Early life

Buydens was born in Hanover

Hanover

Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Buydens was in her early teens when her family fled fascism and emigrated to Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, where she became a citizen. Buydens continued her education there and in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 before moving to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where her fluent knowledge of several languages kept her busy subtitling films.

Personal life

Anne Buydens married Kirk Douglas

Kirk Douglas

Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...

 on May 29, 1954. She has two children with him, Peter Douglas

Peter Douglas

Peter Vincent Douglas is an American television and film producer, a son of actor Kirk Douglas and his second wife, Anne Buydens. His middle name was given him in homage to Vincent van Gogh, the brilliant, tortured artist whom his father was playing in the film Lust for Life when he was born...

 b. November 23, 1955 and Eric Douglas

Eric Douglas

Eric Anthony Douglas was an American actor who appeared in several movies and television shows and was also a stand-up comedian.-Early life and career:...

 June 21, 1958 - July 6, 2004.

Charity work

One of Anne Douglas' first forays into powerhouse philanthropy came on the heels of recovering from breast cancer: With six fellow survivors, she established Research for Women's Cancers, which raised millions of dollars to help finance a research facility at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Both Kirk Douglas and Buydens were behind the establishment of Harry's Haven, an Alzheimer's disease unit at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Home in Woodland Hills. It is named after Kirk Douglas' Father. The Douglases perhaps are best-known for rebuilding Los Angeles Unified School District playgrounds. The effort began when Anne read in the newspaper that the district's schoolyards were so decrepit that children were being kept indoors.

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