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Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. Douglas's first television exposure was that of Karl Malden's young college educated partner, Insp. Steve Keller in the popular 1970s crime drama, The Streets of San Francisco, a role he played from 1972 to 1976. Douglas is an Emmy Award- and two-time Academy Award-winner, first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. This eldest son of legendary Hollywood actor Kirk Douglas eventually developed into a legitimate double threat. His track record for selling movies is unrivaled by any of his actor-producer peers, but his early years gave little indication of the power he would one day wield within the industry. Introduced to filmmaking on the sets of his father's films, Michael Douglas came to acting reluctantly when forced to pick a major his junior year at UC Santa Barbara and began working painfully at it, prompting Kirk to say, "Michael was terrible" (Us, August 1998) after seeing him in a college production of "As You Like It". Still, the younger Douglas was handsome, and there was in his eyes, his jaw, his hairline and his voice something of his father, intangible, heroic qualities that would later enable him to enjoy great success as flawed, venal characters without totally alienating audience affection. A self-professed "hippie", he began in some fairly typical features, portraying idealistic youths confronting the issues of the day ("Hail, Hero", 1969; "Adam at 6 A.M.", 1970; "Summertree", 1971), and upped his profile as co-star (with Karl Malden) of the TV cop drama "The Streets of San Francisco" (ABC, from 1972 to 1975). Douglas was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the son of celebrated American actor Kirk Douglas and Bermudian actress Diana Dill. His paternal grandparents, Bryna Sanglel and Herschel Danielovitch, were Jewish immigrants from Russia, while his mother and maternal grandparents, Ruth Rapalje Neilson and Lt. Col. Thomas Melville Dill, were natives of Devonshire Parish, Bermuda. His maternal grandfather served as the Attorney General of Bermuda and was a commanding officer of the Bermuda Militia Artillery. Douglas graduated from the prestigious Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, Massachusetts before going on to Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut. Douglas graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1968 with a B.A. in dramatic arts where he is also the Honorary President of the UCSB Alumni Association. Having a famous father opened many doors to Michael that would have been closed to other young Hollywood hopefuls. Douglas starred in the long-running TV series The Streets of San Francisco from 1972 to 1976, where Douglas had on- and off-screen chemistry with Malden, who became a second father to him, during the show's run. He received an Academy Award as producer for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975. Although Douglas was a capable actor on Streets, his career was somewhat stagnant after the series, and he only appeared in occasional movies which were usually less than popular (e.g., 1979's Running). His fortunes changed when he starred in the 1984 romantic adventure comedy Romancing the Stone. The film was followed a year later in 1985 by a sequel, The Jewel of the Nile. In 1987, Douglas starred playing in Fatal Attraction with Glenn Close and the film became a world-wide hit. In 1988, Douglas received an Academy Award for acting in the leading role of Wall Street which would lead to many roles playing characters much like Gordon Gekko. Douglas later starred as Mr. Rose, a successful lawyer similar to this character's personality, in The War of the Roses, which featured previous co-stars Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. In 1989 he starred in the hit international police crime drama Black Rain opposite Andy Garcia and Kate Capshaw and was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator). In 1992, Douglas revived his slick, worldly character when he appeared alongside Sharon Stone in the film Basic Instinct. The movie was a huge hit, and sparked controversy over its depictions of bisexuality and lesbianism. Then in 1994 Douglas and Demi Moore starred in the hit movie Disclosure focusing on the hot topic of sexual harassment, but with a twist - Douglas plays a man harassed by his new female boss. In 1998, Douglas received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Douglas was little more than a blip on the radar screen when he hit a home run with his feature producing debut, Milos Forman's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975), adapted from the novel by Ken Kesey. His father, who had played the lead role of Randel Patrick McMurphy on stage, had owned the film rights for a decade, hoping to reprise on celluloid the feisty misfit who inspires his fellow "loonies" to assert themselves, but the son persuaded Dad to lose that dream and allow him to get the picture made. The results were runaway box-office returns and a sweep of the top five Oscars, the first time that had happened since "It Happened One Night" (1934). Douglas shared Best Picture honors with Saul Zaentz, and Kirk made a lot of money and was undoubtedly proud, though it must have hurt to see his TV actor son taking home an Oscar while his own cupboard was bare. Douglas then joined forces with Jane Fonda's IPC Films to co-produce (as well as star alongside Fonda and Jack Lemmon) "The China Syndrome" (1979), which benefited greatly from the fortuitous timing of the