KIRK Douglas, the actor who brought famous slave, Spartacus, to the big screen has died aged 103.

He was born Issur Danielovich Demsky in 1916 to Russian Jewish immigrants to the US.

His father was a rag-and-bone man in New York.

Douglas made countless films, but is most famous for Spartacus (1960), Lust for Life (1956) in which he played troubled artist Vincent Van Gogh and Ace in the Hole (1951) in which he was a corrupt tabloid journalist who sacrifices a man’s life for the sake of keeping his story in the news.

Spartacus brought the life of the Thracian Gladiator who almost toppled the might of the Roman Empire in 71 BC to a mass audience.

This very political, subversive film was made in the midst of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, and at a time when the McCarthyite witchhunts were still raging in the US, leading to hundreds of thousands of Americans being blacklisted on suspicion of "Communist" sympathies.

It was largely due to Douglas’ stature in the film industry, persistence that the film was made at all.

Douglas took a big risk in ensuring blacklisted screenwriter, James Dalton Trumbo (1905-76), got a credit on Spartacus.

In honour of this attempt to smash the McCarthyist blacklists, the Writers' Guild of America gave Douglas its highest award in 1991 "in recognition of his action in 1960 to ensure Dalton Trumbo received screen credit for writing Spartacus."

Trumbo was a part of the "Hollywood Ten" group of writers and Directors who were jailed by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 for refusing to testify about their political opinions, or incriminate others.

Although a very talented actor himself, Douglas never received official recognition from the American Film Industry in the shape of an Oscar for any of his many roles.

Perhaps he too had been unofficially "blacklisted" for making Spartacus. 

It wasn’t until 1996, when he had been retired from acting for a long time, that he was given an Oscar for "Lifetime Achievement."

His son Michael also became a famous actor.

It is a piquant piece of dramatic irony that Kirk Douglas, who literally went from rags to riches in his own life, will be most remembered for playing a penniless, property-less slave who defied the might of the Roman Empire for two years, striking fear into the hearts of slave-owners throughout Ancient Rome, and becoming an immortal symbol of revolt for Socialists throughout the world.

James Roberts, Wallasey