Anne Buydens

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Anne Buydens (2000)

Anne Buydens , real name Anne Douglas (born Hannelore Marx ; born April 23, 1919 in Hanover , † April 29, 2021 in Los Angeles , California ), was an American actress and film producer . She was married to actor Kirk Douglas from 1954 .

Live and act

youth

As a teenager, Anne Buydens emigrated to Belgium with her family and took on Belgian citizenship. After her parents divorced, she attended boarding school in Switzerland , where she learned English, French and Italian. During the Second World War , she fled to Paris with her husband, the Belgian Albert Buydens , where she translated film dialogues and wrote subtitles.

Marriage to Kirk Douglas

Anne Buydens and Kirk Douglas, 2003

In the early 1950s, Buydens worked as a public relations manager in the film industry, for example for John Huston in the production of the film Moulin Rouge and from 1953 as head of protocol at the Cannes Film Festival . While working on the production of the film An Act of Love, she met Kirk Douglas, who was an actor in the film. Douglas, who had been divorced from his first wife Diana Dill (1923–2015) since 1951 , hired Anne Buydens as an assistant.

Buydens and Douglas were married on May 29, 1954 in Las Vegas , Nevada . This made Anne Buydens the stepmother of Michael and Joel , the two sons from Kirk Douglas' first marriage. Their first son, Peter, was born on November 23, 1955. Their second son Eric was born on June 21, 1958 and died on July 6, 2004. She became an American citizen in 1959.

When Anne Buydens and Kirk Douglas renewed their vows in 2004 on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary, Anne converted to the Jewish faith for the sake of her husband . She died in Los Angeles in April 2021, fourteen months after her husband, at the age of 102.

Actress and producer work

From 1955 Buydens worked as President of Bryna Productions , her husband's production company. Between 1958 and 2013 she worked as an actress in various television series and documentaries. In 1973 she produced the film Scalawag with Kirk Douglas as director and leading actor, two years later the film Men of the Law . Her last job as a producer was the documentary Kirk Douglas: Before I Forget in 2009 .

social commitment

Anne Buydens' social commitment began after she survived breast cancer. She founded Research for Women's Cancers with six other survivors and raised several million dollars to fund a research facility at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center , a non-profit hospital in Los Angeles .

Together with her husband, she founded Harry's Haven , the Alzheimer's division of the Motion Picture & Television Fund , named after Kirk Douglas' father , a fund that cares for needy members of the film industry.

The couple also worked to rebuild playgrounds in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The effort began when Anne read in the newspaper that the district's schoolyards were so shabby that the children were being kept indoors. In Israel, the couple financed three playgrounds and a park with the aim of allowing Jewish and Arab children to play together.

In 1992 the Anne Douglas Center for Women with 30 beds was opened to provide long-term care and recovery for homeless women who are in distress due to depression, substance abuse and family problems.

“If I had but one wish, I think becoming a recognized patron of homeless men and women would be it. I hope together we will be able to alleviate their plight entirely. "

“If I had just one wish, I would be a recognized patroness of homeless men and women. I hope that together we can completely alleviate their plight. "

- Anne Douglas : Anne Douglas Center for Women

literature

  • Kirk Douglas, Anne Douglas: Kirk and Anne: Letters of Love, Laughter, and a Lifetime in Hollywood (Turner Classic Movies) . Running Press Adult, 2017, ISBN 978-0-7624-6217-9 (English).

Web links

Commons : Anne Buydens  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Julius Young: Kirk Douglas' widow Anne Buydens dead at 102. In: Fox News. April 30, 2021, accessed April 30, 2021 .
  2. ↑ a b Birth name per naturalization petition (1959). In: ancestry.com. Retrieved July 19, 2016 . (Registration required)
  3. ^ A b Anne Douglas, Philanthropist and Widow of Kirk Douglas, Dies at 102 , obituary in the Hollywood Reporter by Mike Barnes, April 29, 2021, accessed May 1, 2021
  4. ↑ a b c Anne Douglas. Accessed January 1, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Glenys Roberts: Spartacus's Lost Son. In: Daily Mail. April 25, 2007, accessed January 1, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Susan King: Classic Hollywood: Kirk and Anne Douglas' lifetime of love is captured in their letters. April 29, 2017, accessed January 1, 2020 .
  7. ↑ A century of life . In: Jüdische Allgemeine . December 10, 2019, accessed January 1, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Anne Douglas. Accessed January 1, 2020 .
  9. ^ Anne Douglas Center for Women. In: losangelesmission.org. Accessed January 1, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Buydens, Anne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Douglas, Anne (real name); Marx, Hannelore (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film actress and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH Los Angeles , California