‘MODEL’ ACTOR DOUGLAS HONORED

Kirk Douglas was saluted here Monday night by the American Academy of Dramatic Arts as a “model” actor whose 40-year film career has been built on “a multiplicity of roles rather than on a single persona.”

“His career would be the envy of any working or aspiring actor,” academy president and director George Cuttingham told the audience of a thousand friends, supporters and famous graduates of the academy who gathered at Broadway’s Majestic Theater to honor Douglas, class of ’41.

The annual fund-raising event, hosted by Douglas’ longtime friend and frequent co-star, Burt Lancaster, has become an occasion for the academy to present its Founders Award for achievement to distinguished alumni. And Cuttingham announced Monday that funds raised this year will endow an annual full scholarship at the academy in Douglas’ name.

Born in New York in 1916, the son of Russian immigrants, Douglas attended the academy’s two-year program on a full scholarship.

Monday’s program combined film clips and personal tributes. The clips were compiled from the 75 films made by Douglas since his Hollywood film debut in 1946 opposite Barbara Stanwyck in “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers,” and the tributes were offered by some of his most familiar co-stars, including Anthony Quinn (“Lust for Life”) and Jean Simmons (“Spartacus”). The clips were striking evidence of Douglas’ acting range over a long career that earned him three Oscar nominations, for “Champion” (1949), “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952) and “Lust for Life” (1956).

It was emphasized that Douglas also was one of the first major Hollywood actors to form his own production company (the Bryna Co., formed in 1955 and named for his mother) and to produce such memorable Douglas vehicles as “Paths of Glory,” “Lonely Are the Brave,” “Seven Days in May” and “Spartacus,” the 1960 film which also served to break the notorious Hollywood blacklist of the 1950s when Douglas announced publicly that blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo would write the screenplay.

Said Douglas’ eldest son Michael: “My father always wanted to be an actor, and it’s amazing to see all the roles he played.” Onstage with Michael were Douglas’ three other sons, Joel, Peter and Eric. “He’s played a soldier, a painter, a Viking, architect, boxer and many others,” continued Michael, “but of all the roles he’s played, I want to congratulate him publicly on his role as a father.”

Lauren Bacall spoke of first meeting Douglas when she was only 16 and a fellow student at the academy: “He was talented, ambitious, passionate--all the things an actor has to have to make it--and poor.”

Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who appeared on tape, all spoke of the roles Douglas has played off-screen as a U.S. emissary around the world and as a promoter of humanitarian causes.

It was Lancaster, however, who spoke most movingly of his longtime friend. In comparing their similar backgrounds, from “humble beginnings” up through the ranks of Hollywood success, Lancaster spoke frankly of “the love-hate relationship we have had on and off screen.

“With all the arguing, criticizing and challenging that we have done, we have become good friends, and we have formed a relationship that is difficult to express in words but that, in whatever words are used, means we love each other,” he said. The latest film teaming the two stars was last year’s “Tough Guys.”

“Of all the awards Kirk has received over the years,” continued Lancaster, “I know the one he receives tonight must be very special to him, because above all else, he is an actor.”

In presenting Douglas with the academy’s award at the conclusion of the two-hour program, actor Hume Cronyn, academy class of ‘34, borrowed from lines spoken by Douglas’ character in “Champion”: “I don’t want to be a ‘Hey, you’--I want people to call me Mister--I want to amount to something.”

“Wow, what a wonderful evening,” Douglas said, taking center stage after accepting the sculpted crystal award and a standing ovation from the audience. “I wish my parents were here. My father would have liked it. My mother would have believed it.”