Cleft-chinned, steely-eyed, and ruggedly handsome, Kirk Douglas is a star of international cinema who rose from being "the ragman's son" (the name give to his best-selling 1988 autobiography) of Russian-Jewish ancestry to become a bona fide superstar. Kirk was born Issur Danielovitch Demsky in Amsterdam, New York, in 1916. Later in his life, Kirk Douglas became an active supporter of Jewish life in the Old City of Jerusalem and dedicated a major playground project for the Old City Jewish children a few years ago.