London, Oct 25 : American actor Kirk Douglas was honoured by a host of stars at a dinner in Los Angeles for his humanitarian work.

Present at the Shoah Foundation''s Ambassadors for Humanity dinner was director Steven Spielberg, who established the foundation in 1994 to collect and preserve stories from Holocaust survivors, and who also praised the 91-year-old actor saying he had “saved many lives”.

Douglas and wife have over the past decade funded the construction of 400 playgrounds in LA''s schools.

“Kirk Douglas, in a way, has saved many lives - not just through his art, but through his humanitarian contributions to the planet,” the BBC quoted Spielberg as saying.

“We''re here to show how closely attuned Kirk Douglas is as a representative of our work and our vision at the Shoah Foundation,” he added.

Actor Billy Crystal and singer Bette Midler were also at the benefit, at the California Science Centre, with Crystal calling Douglas “an inspiration”.

“This is the greatest head of hair I''ve ever seen on a Jew in my life,” he joked.

The director said that the foundation''s work supports his “ultimate dream” of making the study of the Holocaust and other genocides a prerequisite for graduating from high school.

“They can look at all these examples of genocide and it will give the world a very complete look at a sad human condition,” he said.

“It''s something we have to understand in order to overcome,” he added. (ANI)