The screen veteran’s career spanned seven decades that included three Oscar nominations, as well as an honorary Academy Award in 1996 for being “a creative and moral force in the motion picture community”.

Best known for his roles in Spartacus (1960) and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954), Douglas earned his Oscar nominations for Best Actor in Champion (1949), The Bad And The Beautiful (1952), and Lust For Life (1956), but lost out on the trophy each time.

He was born Issur Danielovitch in 1916 in Amsterdam, New York, to Jewish immigrant parents Herschel and Bryna, who had left Chavusy in the Mogilev region of the Russian Empire, which is modern-day Belarus.

The Danielovitch family also had six daughters and lived in poverty with Herschel working as a ragman.

After enlisting in the US Navy in 1941, Issur changed his name to Kirk Douglas and was a communications officer in anti-submarine warfare during the second World War until he was medically discharged because of injuries in 1944.

Douglas had attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City on a special scholarship, where two of his classmates were Diana Dill, who became his first wife in 1943, and Lauren Bacall, who helped to launch his film career.

He and Dill had two sons together - actor Michael Douglas and producer Joel Douglas - before they divorced in 1951.

Douglas later married Anne Buydens in 1954 and they also had two sons together, producer Peter Douglas and actor Eric Douglas, who died in 2004.

He is known for his relationships with a series of famous women, including Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich.

Although he started his acting career in radio, theatre and television, his friendship with Bacall led to him landing his first film role when she recommended him to director Hal Wallis for 1946 film The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers.

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