Hollywood actor Kirk Douglas died at the age of 103 on Wednesday, his son Michael Douglas said. “It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103,” a statement on Facebook said.

The theatre and movie star was known for playing several characters, including the titular role in the 1960 film Spartacus. He was born in 1916 and rose to fame during Hollywood’s “golden age”. He was nominated for the Academy Awards for playing a boxing hero in the 1949 movie Champion.

The three-time Academy award nominee for best actor received an honourary Oscar in 1996 for his lifetime achievement in the industry. His career spanned over six decades.

“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,” Michael Douglas said in the statement.

Actor Catherine Zeta Jones, also the daughter-in-law of Kirk Douglas, posted a photo of the two of them together on Instagram. She wrote: “To my darling Kirk, ‘I shall love you for the rest of my life. I miss you already’.”