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- August 17, 1981MILESTONES
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- DIED, Melvyn Douglas, 80, veteran stage and film actor and
- two-time Oscar winner for his supporting roles in Hud (1963) and
- Being There (1979); of pneumonia; in New York City. The son of
- Russian-born Concert Pianist Edouard Hesselberg, Douglas made
- his Broadway debut in 1928. In 1931 he married Actress Helen
- Gahagan, who later became a noted political activist and
- Congresswoman from California. After establishing himself as
- a suave, romantic leading man during the 1930s and 1940s by
- playing opposite such stars as Greta Garbo (Ninotchka), Gloria
- Swanson (Tonight or Never) and Joan Crawford (A Woman's Face),
- Douglas shifted to first-rate character portrayals in such films
- as Billy Budd (1962), The Americanization of Emily (1964) and
- I Never Sang for My Father (1970). Douglas, who had just
- completed his 77th film, Ghost Story, which is scheduled for
- release in December, recently declared: "Much of what we did
- in the old days was junk. I don't share the intense nostalgia
- for those films that some people do."
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