parents were Jewish immigrants from Gomel, Belarus.^[4][5] His father's brother, who emigrated earlier, used the surname Demsky, which Douglas's family adopted in the United States.^[2] In addition to their surname, his parents also changed their given names to Harry and Bertha. Douglas grew up as Izzy Demsky and legally changed his name to Kirk Douglas before entering the Navy during World War II.^[6]

Coming from a poor family, as a boy Douglas sold snacks to mill workers to earn enough to buy milk and bread. Later, he delivered newspapers and worked at more than forty jobs before becoming an actor.^[7] He found living in a family of six sisters to be stifling, stating, "I was dying to get out. In a sense, it lit a fire under me."^[8] During high school, he acted in school plays, and discovered "The one thing in my life that I always knew, that was always constant, was that I wanted to be an actor."^[9]

College graduation, 1939

Unable to afford tuition, Douglas talked his way into St. Lawrence University and received a loan which he paid back by working part-time as a gardener and a janitor. He was a standout on the wrestling team, and wrestled one summer in a carnival to make money.^[10]

Douglas' acting talents were noticed at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and he received a special scholarship. One of his classmates was Betty Joan Perske (later to become better known as Lauren Bacall), who would play an important role in launching his film career.^[11] Another classmate was aspiring Bermudian actress Diana Dill. While doing summer stock theater during a college term break, he began using the name Kirk Douglas, which he later legally adopted.^[2] He earned his first money as an actor that summer.^[12] Upon graduating from drama school, Douglas made his Broadway debut as a singing telegraph boy in Spring Again.

Douglas enlisted in the United States Navy in 1941, shortly after the United States entered World War II. He was medically discharged for war injuries in 1944. On May 3, 1943, Diana Dill, his former classmate, appeared on the cover of Life magazine. Seeing the photograph, Douglas told his fellow sailors that he was going to marry her. He did on November 2, 1943. The couple had two sons together (Michael in 1944 and Joel in 1947) before they divorced in 1951.^{[13] [14]}

After the war, Douglas returned to New York City and found work in radio, theatre, and commercials. His stage break occurred in Kiss and Tell, which led to other roles. Douglas had planned to remain a stage actor but Lauren Bacall helped him get his first screen role in the Hal B. Wallis film The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), starring Barbara Stanwyck. Wallis was on his way to New York to look for new talent when Bacall suggested he visit Douglas, who was rehearsing a play called The Wind Is Ninety. Douglas finished the play's run and, with no follow-up work in sight, headed to Hollywood. He was immediately cast in one of the leading roles in Wallis' film and made his film acting debut as a weak man dominated by a ruthless woman, unlike his later roles where he often played dominating characters.^[15]

Career[link]

Douglas established his image as a tough guy in his eighth film, Champion, playing a selfish boxer. From then on, he made a career of playing "sons of bitches."^[16] From that film on, he decided that to succeed as a star, he needed to ramp up his intensity, overcome his natural shyness, and choose stronger roles. He later stated, "I don’t think I’d be much of an actor without vanity. And I’m not interested in being a 'modest actor'."^[17] Early in his Hollywood career, he demonstrated his independent streak and broke his studio contracts to gain total control over his projects, forming his own movie company "Bryna Productions", named after his mother.^[8]

Douglas made his Broadway debut in 1949 in the Anton Chekhov play "The Three Sisters," produced by Katharine Cornell.^[18]

Douglas was a major box office star in the 1950s and 1960s, playing opposite some of the leading actresses of that era. Among his various roles, he played a frontier peace officer in his first western Along the Great Divide (1951). He quickly became comfortable with riding horses and playing gunslingers, and appeared in many westerns. In Lonely Are the Brave (1962), his own favorite of his performances, Douglas plays a cowboy trying to live by his own code, much as he did in real life.^[19]

In The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), one of his three Oscar-nominated roles, Douglas plays Jonathan Shields, a hard-nosed film producer who manipulates and uses his actors, writers, and directors.^[20] In Young Man with a Horn (1950), Douglas portrays the rise and fall of a driven jazz musician, based on real-life horn player Bix Beiderbecke. Composer-pianist Hoagy Carmichael, playing the sidekick role, added realism to the film and gave Douglas insight into the role, being a friend of the real Beiderbecke.^[21]

In one of his early television appearances, Douglas was a musical guest (as himself) on The Jack Benny Program.^[22] In the opening monologue, Benny reads the reviews of critics who liked his season premiere, while skipping the ones who did not. He then hurries home for his weekly jam session with Tony Martin (on clarinet), Fred MacMurray (saxophone), Dick Powell (trumpet), Dan Dailey (drums), and Douglas (four-string banjo). They avail themselves of the coin-operated vending machines in Benny's living room. The band plays Basin Street (Blues), but Douglas keeps going into Bye Bye Blues, the only song he knows.

