Kirk Douglas
Douglas in 2007, photo by s_bukley/Bigstock.com
Birth Name: Isadore Danielovitch/Danilovich
Date of Birth: December 9, 1916
Place of Birth: Amsterdam, New York, U.S.
Date of Death: February 5, 2020
Place of Death: Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish
Kirk Douglas was an American actor, producer, director, philanthropist, and author. An A list star beginning in the 1950s, he was known for his explosive acting. His roles included the films The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Out of the Past, Champion (1949), Young Man with a Horn, Ace in the Hole, Detective Story, The Bad and the Beautiful, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Lust for Life, Paths of Glory, Spartacus (1960), Lonely Are the Brave, Seven Days in May, Scalawag, Posse (1975), the latter two of which he also directed; Jacqueline Susann’s Once Is Not Enough, The Chosen (1977), The Fury (1978), Saturn 3, The Man from Snowy River, Tough Guys, and It Runs in the Family, the made-for-tv movie Inherit the Wind (1988), and the show Touched by an Angel. He wrote ten books, both novels and memoirs. He helped break the Hollywood blacklist by assisting Dalton Trumbo in receiving a writing credit for Spartacus.
Kirk was born in Amsterdam, a small town, in upstate New York, as Isadore Danielovitch/Danilovich. Kirk was the son of Bryna “Bertha” (Sanglel/Singlair) and Harry Demsky (born Girsh/Herschel Danilovich/Danielovitch), who were Belarusian Jews. His father was born in Chavusy/Chausy, Mogilev, eastern Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire, and was involved in street-level criminal enterprises with his siblings. In the U.S., his family took on the surname Demsky, and he changed his name initially to Isadore Demsky/Izzy Demsky. Kirk established production company Bryna Productions, after his mother.
Kirk was married to philanthropist and producer Anne Buydens (born Hannelore Marx), until his death. He had four children: two, actor Michael Douglas and film producer Joel Douglas, with his former wife, actress Diana Dill; and two, television and film producer Peter Douglas and actor and stand-up comedian Eric Douglas, with Anne. Among his grandchildren are actor Cameron Douglas and podcaster Dylan Douglas. Anne Buydens was born in Hanover, Weimar Republic and was partly raised in Switzerland. Her own father was Jewish. She later formally converted to Judaism.
Kirk had a religious Jewish upbringing, and then became secular as he entered his adult life. In the 1990s, he rediscovered religion, and became a practicing Jew.
Kirk’s paternal grandfather was named Isor/Iser Girsch Danilovich/Danilovitch (the son of Girsh/Girsch-Itsko Danilovich/Danilevich). Isor was born in Chavusy, Mogilev, Belarus. Girsh was born in Bobruisk, Minsk, Belarus, the son of Dovid Daniel Danilevich and Fanya Mendelsohn, who was evidently from Biržai, Lithuania.
Kirk’s paternal grandmother was named Brayna-Chana bat Sholom-Itsko (the daughter of Sholom-Itsko). Brayna-Chana was born in Chavusy, Mogilev, Belarus.
Kirk’s maternal grandfather was named Shalom Yitzhok Sanglel.
A DNA test whose results were displayed on the show Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2024) stated that Kirk’s son Michael’s genetic ancestry is:
*38.8% British & Irish
*37.1% Ashkenazi Jewish
*10.3% Eastern European
*6.5% French & German
*4.8% Broadly Northwest European
*2.1% Sardinian
*0.4% Broadly European
Genealogies of Kirk Douglas – https://www.geni.com
https://www.findagrave.com
Kirk Douglas (then Isadore Demsky) on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
https://www.geni.com/people/Bryna-Demsky/6000000007370213094
According to Geni, Bryna (Sanglel) Demsky’s father was named Shalom Yitzhok Sanglel. This would be Kirk Douglas’s maternal grandfather.
https://www.geni.com/people/Shalom-Sanglel/6000000122017988821
Also according to FamilySearch
I can’t find anything about this maternal grandmother, she is simply named “Sanglel” in Family Search.
*about his
If his son’s DNA test is accurate that makes him around 70% Ashkenazi and 20% Eastern European. So one of Kirk’s grandparents was a non-Jew? Some Ashkenazi Jews have some degree of Eastern European descent from female converts going way back (between 5% to 15%) maybe the results are reflecting that? His family came from a ghetto in the Pale Settlement, intermixing between Jews and non-Jews would have been highly unlikely so that’s weird.
Correction.
Michael’s admixture results were surprising. Michael’s results suggests that Kirk was only 75% AJ, as a perfect spilt would equate to 37.5% and Michael scored 37.1%. Mathematically it’s fairly conclusive Kirk was not 100% Jewish. Maybe the Eastern European could be attributed to some unknown population of Jewish origin, but non-specificity throws Kirk’s background into question.
I think Kirk’s profile should be changed to:
Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish, possibly other.
I think the DNA test which I put up when the show aired is enough, until there’s more information. The show itself didn’t hint at anything being unusual.
The 2.1% Sardinian result is very curious. That’s the highest Sardinian result for ”anyone” who’s listed on this site, and it probably didn’t come from Michael Douglas’s mother, since I don’t see anyone else of British Isles/Northwestern European descent hitting “Sardinian.” It perhaps puts Kirk Douglas at 4.2% “Sardinian” DNA.
People who also get “Sardinian” matches seem to either have Ashkenazi Jewish, like Julianna Margulies and George R. R. Martin, who tested a very small amount of “Sardinian;” or Italian/Spanish, ancestry.
They probably used the same DNA test type they used on Tracy Morgan, on the same season; who got 5% Ashkenazi Jewish (which translates to about 80%) and 1% Sardinian from his Jewish great-great-grandfather.
https://ethnicelebs.com/tracy-morgan
Years ago, when I first received my 23andme results, they also gave me a smidgen of Sardinian, it eventually was stricken. In fact, I had several results that were eventually lost and/or attributed to other regions. Idk if Dr. Gates has the time to really let results to settle/update, as it takes an additional several weeks, if not months to become more accurate, or if he’s even aware. I once directly emailed him about the admixture updates, or possibly his TA because it was his university email, but they never acknowledged my correspondence.
Besides this blathering though, there’s obviously cause for a remark on the profile. That 37.1% is very telling.
My point is, there must be a reason why Kirk Douglas would’ve scored the highest Sardinian result of the hundreds of DNA tests on this site. It seems like a tell that they’re doing something with this test they’re not doing with some of the others. I doubt that Kirk was 1/16th(?) Italian, for one.
If Michael was between 1/32 to 1/64, yes it would stand to reason Kirk would be 1/16 to 1/32.
Honestly though, it probably would disappear over time and it was just misidentified.
If not, maybe the cause is that they’re relying more on AncestryDNA over 23andme, or FtDNA. Last time I checked they were trying to average out between the separate companies’ results. But maybe they’ve abandoned the average and started relying on one over the others. Not sure why they would though. Or maybe, they started using a different service. But it’s probably not that, because Lena Dunham scored a very clear and distinct 50% AJ result, and she was profiled the same time Michael was profiled.
Or maybe it boils down to deadlines have to be met and they just accept the immediate results. Too bad there isn’t a publicly accessible database of these tests of celebrities, to see updates to the estimations.
I’d say the most likely explanations are mistaken identification, or maybe Kirk really did have a recent admixture event. The nondistinct East European admixture says to me Kirk wasn’t 100%. So the additional Sardinian markers makes sense, if one of Kirk’s parents were mixed.
Ethnic, is there any picture of Douglas when he was young/younger, please?
He died on 5th February 2020.