Kirk Douglas was the best thing to ever happen to chins

Farewell to a legend

Kirk Douglas.
(Image credit: AP Photo)

If you look up the word "chin" in the encyclopedia, you will read about Kirk Douglas. This isn't an exaggeration or a figure of speech: Douglas is literally named as an example of someone with a chin in the Oxford University Press entry for the mandibular arch.

It makes sense: there have been few chins in human history as noteworthy as Douglas'. When the actor died at the extraordinary age of 103 on Wednesday, obituaries seemed to mourn the loss of his dimple as much as his talent. "That famously dimpled chin, which you'd never believe on a statue, nonetheless gave the Hollywood icon a granite jaw that served him well as a leading man for more than 60 years," wrote Vanity Fair. "When you hear his name, so crisp and ramrod strong (Kirk!), you think, at first, of how he looked: the jutting chin with a dimple that made it unlike all other jutting chins," gushed Variety. The Los Angeles Times chose to describe the actor as a "dimple-chinned screen icon who was known for bringing an explosive, clenched-jawed intensity to a memorable array of heroes and heels."

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.