Douglas played many military men, with varying nuance, in Top Secret Affair (1957), Paths of Glory (1957) (his most famous role in that genre), Town Without Pity (1961), The Hook (1963), Seven Days in May (1964), Heroes of Telemark (1965), In Harm's Way (1965), Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), Is Paris Burning (1966), and The Final Countdown (1980).

His role as Vincent Van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956), filmed mostly on location in France, was noted not only for the veracity of his appearance but also for how he conveyed the painter’s internal turmoil. He won a Golden Globe award for his role. Director Vincente Minnelli stated, "Kirk Douglas achieved a moving and memorable portrait of the artist—a man of massive creative power, triggered by severe emotional stress, the fear and horror of madness. In my opinion, Kirk should have won the Academy Award."^[23] Douglas himself called his acting role as Van Gogh a "very painful experience." He writes, "Not only did I look like Van Gogh, I was the same age he was when he committed suicide."^[24]:288

Douglas played the lead with an all-star cast in Spartacus (1960). He was the executive producer as well, raising the $12 million production cost.^[25] He also played an important role in breaking the Hollywood blacklist by making sure that Dalton Trumbo's name was mentioned in the opening and ending credits of the film for the outstanding screenplay he did for the film.^[2] Douglas initially selected Anthony Mann to direct the movie, but dismissed him when he judged the initial shooting to be unsatisfactory. To replace Mann he chose Stanley Kubrick, who three years earlier had collaborated closely with Douglas in Paths of Glory, where Douglas played one of his most notable roles as Colonel Dax, the commander of a French regiment during World War I.^[26] Spartacus was a huge success, but Kubrick, considering himself a mere employee of Douglas and since much of the footage (including Peter Ustinov's key scenes) was shot under Mann, did not consider it to be part of his own oeuvre.

In addition to serious, driven characters, Douglas was adept at roles requiring a comic touch, as in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), an adaptation of the Jules Verne novel, wherein he plays a happy-go-lucky sailor who is the opposite in every way of the brooding Captain Nemo (James Mason). The film was one of Walt Disney's most successful live-action movies and a major box-office hit.^[23] He manages a similar comic turn in the western Man Without a Star (1955) and in For Love or Money (1963).

Douglas made seven films over the decades with Burt Lancaster; I Walk Alone (1948), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Devil's Disciple (1959), The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), Seven Days in May (1964), Victory at Entebbe (1976) and Tough Guys (1986), which fixed the notion of the pair as something of a team in the public imagination. Douglas was always second-billed under Lancaster in these movies but, with the exception of I Walk Alone, in which Douglas played a villain, and The List of Adrian Messenger, in which Lancaster played a brief part in disguise, their roles were more or less the same size. Both actors arrived in Hollywood at the same time, and first appeared together in the fourth film for each. They both became actor-producers who sought out independent Hollywood careers.^[27]

President Jimmy Carter greets Kirk Douglas and Mrs. Douglas, March 1978

Douglas stated that the keys to acting success are determination and application, "You must know how to function and how to maintain yourself, and you must have a love of what you do. But an actor also needs great good luck. I have had that luck."^[9] Douglas had great vitality, "It takes a lot out of you to work in this business. Many people fall by the wayside because they don’t have the energy to sustain their talent."^[28] His intensity spilled over into all elements of his film-making. As an actor, he dove into every role, dissecting not only his own lines but all the parts in the script to measure the rightness of the role, and he was willing to fight with the director if he felt justified.^[28] According to his wife, he often brought home that intensity, "When he was doing Lust for Life, he came home in that red beard of Van Gogh’s, wearing those big boots, stomping around the house—it was frightening."^[27] His distinctive acting style and delivery made him, like James Stewart, a favorite with impersonators, especially Frank Gorshin.^[29]

Unlike some actors such as Robert Mitchum, Douglas had a high opinion of actors, movies, and moviemaking, "To me it is the most important art form—it is an art, and it includes all the elements of the modern age." But he also stressed the entertainment value of films, "You can make a statement, you can say something, but it must be entertaining."^[17]

His first film as a director was Scalawag (1973). In his autobiography The Ragman’s Son, he said "Since I was accused so often of trying to direct the films I was in, I thought I ought to really try my hand at directing."^[30] It was a difficult debut with many production problems, requiring his wife to act as producer. Douglas plays a charming scoundrel with one leg, a considerable challenge to his athleticism, and though he got credit for his role, the film received unimpressive reviews.^[31] Later in 1973, Douglas appeared in a made-for-TV musical version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.^[32][33][34]

The Douglases meet with President Ronald Reagan, December 1987

On July 5, 1986, he co-hosted (with Angela Lansbury) the New York Philharmonic's tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, which was televised live on ABC Television.^[35] The orchestra was conducted by Zubin Mehta.

