09/09/2025
The mother of legendary actor and producer Kirk Douglas and grandmother of Michael Douglas was Bryna Danielovich (Demsky). She hailed from the village of Ceausi, in the Mogilev Governorate of the old Tsarist Empire.
As a young woman, she became engaged to Herschel, who soon left for America. A year later, he sent her money for a ship ticket. Before 1924, almost anyone who reached American shores was welcomed.
Bryna had seven children with him six daughters and one son, Issur “Izzy” Demsky, who would later become Kirk Douglas. But their marriage was unhappy. Herschel was cold and distant, never calling her by name, only “Hey, you!” In Russia, he had been a horse trader, but in America, he scraped by as a rag picker. What little he earned, he spent on drinking with friends, and in the neighborhood, he was known as a bully and troublemaker.
Times were so hard that Bryna would send her children to the local Jewish butcher for discarded bones, which she boiled into soup to feed the family for days. Kirk later recalled, “When it was a good day, we would eat omelettes made with water. When it was a bad day, we wouldn’t eat at all.”
Though she never learned to read or write, Bryna raised her children with remarkable resilience. She lived long enough to see her only son become a world-famous star. Kirk Douglas honored her by naming his first film company Bryna Productions.
In 1958, when The Vikings premiered, Kirk proudly led his mother by the arm to Times Square, where among the glittering advertisements was a poster reading: “Bryna Presents The Vikings.” Seeing her name shining over Broadway, Bryna wept perhaps for the first time in her life with tears of happiness.
Later that same year, Bryna passed away at age 74. Kirk remained by her side until the end. Her last words to him were, “Izie, son, don’t be afraid, this happens to everyone.”
