Arnold Schwarzenegger Honors His Late Co-Star Kirk Douglas

Hollywood tributes continue to flow from those who worked alongside late film legend Kirk Douglas, who passed away yesterday at the age of 103. Now, former California governor and movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger is remembering his late colleague and friend.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Honors A Legend

“Kirk Douglas was an icon,” Schwarzenegger posted on Instagram. The two performers appeared in the 1979 film The Villain. The movie told the story of Charming Jones (played by Ann-Margret), who was being escorted across the country by a slow-witted cowboy, called Handsome Stranger (Schwarzenegger). Douglas played Cactus Jack, a man hired to rob Charming of her money.

“It’s hard to put into words what it meant to me to work with this legend who I grew up watching in Westerns in our little theater in Austria. He was larger than life to me — a real-life hero. When we finally met on the set of The Villain, he couldn’t have been any sweeter to me.”

The acclaimed bodybuilder recalls Douglas’s kindness to him as he was still a relative newcomer to the performing world. “I was a new actor and he was the perfect mentor,” Schwarzenegger says. “He was already in his 60s but he was in unbelievable shape, and he could still jump off a trampoline into his horse’s saddle.

“I’ll always remember his lessons and our workouts together (back then actors trained secretly, so he’d pull his dumbbells out of his hiding place and we would do curls together). He was the perfect role model and my career wouldn’t have been the same without him. I will miss him dearly and my thoughts are with his family.”

Followers of Schwarzenegger concurred with his post. “Well said,” noted actor Jim Belushi (According to Jim), “he was an idol of mine as well! Rest In Peace, Kirk!” Arnold and Maria Shriver’s son, Patrick, posted: “Legend. Rip.”