It’s been one year since the Academy Award-winning actor Kirk Douglas passed away at the age of 103. To mark the occasion, Kirk’s son Michael Douglas took to Instagram to pay tribute to him.
“Can’t believe it’s been a year since you left us,” Michael, 76, wrote in the caption alongside a photo of himself and his father. “At 103, you picked a good time to check out. I love you with all my heart! #KirkDouglas.”
Michael’s wife, Hollywood star Catherine Zeta-Jones, commented on the photo, saying, “Love you Pappy🙏🏻😘.”
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In May of last year, Michael opened up about his father in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
“There wasn’t anyone like him. There’s another generation, that was the great generation, post-World War II…and Dad was one of kind,” Michael said of Kirk. “I think he’s very happy. I know he takes particular pride — not so much in whatever I worked with and I’m doing with the Motion Picture Television Fund — but I know he loves Catherine [and] the work that she’s doing.”
“He always used to tease me. We would call him up and he would be like, ‘Enough with you, let me talk to your wife,'” he added. “He was a flirt until the very end.”
“Oh yes, he’s a great flirt,” Catherine chimed in to say. “He crosses our minds every day. But for me, during this time of, ‘OK, we are all locked down, what do you do?’ It’s so easy to go into a procrastination vibe. And Kirk, he went through so much from a helicopter crash to a stroke and then just age, being alone and what does he do with this time.”
Back in December, Michael celebrated what would have been Kirk’s 104th birthday by posting a clip that showed a montage of photos of the father and son duo from across the decades. The montage included a voice over from Michael revealing the best advice he ever got from his father.
“The best advice my father gave me was, ‘Whatever you do, you do it to the best of your ability. You leave that job knowing that you couldn’t have done any more, and then walk away, you’ve done the best. Don’t look back,'” he said.
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