Anne Buydens
Anne Buydens | |
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File:Ann Buydens 2000.jpg
Buydens in 2000
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Born | Hannelore Marx 23 April 1919 Hanover, Hanover, Prussia, Germany |
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
Other names | Anne Douglas |
Occupation |
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Years active | 1952–2013 |
Spouse(s) | Albert Buydens (m. 2024) Kirk Douglas (m. 1954; d. 2020) |
Children | Peter Douglas Eric Douglas |
Awards | Jefferson Award (2003) |
Anne Buydens or Anne Douglas (born Hannelore Marx;[1] 23 April 1919 – 29 April 2021) was a German-born American philanthropist and film producer. She was the wife of actor Kirk Douglas from 1954 until his death in 2020. She received a Jefferson Award for Public Service in 2003.
Contents
Early life
Born Hannelore Marx in Hanover, Hanover, Prussia, Germany, on 23 April 1919,[2] she was the daughter of a textile merchant who imported silk for making parachutes; her mother was a socialite.[3] After her parents were divorced, she was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland, where she learned English, French, and Italian.[3]:{{{3}}} She later studied in Brussels but fled the bombed city for Paris during World War II.[4]:{{{3}}} As her German identity was a problem, she became a Belgian citizen by marrying a Belgian, Albert Buydens.[4][3]:{{{3}}}
Career
When the Nazis in Paris insisted that films be shown with German subtitles, her language skills allowed her to find a job adding subtitles for a French film distributor.[4] In 1948, she was hired to produce an NBC program, Paris Cavalcade of Fashion.[3] She also worked as a location scout on the 1952 production of Moulin Rouge for John Huston.[3]:{{{3}}} From 1953, she scheduled celebrity parties at the Cannes Film Festival.[3]
When Buydens met Kirk Douglas in Paris in 1953,[5] he was divorced from his first wife, Diana Dill, with whom he had two sons, Michael and Joel.[6] They worked on the film Act of Love, directed by Anatole Litvak, he as an actor and she as a publicist.[7] He offered her a job as his publicist, which she first refused, but eventually accepted, described by him later: "She finally agreed to work with me on a trial basis, making it clear our relationship would be strictly business".[3]
Personal life
Buydens and Douglas married in Las Vegas on 29 May 1954.[4] The couple had two sons, Peter (born 23 November 1955) and Eric (21 June 1958 – 6 July 2004), who both went into the film business.[6][7][8] Douglas credits Buydens for saving his life in 1958 when she had insisted that he not travel via private plane with director Mike Todd; the plane crashed the next day, killing all four people aboard.[3]:{{{3}}}
Buydens became a United States citizen in 1959.[1] She converted to Judaism when she renewed her wedding vows with Douglas on their 50th wedding anniversary in 2004.[9][10]
In 2017, they co-wrote a memoir, Kirk and Anne: Letters of Love, Laughter, and a Lifetime in Hollywood, including letters they had exchanged.[7] She and her husband both became centenarians; he died on 5 February 2020.[6]
Buydens died on 29 April 2021, six days after her 102nd birthday, at their longtime Beverly Hills home.[3]
In a statement released by the family, her stepson Michael Douglas paid her tribute: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
Anne was more than a stepmother, and never "wicked." She brought out the best in all of us, especially our father. Dad would never have had the career he did without Anne's support and partnership.[11]
Philanthropy
One of Buydens' first forays into philanthropy came on the heels of recovering from breast cancer: With six fellow survivors, Buydens established the "Research for Women's Cancers" charity, which raised millions of dollars to help finance a research facility at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.[12]
The two started the Douglas Foundation in 1964, which has since donated roughly 118 million USD to institutions such as the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF).[7][13] They were also behind the establishment of Harry's Haven, an Alzheimer's disease unit named after Douglas's father at the MPTF Home in Woodland Hills.[14]
The couple was known for their efforts to rebuild playgrounds in the Los Angeles Unified School District, attending opening ceremonies in person.[11] In recognition of her compassion toward homeless women, the Anne Douglas Center for Women was named after her.[15]
Awards
Buydens was inducted into the International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame List in 1970.[16][17]
In recognition of her philanthropic deeds as a private citizen, Buydens received a Jefferson Award for Public Service in 2003.[18] Buydens and Douglas are the only married couple to have each received an individual Jefferson Award; Douglas was awarded in 1983.[18]:{{{3}}}
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Birth name per naturalization petition (1959), ancestry.com; accessed 19 July 2016. (subscription required) Archived 9 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "The Centennial Couple – Kirk Douglas is 102 and his Wife Anne Just Turned 100!" Archived 23 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine by Nancy Bilyeau, The Vintage News, 23 April 2019
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External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
Kirk Douglas family tree |
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- 1919 births
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