Who are Anne Douglas' children? Tragic story of Kirk Douglas' widow and lives of sons Eric and Peter
Kirk Douglas's wife Anne Douglas, born Anne Buydens on April 23, 1919, died on April 29 at the age of 102 in her Beverly Hills home. Her obituary was provided by spokeswoman Marcia Newberger but it didn't have the details about the cause of her death.
Anne's death comes a little over a year after her husband Kirk's death on February 5, 2020. The Hollywood legend had starred in 'Spartacus', 'Lust for Life' and dozens of other films. The couple got married in 1954 after meeting for the first time in Paris.
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Kirk and Anne Douglas' children
When the couple first met, Kirk was filming 'Act of Love' at the time and Anne was handling the publicity for the movie. The couple later had two sons — Peter, a film and television producer; and Eric, an actor and standup comedian. Unfortunately, Eric died in July 2006 after a possible drug overdose.
Peter Vincent Douglas was born to the couple on November 23, 1955. Some of his producing and acting credits include 'Fletch', 'Whip It' and 'A Tiger's Tale'. He married Lisa Marie Schoeder on June 15, 1991. They have four children — Kelsey, Tyler, Ryan and Jason Douglas.
Eric Anthony Douglas was born on June 21, 1958. In multiple interviews, he had spoken about his lonely childhood in Los Angeles. "You end up one kid, one housekeeper and one dog living next to another kid with one housekeeper and one dog," the Douglas' late son once said. Throughout his life, Eric had multiple run-ins with the law and had issues with alcohol and drugs.
Eric was arrested multiple times — once for kicking a police officer, another time for cocaine possession. He was also arrested for driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and once again when he tried to kiss a young girl. His career in showbiz fizzled out unlike Peter's and his extremely popular half-brother, Oscar-winner and Catherine Zeta Jones' husband Michael Douglas. "The pressures of being the youngest son in a famous family sometimes got to me," Eric had said in another interview.
Five years before he was found dead in his Manhattan apartment, Eric had another death scare due to overdosing on pills. "I had a pretty big scare," he said. "I had an overdose of pills that caused a shortage of oxygen to my brain. We kept it very quiet. It was not intentional. It was accidental." Eric added, "I was in LA sitting around my breakfast table with my dad and I choked on a piece of sausage. But because the pills had taken effect, I was not able to dislodge the sausage from my throat." He was then taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he slipped into a coma only to gain consciousness eight days later.
Throughout the years, Anne was Kirk's pillar of strength. As Kirk once said about his wife, "I often wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn't married Anne. I might not have survived without her business acumen and her finely-honed instincts. She saved me from financial ruin when she persisted in her distrust of my long-time lawyer and surrogate father, who indeed stole the fortune he told me I had. She saved my life when she refused to let me fly to New York on Mike Todd's plane which crashed, killing everyone aboard. She gave me tough love when I had my stroke and thought I would never speak or work again. Anne is selfless, compassionate and loyal to a fault. She also has a wicked sense of humor and can make me laugh in English, French and German."
Anne Douglas was a philanthropist
Anne and Kirk Douglas co-founded the Cedars-Sinai Research for Women’s Cancers. She and her husband also led a massive campaign to refurbish playgrounds at Los Angeles Unified School District campuses, renovating more than 400 playgrounds. She also founded the Anne Douglas Center for Women at the Los Angeles Mission downtown and the Douglas Foundation has contributed at least $118M to a variety of causes, including the Motion Picture and Television Home’s Alzheimer’s and dementia unit, Sinai Temple’s Kirk and Anne Douglas Childhood Center and St Lawrence University’s Kirk Douglas scholarships for minority students.
Anne also was a key player in the fundraising drive that supported the construction of the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles and the family foundation funded the construction of the Center Theater Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, just east of the Sony Pictures Studios lot, according to Deadline.