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Kirk and Anne

Letters of Love, Laughter, and a Lifetime in Hollywood

Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
The late film icon and screen legend Kirk Douglas was married to Anne Buydens for more than six decades. Here they both look back on a lifetime filled with drama both on and off the screen. Sharing priceless correspondence with each other as well as the celebrities and world leaders they called friends, Kirk and Anne is a candid portrayal of the pleasures and pitfalls of a Hollywood life lived in the public eye.
Compiled from Anne's private archive of letters and photographs, this is an intimate glimpse into the Douglases' courtship and marriage set against the backdrop of Kirk's screen triumphs, including The Vikings, Lust For Life, Paths of Glory, and Spartacus. The letters themselves, as well as Kirk and Anne's vivid descriptions of their experiences, reveal remarkable insight and anecdotes about the legendary figures they knew so well, including Lauren Bacall, Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne, the Kennedys, and the Reagans. Filled with photos from film sets, private moments, and public events, Kirk and Anne details the adventurous, oftentimes comic, and poignant reality behind the glamour of a Hollywood marriage.
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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Entertainment icon Kirk Douglas, now 100, and his wife, Anne, have been married for 63 years. Here, they share stories of their evolving relationship through personal correspondence between themselves and with others. Thankfully, the couple provides pithy contextual remarks for many of the letters. Kirk's actor son Michael's two grown children voice the work, a first-time narration for both. They are enthusiastic, sincere, and precise in their deliveries. However, word emphasis is often provided in the wrong place in many sentences and phrases, hindering clear understanding. The greatest distractions, easily prevented by closer production quality control, are the mispronunciations, such as the surname of the Zanuck family of Twentieth Century Fox, as well as every Yiddish expression used. Though the narration has flaws, this is a strong written effort. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 17, 2017
      This collection from married couple Kirk, the Oscar-winning Hollywood star, and Anne, president of Kirk’s production company, demonstrates that unique insights can be gleaned from letters. Each chapter emphasizes a time period (“1957: On Location in Arizona, Germany, and Norway”) or subject (“Friends and Family”). The Douglases focus on the intimate letters of their courtship and marriage, but they also share their correspondence with others who touched their lives over the years, including actors, directors, and politicians. As a result, their tender musings are intermingled with letters from every U.S. president from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama and from such Hollywood legends as Tony Curtis and Frank Sinatra. The letters are accompanied by commentary from the couple that reveals their feelings about love, family, friendship, and life in general. Movie aficionados will enjoy the gossip about such stars as Robert Mitchum, Vivien Leigh, and Elizabeth Taylor, and be touched by messages Kirk received while recovering from a stroke in 1996. Now 100 and 97 years old respectively, Kirk and Anne have been married over 60 years—a lifetime of experiences that offers captivating material for this little gem of a book.

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  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

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