After long life, Kirk Douglas searches for lessons

By Arthur Spiegelman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - At age 90, actor Kirk Douglas has written his ninth, and he swears, final book. Featuring chapters like "Thinking About Death," "Dealing With Death," "Almost Dying," "Reading Obituaries" and "Sunset," the book is called, "Let's Face it."

With chapters and a title like that, you could assume that Douglas is either preparing for a second career as an undertaker or is as death-obsessed as any character in a Woody Allen movie.

Instead he assures a visitor that this is what people his age think about, that and whether they have done enough good in their lives.

"When you reach 90, you are living on the house's money," Douglas says shortly after he bounces -- thanks to new knees -- into the den of his Beverly Hills home, his white hair slicked back over his head.

The star of nearly 90 films looks almost as fit and trim and ready for a fight as when he was in his 20s and played a boxer in one of his early hits, "Champion."

But, as he says in his book, he sees a different Kirk Douglas: "Here I am staggering into my 90s, hard of hearing, hard of seeing and with an impaired voice (from a stroke). Had I died in my 40s would I have been remembered as the Viking dancing across the oars? Maybe."

Some of his thoughts are toss-away jokes with a kernel of truth, like if you thought 85 was old, wait till you hit 90 -- that's really old.

Others are serious and some are extremely painful memories of the people lost on the road to longevity.