Brenda Vaccaro (right) with Douglas
and Deborah Raffin in a scene from
Jacqueline Susann’s Once Is Not Enough.Bruce Dern
(in jean jacket)
on the set
of Posse with
Douglas,
who directed
much of the
Western in his
boxer shorts.Brenda Vaccaro
Once Is Not Enough (1975)Bruce Dern Posse (1975)
‘He Knew How
to Play a Hero’
I
remember when I was very young, I went
to opening night of Ken Kesey’s One
Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on Broadway
[in 1963], way before the [1975] movie. Kirk
Douglas played the lead. He played that char-
acter before Jack Nicholson, before anybody,
and he was magnificent because he knew all
about heroes. He knew how to play a hero.
I got to know him when I was [living]
with Michael. This was in the 1970s, in San
Francisco. We were together for about seven
years. And Kirk was very attentive, always
smiling, always had a sense of humor. If I
said something that made him laugh, he’d
point a finger at me — “funny.” I know a lot of
people thought he was difficult, but I found
him incredibly gentle and supporting and
loving. He treated me like a daughter-in-law.
He couldn’t get Michael and me married —
Michael was a hippie, and it was not cool to get
married in those days. But he would come up
to me and say, “Tell me you’re trying, just tell
me you’re trying.” He wanted us to have a baby.
I learned a lot from him. I remember he
taught me how to walk onto the set in the
morning. He said I should walk on the set so
that everybody was interested in what might
be wrong with me that day. And he got me into
the Academy. In those days, you had to have
two actors to support your nomination, so he
got his pal Gregory Peck to join him in nomi-
nating me. What more could you need?
It didn’t surprise me that he lived as long
as he did because he grabbed life with such
tenacity and love and strength. When you
stood next to Kirk Douglas in a film, or at a
party, I don’t care where the hell you were, you
stood with admiration and respect. He was
just so courageous. — AS TOLD TO B.S.I
t was 1974, late
September and October
and into November. We
shot Posse in Tucson, Arizona,
about 12 miles from the city.
It looked like the Old West
— or the surface of the moon —
whatever you wanted it to be. I
never sat down with Kirk [who
directed and co-starred] before
I did the movie, never met him.
But he was so courteous to me
and so intrigued by the kinds of
movies I’d been doing because
he came out of the studio sys-
tem. And what I was doing were
the first of the independent
movies — The King of Marvin
Gardens and The Cowboys. But
he had done his homework on
me. He knew lines from movies
that I had said.
The day-to-day work on the
film was very easy; he made it
easy. It was only his second time
directing a movie. And I’d never
worked with a director who also
was starring. A couple of times
he got so wrapped up in what
he was doing, he forgot to shoot‘HE COULD SURE FILL UP A DOORWAY’
coverage of himself. He’d do
a master, and then he’d do my
coverage, and then he’d try to
move on to something else and
I’d have to remind him that he
hadn’t done coverage of himself.
He was like, “Oh shit, I always
forget that.” Also, it got real hot
in the desert, even in September
and October. It would get up to
100 degrees. And every day in
the hot sun he would strip out of
his costume down to his boxer
shorts. That’s how he directed
me, wearing his boxers and
cowboy boots.
He was a gambler. He could
be extremely competitive. Every
day I’d come to work and we’d
have some kind of bet. He liked
them because they were kind
of curious bets. For example,I’d get on the set and I’d say,
“OK, here’s the bet: How many
setups are you going to do
today?” He’d be like, “I don’t
know, maybe 17.” I said, “Take
the over or under.” But he didn’t
know what that meant — I had
to explain it to him. But we’d bet
$100. And he was a good sport
if he lost. He’d just grab my
shoulders and laugh.
Here’s what I can say about
Kirk Douglas. I have always
judged people in life by this
simple credo: If you’re in a room
and they walk in, do they fill
up the doorway? Kirk wasn’t
Gary Cooper. He didn’t have the
height. He wasn’t Robert Shaw
or Robert Mitchum. He didn’t
have that heft. But he could sure
fill up a doorway. — AS TOLD TO B.S.