near meltdown crisis at the Three Mile Island nuclear power facility. Until "Romancing the Stone" (1984), Douglas was more highly regarded as a producer than an actor, but his superb portrayal of the amiable, smug adventurer Jack Colton, a sort of black sheep Indiana Jones, began to change all that. Essentially a feminist take on "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and its ilk, the film profitably teamed him with Kathleen Turner and Danny De Vito for a rollicking, fast-paced comedy adventure. After the trio made the inevitable, successful sequel, "Jewel of the Nile" (1985), Douglas found himself for the first time on the annual exhibitors' poll of the Top 10 box office stars (at ninth), even though his preoccupation with producing responsibilities on both films had allowed Turner and De Vito to walk off with the pictures. (In fact, Douglas has rarely dominated a movie, with perhaps the exception of 1987's "Wall Street" and 2000's "Wonder Boys". Despite his $20 million price tag, he's more a complementary player who allows stronger actors to drive the vehicles.) When De Vito's black comedy of divorce, "The War of the Roses" (1989), reunited the three again, he could simply act his part in the satiric commentary on "yuppie" materialism. If he was solid material lacking star quality before 1987, Douglas finished that year as a potential icon like his father, having discovered himself as an actor. Even though "Wall Street" was more about the Charlie Sheen character, he won the Best Actor Oscar for his infinitely more intriguing Gordon Gekko, the wonderfully smarmy and arrogant corporate raider and high-rolling epitome of 80s excess and greed. "I don't think Gekko's a villain," Douglas has said (quoted in David Thomson's "Biographical Dictionary of Film"), giving some insight to the actor-producer. "Doesn't beat his wife or his kid. He's just taking care of business. And he gives a lot of people chances." That same year, his attempt to get away with adultery jeopardized his family in "Fatal Attraction", but audience's quickly forgave his human frailty to root against the spurned stalker Glenn Close. Perhaps even more with "Fatal Attraction" than with "Wall Street", he had found a role that resonated with audiences, the morally lazy and thrill-seeking Everyman caught in the spider's web. In 1988, Douglas formed Stonebridge Entertainment, Inc., which produced Joel Schumacher's "Flatliners" (1990) and Richard Donner's "Radio Flyer" (1992), and dabbled in an attempt to revive the failed Victorine Studios in Nice, France. He continued to court controversy in his choice of movies. If the Glenn Close part had been unsympathetic, the bisexual, man-eating Sharon Stone role in "Basic Instinct" (1992) brought a firestorm of criticism from the gay community, but audiences flocked to see Douglas drawn to the flame in Paul Verhoeven's stylish-looking but dramatically uninspired thriller. He also scored at the box office as a nerd gone berserk in Schumacher's "Falling Down" (1993), earning the hostility of reviewers who called the movie "wildly stupid" and "morally dangerous." Douglas produced "Made in America" (1993), a successful comic pairing (off-screen and on) of Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson before succumbing to a woman once again (this time Demi Moore) in "Disclosure" (1994). Based on Michael Crichton's best-selling novel, the film told the story of a male executive sexually harassed by his female boss. Douglas left sleaze behind in the charming 1995 comedy "The American President", directed by Rob Reiner and co-starring Annette Bening and Michael J Fox. He was surprisingly light and breezy as widowed President Shepherd, trying to balance running the Free World and romancing an environmental lobbyist. In 1994, he signed a development deal at Paramount, for whom he produced and starred in the historical adventure "The Ghost and the Darkness" (1996), but the studio was much happier with two producing projects in which he did not act, John Woo's "Face/Off" and "John Grisham's The Rainmaker" (both 1997). Returning to more familiar ground, Douglas had a box-office hit as a ruthless businessman whose ne'er-do-well brother gives him an unusual birthday present in David Fincher's dark thriller "The Game" (1997). As he told Jay Carr of The Boston Globe, "The last thing I was looking for was another Prince of Darkness role ... But it was what was ready," so he turned in another flawed character, plotting the death of his wealthy trophy wife (Gwyneth Paltrow, whom many howled was too young for him) in "A Perfect Murder" (1998). His next role, as a pot-smoking professor confronting writer's block and his own infidelity in Curtis Hanson's 2000 sleeper "Wonder Boys", won the actor numerous critical raves. Before the film was re-released in order to give audiences a chance to see the critically lauded box office flop, Douglas was in the papers more for his personal life than his professional pursuits with a noted romance and subsequent high-profile wedding to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, the much-younger mother of his second son. The two were prominently (though separately) featured in that year's "Traffic", a stirring Steven Soderbergh thriller in which Douglas played the nation's newly appointed drug czar who is trying to rid the USA of substance abuse while his own crack and heroin addicted daughter is slipping into ruin. In 2001, Douglas could be seen as an Elvis-like hit man in the black comedy "One Night at McCool's" and subsequently as a psychiatrist blackmailed