Claim: Kirk Douglas is a person who acts.

Spartacus is a 1960 American epic historical drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick . The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo was based on the novel Spartacus by Howard Fast . It was inspired by the life story of the leader of a slave revolt in antiquity , Spartacus , and the events of the Third Servile War .   The film starred Kirk Douglas as Spartacus , Laurence Olivier as the Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus , Peter Ustinov , who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor , as slave trader Lentulus Batiatus , John Gavin as Julius Caesar , Jean Simmons as Varinia , Charles Laughton as Sempronius Gracchus and Tony Curtis as Antoninus . The film won four Academy Awards in all .   Douglas , whose Bryna Productions company was producing the film , removed original director Anthony Mann after the first week of shooting . Kubrick , with whom Douglas had worked before , was brought on board to take over direction . It is the only film directed by Kubrick where he did not have complete artistic control .   Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was blacklisted at the time as one of the Hollywood Ten . Douglas publicly announced that Trumbo was the screenwriter of Spartacus , and President-elect John F. Kennedy crossed American Legion picket lines to view the film , helping to end blacklisting . The author of the novel on which it is based , Howard Fast , was also blacklisted , and originally had to self-publish it .   The film became the biggest moneymaker in Universal Studios ' history , until it was surpassed by Airport -LRB- 1970 -RRB- .