Enduring silver screen legend Kirk Douglas, who rose out of grinding childhood poverty to become Hollywood royalty, has died at age 103. 

Born Issur Danielovitch in New York to illiterate Russian-Jewish parents, Douglas started out in radio and theatre before eventually transitioning into movies, his film career starting in 1946 with The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. 

Over the decades that followed he would establish himself as one of Hollywood's most famous leading men with roles in such iconic films as Spartacus, Champion, Seven Days In May, and  Lust for Life. 

He often attributed his success to a childhood where he had to fight for everything. In a 2017 interview with the Wall Street Journal, he recalled his upbringing as follows:

"Our house was a rundown, two-story gray clapboard next to the factories, the railroad tracks and the river. It didn’t have heating. Before the winter, my father and I would take dried manure from his horse, Bill, and spread it around the foundation for insulation. It didn’t help. By the time the family was complete—six girls and me, fourth in line—I slept on a shabby living-room sofa. The girls were in two bedrooms, and my parents in another."

Although frequently cast as a tough guy onscreen, the actor's son Michael Douglas suggested there was another side to the actor. In a Facebook post announcing his death, Michael Douglas wrote:

"To the world he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to. But to me and my brothers Joel and Peter he was simply Dad, to Catherine, a wonderful father-in-law, to his grandchildren and great grandchild their loving grandfather, and to his wife Anne, a wonderful husband."

After suffering a stroke that left him unable to speak in 1994, Douglas turned to writing to help him overcome the feeling that his life as an actor was over. A 2002 book My Stroke of Luck detailed his battle, Douglas noting that he hoped it would help others facing similar challenges. 

Douglas is survived by his wife Anne, children Michael, Joel, and Peter, and seven grandchildren.