Kirk Douglas: as a kid, I loved him in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea and that led to my seeing him in Ulysses, which, along with the film Helen of Troy, led me to Homer and Greek mythology. And that led me to four years of high school Latin, four more years in college, along with Greek, and a Bachelors Degree in Classics. All because of Kirk Douglas in a Disney film I was crazy for.
I also like Douglas in Greedy, which is based on Charles Dickens' comic novel Martin Chuzzlewit.