100 not out.

Happy Birthday to Kirk Douglas – genuine legend of stage and screen – who celebrated his hundredth birthday yesterday. I saw him once at Los Angeles airport and was struck by how small he was. Yes, he was about 80 at the time but even so. Movie stars are often much smaller than you imagine them. Robert Redford is similarly fun-sized and as for Tom Cruise? No bigger than Norman Wisdom. Kirk Douglas is a little man but a huge star. This record seems most appropriate. It has the words “One Hundred” in the title. It was made by a man who also adopted “Douglas” as his surname. And was a hit in 1961, the year Spartacus won four Oscars.