Kirk Douglas Released, Eludes TV Cameramen

Eluding a bevy of camera crews, veteran actor Kirk Douglas left Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in good condition Monday, five days after he was injured in the collision of a helicopter and a stunt plane over Santa Paula.

Douglas, 72, left the hospital through a side exit at 10:30 a.m., avoiding six television crews set up in the main lobby.

“Mr. Douglas was in good condition and good spirits,” said Cedars-Sinai spokesman Ron Wise. Douglas, the star of “Lust for Life” and “Spartacus,” did not want to make a “spectacle” of his departure, Wise said.

After waiting all morning for Douglas, the crews missed the news story happening a few feet away.

Nearly three hours after their arrival, gunshots were fired outside the hospital lobby.

Cameramen rushed outside to find that they had just missed a robbery that had taken place on Alden Avenue, 50 feet from where they had been sitting. Wise said the victim was an employee of the hospital’s food service who was heading to the bank with a canvas bag containing $13,000--the hospital cafeteria’s weekend receipts.

An unarmed security guard accompanying the woman called out to the thief to stop as he was fleeing, Wise said. In response, the man turned and fired two shots, Wise said. No one was injured.

By the time the crews returned to the hospital, they learned that Douglas had left through a side exit and nobody had gotten film for the evening newscast, even the few cameramen who had waited in the main lobby.

“A total loser,” pronounced Ken Levine, assignment manager at KCOP Channel 13. “No robbery. No Kirk Douglas.”

Douglas suffered a scalp cut and bruises in the collision that killed two people at the private Ventura County airport. Airplane pilot Lee Manelski, 46, of Santa Paula, and student David Tomlinson, 18, of Thousand Oaks were killed when their single-engine aerobatic plane crashed to the ground after the collision.

Noel Blanc, 52, son of famed cartoon voice actor Mel Blanc, was piloting the helicopter in which Douglas was riding. He remained in the intensive care unit at Santa Paula Memorial Hospital, according to nurse Sue Finley. Blanc, who also is a voice actor, suffered a broken leg, five broken ribs, a bruised kidney and a punctured lung in the collision.

“He’s very stable and improving,” she said.

A third person in the helicopter suffered minor injuries.