Anne Douglas, philanthropist and widow of late actor Kirk Douglas, dies at 102

Anne Douglas — the widow of Kirk Douglas, stepmother of Michael Douglas and major supporter of arts in L.A. — died Thursday at her home in Beverly Hills at age 102.

Douglas’ death was confirmed by spokeswoman Marcia Newberger. No cause of death was given.

Douglas served on the board of Center Theatre Group, the city’s largest nonprofit theater company, which will dim the lights of its Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City at 8 p.m. Saturday in her honor. Douglas and her husband made the initial $2.5-million contribution to convert a 1940s movie theater into a 317-seat venue for live performance. The theater opened in 2004.

The dimming of the lights is a small recognition of a woman “whose spirit will live on in all the lives she touched,” Michael Ritchie, the theater’s artistic director, said in the announcement. “When we are safely able to welcome audiences back into the Kirk Douglas Theatre, we will all be giving a standing ovation to both Kirk and Anne Douglas, whose legacies will carry on forever through our work on that special stage.”

The company said the Douglases had provided “sizable” financial support over the years, including a $10-million grant in 2012.

Anne Buydens married Kirk Douglas in 1954 after they met in Paris while he was filming “Act of Love” and she was doing publicity. They had two sons, Peter, a producer, and Eric, an actor. In 2017 the couple published “Kirk and Anne: Letters of Love, Laughter, and a Lifetime in Hollywood.”

“I often wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn’t married Anne,” Kirk Douglas once said. “I might not have survived without her business acumen and her finely honed instincts.” The Hollywood legend, star of “Spartacus” and “Lust for Life,” died in February 2020 at 103.

The Douglas Foundation, which Anne and her husband co-founded, has donated millions to a range of institutions, from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to the Motion Picture & Television Fund.

Michael Douglas said his stepmother “will always be in our hearts.”

“She brought out the best in all of us, especially our father. Dad would never have had the career he did without Anne’s support and partnership,” the actor said in a statement.

Born Hannelore Marx in Hanover, Germany, she was sent to Belgium as Hitler rose to power and then fled again when the Nazis bombed Brussels.

After the war, she became involved in the booming film industry in Paris, and filmmaker John Huston, among others, sought her out to work as an assistant. She served as a location manager during the filming of “Moulin Rouge.” She later married Albert Buydens.

Once in Los Angeles, she worked with Dorothy Chandler during the construction of the Los Angeles Music Center, leaning on moguls and movies stars — including her husband — to contribute to the project.

Inspired by a Los Angeles Times report on the unsafe school playgrounds in the Los Angeles Unified School District, she persuaded her husband to launch the Kirk and Anne Douglas Playground Award program, which helped fund improvements to play spaces at more than 400 schools.

Kirk Douglas’ first wife and Michael’s mother, Diana Douglas, died in 2015. Anne Douglas is survived by children Peter and Joel; seven grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and a sister, Merle Werbke. She was predeceased by her son Eric.

A Los Angeles Times staff writer contributed to this report.