Douglas to make stops in Vegas

Friday, Feb. 8, 2002 | 9:25 a.m.

When: Noon Saturday.

Where: MGM Grand lobby.

Admission: Free.

Information: 891-7942.

What: Kirk Douglas book signing.

When: 4 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Borders Books & Music, Henderson.

Admission: Free.

Information: 433-6222.

Kirk Douglas has been in 83 movies during a career that has spanned 56 years. He has made epics, such as "Spartacus" (1960); westerns, such as "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" (1957); and a classic anti-war movie, "Paths of Glory" (1957).

But despite those legendary films, Douglas says his favorite is "Lonely Are the Brave," a 1962 movie that is a deceptively simple tale about a cowboy on horseback coming to grips with a world foreign to him the modern age of cars and planes and changing morals.

"It's beginning to get a cult following," Douglas said during a recent telephone interview from his office in Los Angeles.

The 85-year-old actor/author will be in Las Vegas and Henderson Saturday to sign copies of his eighth book, "My Stroke of Luck" (William Morrow Publishers, January; $22.95). Signings will take place in the lobby of the MGM Grand at noon and at Borders Books & Music in Henderson at 4 p.m.

It seems somehow appropriate that Douglas' favorite of all his work is about a man out of his element a story that he began to live when he was felled by a stroke in 1995.

Suddenly, one of the most physically active men in filmdom had to struggle to move and to communicate.

"When I had my stroke, it was such a unique experience," said Douglas, whose much-imitated voice is still easily recognizable though he seems to struggle to get his words out.

He said "My Stroke of Luck" is a lesson in survival.

"It's not just for people with stroke," Douglas said. "It's something to help you live your life, to realize how important a sense of humor is and to see that you must be less selfish.

"I was narcissistic all my life. In 83 movies I was playing other characters. I only stopped to think when I wrote my first book ('The Ragman's Son,' 1989)."

Since his stroke Douglas says he has had time to think even more, and he is eager to see how people react to the thoughts he has put into latest book.

"Writing it has given me so much as a person," Douglas said. "For one thing it has taught me how to deal with depression. Depression is the most awful thing to deal with. Everybody goes through depression. I have found that when you are depressed, you are thinking too much about yourself. Starting to think of other people helps bring you out of it."

Douglas said he even contemplated suicide at one point, because he thought his situation was hopeless.

"What good is an actor who can't speak?" he said. "What can I do? Wait for silent pictures to come back?"

Douglas says his family was key to his overcoming depression and coming to grips with the effects of his stroke.

"A man is lucky if he has the right people around him," he said. "My wife was very supportive of me. She didn't baby me. She used tough love.

"Also, my sons were very helpful. Michael was the one who made me talk in public for the first time."

Actor/producer/director Michael Douglas was with his father at the Academy Awards presentation in 1996, a few months after the elder Douglas suffered his stroke. The Academy presented Kirk Douglas with an honorary Oscar.

"I wanted Michael to receive it for me, but he said no way," Douglas recalled. "He forced me to do it. That was a very important moment for me. When I spoke to the public for the first time since the stroke and they understood me, it was such a shot in the arm. It gave me so much more confidence."

Douglas said in late March he will begin shooting a film that will star three generations of the Douglas famiy -- including his son Michael and Michael's 23-year-old son, Cameron.

The film, to be shot in New York City, marks the first time Kirk and Michael Douglas have co-starred.

"It's a family picture, with a lot of comedy," Douglas said. "They're still working on the script. They haven't come up with a title. I play Michael's father."

The premise of the story is the reconciliation of a dysfunctional family. Douglas says he is too busy with the movie to think about writing books.

"I think this probably may be my last one," he said. "Who knows?

"I don't think of myself as a writer. I think of myself as an actor and I'm really playing a role."