into treating a patient with key information in the thriller "Don't Say a Word." In 2003, while riding along in the media whirlwind surrounding his wife Zeta-Jones (riding high off "Chicago" and pregnant with their second child, daughter Carys) Douglas earned more headlines than box office when he starred as the head of a dysfunctional clan in "It Runs in the Family," which marked the first time Douglas worked professionally with his actor father, as well as his son Cameron Douglas and mother Diana Douglas, Kirk's friendly ex. Also that year, Douglas starred in the remake of the classic 1979 comedy "The In-Laws," directed by Andrew Fleming, playing a gonzo CIA agent to Albert Brooks' nebishy dentist. After a hiatus from the big screen, Douglas appeared with his father Kirk in director Lee Grant's HBO documentary "A Father... A Son... Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" (2005) in which the acting dynasty openly reflected on and dissected their long and stories careers and their complicated and ultimately loving relationship. The actor then had a full slate of projects in the works, appearing in "The Sentinel" (lensed 2005) as a disgraced special agent to the White House who endeavors to foil a conspiracy to assassinate the U.S. President; "You, Me and Dupree" (lensed 2005), about a best man (Owen Wilson) who stays on as a houseguest with newlyweds, much to the couple's annoyance; and the comedy "The King of California" (lensed 2006), about a manic depressive dad who tries to convince his teenage daughter that there's buried treasure in the San Fernando Valley. Douglas's skill at character acting continued to make him one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood and commands a hefty sum for his roles. After the commercial failure of It Runs in the Family (2003), Douglas did not star in a movie for three years, until The Sentinel in 2006. A year prior to the release of It Runs in the Family, he guest-appeared on an episode of the popular television sitcom Will and Grace, as a gay cop attracted to Will Truman (Eric McCormack); the performance earned Douglas an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Show. His Fatal Attraction co-star, Glenn Close, appeared in the following episode of the series and also earned an Emmy nomination for her performance. Douglas on being asked to do Basic Instinct 2: "Yes, they asked me to do it a while ago, I thought we had done it very effectively; (Paul) Verhoeven is a pretty good director. I haven't seen the sequel. I've only done one sequel in my life, The Jewel of the Nile, from Romancing The Stone. Besides, there were age issues, you know? Sharon still looks fabulous. The script was pretty good. Good for her, she's in her mid-40s and there are not a lot of parts around. The first one was probably the best picture of her career—it certainly made her career and she was great in it". Douglas will soon star in Tragic Indifference, a courtroom thriller based on a landmark liability case against Ford, according to Variety. Douglas will play the attorney who took Ford to court on behalf of a single mother from Texas who was paralyzed and nearly died after an accident. The trial exposed the automaker's indifference to flaws in its SUVs. The movie will be based on Adam Penenberg's 2003 book of the same name. Douglas will play Attorney Tab Turner, who represented Donna Bailey after the Ford Explorer she was riding in rolled over following a Firestone tire failure. On December 17, 2007 it was announced that Douglas was the new voice of NBC Nightly News, some two years after Howard Reig, the previous announcer, retired. Douglas married Diandra Luker on March 20, 1977. They had one son, Cameron (born December 13, 1978). In 1980, Douglas was involved in a serious skiing accident which sidelined his acting career for three years. In September of 1992, he underwent treatment for alcohol abuse at Sierra Tucson Center. In 2000, after 23 years of marriage, Diandra divorced Douglas. Douglas married Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones on November 18, 2000; they were both born on September 25, though 25 years apart. She claims that when they met in Deauville, he used the line "I'd like to father your children". They have two children, Dylan Michael (born August 8, 2000) and Carys Zeta (born April 20, 2003). Douglas and Zeta-Jones hosted the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, Norway on December 11, 2003. They acted as co-masters of ceremony in the concert celebrating the award given to Shirin Ebadi. In 2006, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) from the University of St. Andrews. Douglas and his family divide their time between their homes in: Pacific Palisades, California; New York City; Aspen, Colorado; Bermuda; Majorca, Spain; Swansea, Wales; and Ridgewood, New Jersey. Douglas is an advocate of nuclear disarmament, is a supporter of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and sits on the Board of Directors of the Ploughshares Fund. In 1998 he was appointed UN Messenger of Peace by Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He is a notable Democrat, has donated money mainly to Democratic candidates and is backing Hillary Clinton for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. In 1997, New York caddy James Parker, sued Douglas for USD$25 million. Parker accused Douglas of hitting him in the groin with an errant golf ball, causing Parker to lose a testicle and his job. The case was later settled out of court. |
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