I’ve seen very few Actors who looked as comfortable
‘in the saddle’ as Kirk Douglas.
(Maybe Ben Johnson).

He looked like he was born there and lived there.

This is what happens when you love what you do.
It shows.
And Kirk was a consummate Craftsman/Artist in his profession.
When he took a role, he owned it.
He wasn’t just Acting – he became that character.
He was ‘all in’.

And I figure that if you were going to work with Kirk,
you better get ‘on board’ pretty fast – or get lost.
He wasn’t fooling around.

Well … not much anyway.

I once found a pic once of Kirk standing on his horse looking around.
Now I can’t locate it.
I’m not sure he was copying Tom Mix, who was seen to do
this a while back. Probably not.

Tom Mix was a real Cowboy of course,
and could do most any horse stunt he wanted.

Digressing …

Did Tom Mix actually jump over Beale’s Cut in California?

He said he did. But the film footage that would have
proven it was lost in a fire.

I believe he did though because it’s known
that other riders had done this jump.
So it definitely was possible.
If not foolhardy.

But some folks
just seem to be ‘larger than life’ …

Coming …
Kirk’s Filmography continued.