Kirk Douglas, the cleft-chinned movie star who fought gladiators, cowboys and boxers on the screen and the Hollywood establishment, died on Wednesday at the age of 103.

Douglas was a Hollywood icon who starred in Spartacus, Gunfight at the OK Coral, Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful and Lust for Life in a long cinematic career.

He was the head of a showbiz family that included his producer sons Joel and Peter, and Oscar winner Michael Douglas.

Michael announced his famous father’s death on social media and to People magazine on Thursday morning (Australian time).

“It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103,” Michael wrote.

“To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the Golden Age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to.”