101-year-old Kirk Douglas receives heart-warming ovation at the Golden Globes

Hollywood icon Kirk Douglas received a standing ovation at the Golden Globes last night, taking to the stage to present an award with his daughter-in-law Catherine Zeta Jones.

The crowd got to their feet to pay tribute to the 101-year-old star, as Jones re-told how he battled Hollywood blacklisting in the 1950s.

Blacklisting found writers and actors who were accused of having ‘communist sympathies’ shunned from working in Hollywood, in the wake of the infamous anti-communist investigations lead by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

“In 1991 my father in law, this living Hollywood legend Kirk, was recognised by the Writer’s Guild Of America for his role in ending the Hollywood Blacklist,” Jones said.

Douglas publicly acknowledged the work of writer Dalton Trumbo on his movie Spartacus, helping to end blacklisting in 1960.

Replied Douglas on stage at the Beverly Hilton: “Catherine, you said it all. I would have made a speech but I don’t want to say it. I could never follow you.”

Douglas, father of Michael Douglas, is one of the last living actors who worked in Hollywood’s so-called Golden Age, when the current studio system was just emerging.

He received three Oscar nominations, as well as receiving a Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1996, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981.

Douglas suffered a massive stroke in 1996, which has impaired his ability to speak, but overcame his health issues to write a book about his experience in 2001.

He turned 100 in 2016.

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