We lost Kirk Douglas early this morning, and already I have caught the blasé Facebook Philosophers going “why the shock, why the surprise, he was 103!”
To which I say, fuck you, you soulless wankers.

Kirk Douglas was a giant, a man who made film history, with a catalogue of movies and roles that is staggering for variety, quality and freshness.
Many remember his role in Spartacus, but I would have a hard time selecting the role in which I best remember him – Ulysses in the Italian adaptation of the Odyssey, probably, or as a scarred Viking chieftain in The Vikings, or his turn as Ned Land in Disney’s 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea.
But what of the noirs, like Out of the Past, and Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole?

A legend is gone, and we cannot act blasé about it.