One of the last stars of the Hollywood Golden Age has finally left us. Kirk Douglas was 103-years-old when he died yesterday. The Academy Award-nominated actor starred in over 90 movies, but perhaps his most famous was Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus. The 1960 movie was inspired by the historical figure of the same name, a Thracian gladiator who led a slave revolt which ultimately failed.
Near the film’s conclusion, Laurence Olivier’s Crassus ask for the prisoners to be counted and announces that the slaves’ lives be spared.
However, this was only on the condition that the body or the living Spartacus be identified.
As Douglas’ slave rebel rises to accept his fate, Tony Curtis’ Antoninus and all the other slaves rise and claim “I’m Spartacus!”
Due to this, Crassus has every slave crucified along the Via Appia between Rome and Capua.
More to follow…