Kirk Douglas fondly remembers in 'Before I Forget'

Kirk Douglas thought it was time to do something crazy. So about a year ago, he began writing.

"I said I am 92 years old. I am an actor. I can't talk much with an impediment in my speech," he says. "What do I do? I do a one-man show!"

The spryly chipper Douglas bursts into gales of laughter.

The result of his efforts, "Before I Forget," will have its world premiere Friday at, appropriately enough, the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

Seven years ago, Douglas and his wife, Anne, donated $2.5 million to Center Theatre Group, which also includes the Ahmanson and the Mark Taper Forum, to help transform the landmark Culver Theater movie house into a mid-sized stage on the Westside. The theater opened in fall 2004.

The superstar of such film classics as "Champion," "The Bad and the Beautiful," "Lust for Life" and "Spartacus" suffered a major stroke in 1996 that left him with a pronounced speech impediment.

"When I had my stroke I saw things in a different way," he says. "So my show is how I see things now and, of course, what has happened to me and how it's affected me, both good and bad. Everybody has to sometime in life take inventory. I have an interesting life, and I have put it all together to make sense of it."

CTG artistic director Michael Ritchie describes Douglas as a force of nature.

"Being at his age and looking back on his life adds another color to it, and that fact that he had the stroke. . . the stroke is ever-present. He uses it as reference point. You glean a philosophy toward life," Ritchie says. "Literally, it will inform the audiences about how they look at their lives."

The play was Douglas' idea. "At one point, he said, 'I've been working on this show about my life,' " Ritchie recalls. "I said to him, 'We'll do it.' He said, 'You haven't even read it yet.' I said, 'I know your life, and I know you.' He said, 'Read it first, just make certain.' I took it back to the office and read it. I told him we'll do it. It snowballed from there."

Douglas is giving four performances of his play, Friday and Sunday afternoon and the following Friday and Sunday.

"I was shocked when the tickets went on sale the first day and they sold out the four performances," says Douglas, relaxing in the living room of his Beverly Hills home. Occasionally, his 9-year-old Lab, Danny, interrupts the conversation for some affection.