Douglas was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his work in Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful and Lust for Life. He was especially disappointed for not winning for the latter film, "I really thought I had a chance."^[17] Douglas did not win any competitive Oscars, but received a Honorary Academy Award in 1996 for "50 years as a moral and creative force in the motion picture community".

Douglas with Zubin Mehta, March 2011

For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Douglas has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6263 Hollywood Blvd. He is one of the few personalities (along with James Stewart, Gregory Peck, and Gene Autry) whose star has been stolen and later replaced.^[36] In 1984, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, and he received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1991.

In October 2004, the avenue Kirk Douglas Way in Palm Springs, California was named in his honor by the Palm Springs International Film Society and Film Festival. Popular at home and around the world, Douglas received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981, the French Legion of Honor in 1985, and the National Medal of the Arts in 2001.

In March 2009, Douglas starred in an autobiographical one man show titled Before I Forget at the Center Theater Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, California. The four performances were filmed and turned into a documentary that was first screened in January 2010.^[37]

On February 27, 2011, Douglas appeared on the stage of the Kodak Theater for the 83rd Academy Awards to present the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.^[38]

Personal life[link]

Douglas married twice, first to Diana Dill, on November 2, 1943. The couple had two sons, actor Michael Douglas and producer Joel Douglas. They divorced in 1951. He then married German American producer Anne Buydens on May 29, 1954. They had two sons, producer Peter Douglas and actor Eric Douglas. Eric Douglas died July 6, 2004 of a drug overdose.

In February 1991, he survived a helicopter crash in which two people died. This sparked a search for meaning, which led him, after much study, to embrace the Judaism in which he was raised. He documented this spiritual journey in his book Climbing the Mountain: My Search for Meaning (2001). In his earlier autobiography, The Ragman's Son (1988), he admits that "years back, I tried to forget that I was a Jew."^[24]:383 However, in his later career, he notes that "coming to grips with what it means to be a Jew has been a theme in my life."^[24] In an interview in 2000, he explained this transition:^[39]

Judaism and I parted ways a long time ago, when I was a poor kid growing up in Amsterdam, N.Y. Back then, I was pretty good in cheder, so the Jews of our community thought they would do a wonderful thing and collect enough money to send me to a yeshiva to become a rabbi. Holy Moses! That scared the hell out of me. I didn't want to be a rabbi. I wanted to be an actor. Believe me, the members of the Sons of Israel were persistent. I had nightmares – wearing long payos and a black hat. I had to work very hard to get out of it. But it took me a long time to learn that you don't have to be a rabbi to be a Jew.

Douglas notes also that the underlying theme of some of his films, including The Juggler (1953), Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), and Remembrance of Love (1982), was about "a Jew who doesn't think of himself as one, and eventually finds his Jewishness."^[24]:383 Although his children had a non-Jewish mother, Douglas states that they were "aware culturally" of his "deep convictions," and he never tried to influence their own religious decisions. He notes, however, that Michael answered, "I'm a Jew," when once asked about what he was.^[24]:384

While Douglas has chosen to stay out of political affairs, he has on occasion written letters to politicians who were friends. He notes in his memoir, Let's Face It (2007), that he felt compelled to write former president Jimmy Carter in 2006 in order to stress that "Israel is the only successful democracy in the Middle East. . . . [and] has had to endure many wars against overwhelming odds. If Israel loses one war, they lose Israel."^[2]:226

In January 1996, he suffered a severe stroke, partially impairing his ability to speak. On December 8, 2006, Douglas appeared on Entertainment Tonight, where the entire staff wished him a happy 90th birthday the night before. His son and daughter-in-law Michael and Catherine Zeta-Jones, were among the many celebrities who attended his birthday celebration. On the show, he discussed the books he has written and the death of his son Eric. Douglas celebrated a second Bar-Mitzvah ceremony in 1999 at the age of eighty-three.

A portrait of Douglas, titled "The Great and the Beautiful," which encapsulated his film career, art collection, philanthropy and rehabilitation from the helicopter crash and the stroke, appeared in Palm Springs Life magazine in 1999. The article said "For years, this energetic performer could be seen jogging several miles to get his morning paper, playing tennis with locals or posing for snapshots and signing autographs for star-struck out-of-towners. He has been a veritable one-man tourist promotion over the past four decades, extolling the virtue of the city he loves to virtually anyone who'll listen".

Douglas blogs regularly on his Myspace account.^[40] At 95, he is the oldest celebrity blogger.^[41]

Family tree[link]