page_title: Kirk Douglas
section_title: Honors and awards
hierarchical_section_title: Kirk Douglas / Honors and awards
caption_attribution_description: Postcard photo of the Grauman's Chinese Theatre ceremony for Kirk Douglas. Donald O'Connor and George Jessel look on as Douglas signs his name in the wet concrete.
context_page_description: Kirk Douglas was an American actor, producer, director, philanthropist, and writer. After an impoverished childhood with immigrant parents and six sisters, he made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s, known for serious dramas, including westerns and war films. During his career, he appeared in more than 90 films. Douglas was known for his explosive acting style, which he displayed as a criminal defense attorney in Town Without Pity.
  Douglas became an international star through positive reception for his leading role as an unscrupulous boxing hero in Champion, which brought him his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. His other early films include Young Man with a Horn, playing opposite Lauren Bacall and Doris Day, Ace in the Hole opposite Jan Sterling, and Detective Story, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actor in a Drama.
context_section_description: Douglas has been honored by governments and organizations of various countries, including France, Italy, Portugal, Israel, and Germany.
  In 1957, he won the Best Actor award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival for The Vikings.
  In 1958 He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from St. Lawrence University.
  In 1981, Douglas received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Jimmy Carter.
  In 1984, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
  In 1990, he received the French Legion of Honor for distinguished services to France in arts and letters.
  In 1991, he received the AFI Life Achievement Award.
  In 1994, Douglas's accomplishments in the performing arts were celebrated in Washington, D.C., where he was among the recipients of the annual Kennedy Center Honors.
  In 1998, he received the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.
  In 2002, he received the National Medal of Arts award from President Bush.
  In October 2004, Kirk Douglas Way, a thoroughfare in Palm Springs, California, was unveiled by the city's International Film Society and Film Festival.
  For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Douglas has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6263 Hollywood Blvd. He is one of the few personalities (along with James Stewart, Gregory Peck, and Gene Autry) whose star has been stolen and later replaced.
  AFI Life Achievement Award
  1991 Accepted AFI Life Achievement Award
  Kennedy Center Honors
  1994 Honoree
  Academy Awards
  1996 Honorary Award for 50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community
  1956 Lust for Life nominated for Best Actor
  1952 Bad & the Beautiful nominated for Best Actor
  1949 Champion nominated for Best Actor
  Golden Globes
  1986 Amos nominated for Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV
  1968 Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement
  1957 Lust for Life won for Best Actor-Drama
  1952 Detective Story nominated for Best Actor-Drama
  Emmy Awards
  2002 Touched by an Angel nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
  1992 Tales from the Crypt nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
  1986 Amos nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special
  Screen Actors Guild Awards
  1999 Lifetime Achievement Award
  BAFTA Awards
  1963 Lonely Are the Brave nominated for Best Foreign Actor
  Britannia Awards
  2009 BAFTA/LA award for Worldwide Contribution To Filmed Entertainment
  Berlin International Film Festival
  2001 Honorary Golden Bear
  1975 Posse nominated for Competing Film
  Cesar Awards
  1980 Honorary Cesar
  Hollywood Film Festival
  1997 Lifetime Achievement Award
  National Board of Review
  1988 Career Achievement Award
  New York Film Critics Circle Award
  1956 Lust for Life won for Best Actor
  1951 Detective Story nominated for Best Actor
  In 1983, Douglas received the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards. In 1996, Douglas received an Honorary Academy Award for "50 years as a moral and creative force in the motion picture community." The award was presented by producer/director Steven Spielberg.
  As a result of Douglas's stroke the previous summer, however, in which he lost most of his speaking ability, his close friends and family were concerned about whether he should try to speak, or what he should say. Both his son, Michael, and his long-time friend, Jack Valenti, urged him to only say "Thank you", and leave the stage. Douglas agreed. But when standing in front of the audience, he had second thoughts: "I intended to just say 'thank you,' but I saw 1,000 people, and felt I had to say something more, and I did." Valenti remembers that after Douglas held up the Oscar, addressed his sons, and told his wife how much he loved her, everyone was astonished at his voice's improvement:
  The audience went wild with applause [and] erupted in affection ... rising to their feet to salute this last of the great movie legends, who had survived the threat of death and stared
caption: Signing his name at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on November 1, 1962
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