Anyone on St. Lawrence’s campus is bound to know who Kirk Douglas is. He was one of St. Lawrence’s most famous alumni and the most recent dorm on St. Lawrence’s campus was named after him. He was an American actor, director, producer, screenwriter and philanthropist from Amsterdam, New York who passed away last year at the age of 103. To many people, Douglas might be considered an idol.
Unfortunately, while Douglas is known around SLU for being an amazing actor, producer and having Kirk Douglas Hall named after him, he also had a dark side of his life that is only now being brought to people’s attention. He is currently being accused of sexually assaulting American actress Natalie Wood 66 years ago. Wood, who passed away in 1981, was significantly younger than Douglas and never once mentioned any allegations against him to the public. Her younger sister, Lana, just recently brought forth the accusations against Douglas.
In Lana’s book ,“Little Sister: My Investigation into the Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood,” she discusses what she knows about the assault. At the time of the events Lana was too young to know what was happening, but Lana remembers. “She looked awful. She was very disheveled and very upset, and she and Mom started urgently whispering to each other,” she wrote. Many years later Natalie told Lana that she was sexually assaulted by Douglas prior to that moment.
Natalie met Douglas when she was 16 years old in the summer of 1955 while she was filming the movie “The Searchers.” Her mother arranged for her to meet with Douglas because her mother believed that Douglas had the ability to improve Natalie’s career. Now, many years later, it is believed that instead of him helping her with her career, he actually sexually assaulted her during that meeting. After this event, Natalie confided in her mother and they both decided to never speak about the assault to the public. They decided that if they spoke out it would only hurt her career because unfortunately, at that time, it was very uncommon for women to speak of sexual assault and often overlooked or accused of lying if they ever made an accusation.
Lana promised Natalie that she would never tell the public about the sexual assault, but after Douglas died, Lana no longer had anyone to protect. Despite no one ever talking to the public about the prior sexual assault, the public had many suspicions that Douglas committed sexual assault. This suspicion was so prevalent that when Douglas did pass away, both his and Natalie’s names were trending on social media. While Natalie is no longer around to tell her story for herself, it was able to get out into the public and bring awareness to sexual assault through her younger sister, Lana.