Kirk Douglas, who died on Wednesday at age 103, was a wonderful actor.
He was also a noted film producer, and wrote many books--including The Ragman's Son, a 1988 memoir; a 2002 memoir, written after his severe 1996 stroke, My Stroke of Luck; and 1997's Climbing the Mountain: My Search for Meaning. He also wrote fiction.
Here is a quote from Mr. Douglas's New York Times obituary. It is from an essay he wrote about aging, in 2008, for Newsweek magazine.
“Years ago I was at the bedside of my dying mother, an illiterate
Russian peasant. Terrified, I held her hand. She opened her eyes and
looked at me. The last thing she said to me was, ‘Don’t be afraid, son,
it happens to everyone.’ As I got older, I became comforted by those
words.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/obituaries/kirk-douglas-dead.html