Michael Douglas facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michael Douglas
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Douglas at the 2016 César Awards
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| Born |
Michael Kirk Douglas
September 25, 1944 |
| Citizenship |
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| Alma mater | University of California, Santa Barbara (B.A., 1968) |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1966–present |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) |
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| Partner(s) | Brenda Vaccaro (1971–1976) |
| Children | 3, including Cameron Douglas |
| Parent(s) | Kirk Douglas Diana Dill |
| Relatives | Joel Douglas (brother) Peter Douglas (half-brother) Eric Douglas (half-brother) Anne Buydens (stepmother) |
Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the AFI Life Achievement Award.
The elder son of Kirk Douglas and Diana Dill, Douglas earned his Bachelor of Arts in drama from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His early acting roles included film, stage, and television productions. Douglas first achieved prominence for his performance in the ABC police procedural television series The Streets of San Francisco, for which he received three consecutive Emmy Award nominations. In 1975, Douglas produced One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, having acquired the rights to the Ken Kesey novel from his father. The film received critical and popular acclaim, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture, earning Douglas his first Oscar as one of the film's producers.
Douglas went on to produce films including The China Syndrome (1979) and Romancing the Stone (1984), for which he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and The Jewel of the Nile (1985). Douglas received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone's Wall Street (1987), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor (a role he reprised in the sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in 2010). Other notable roles include in Fatal Attraction (1987), The War of the Roses (1989), Basic Instinct (1992), Falling Down (1993), The American President (1995), The Game (1997), Traffic (2000), and Wonder Boys (2000).
In 2013, for his portrayal of Liberace in the HBO film Behind the Candelabra, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie. Douglas starred as an aging acting coach in the Netflix comedy series The Kominsky Method (2018–2021), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy. He has portrayed Hank Pym in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with Ant-Man (2015).
Douglas has received notice for his humanitarian and political activism. He sits on the board of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, is an honorary board member of the anti-war grant-making foundation Ploughshares Fund and he was appointed as a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 1998. He has been married to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones since 2000.
Early life and education
Douglas was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the first child of actors Kirk Douglas (1916–2020) and Diana Dill (1923–2015). His parents met at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
His father was Jewish and was born Issur Danielovitch. Michael's paternal grandparents were emigrants from Chavusy in the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus). His mother was from Devonshire Parish, Bermuda, and had English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, French, Belgian, and Dutch ancestry. Douglas's uncle was politician Sir Nicholas Bayard Dill, and Douglas's maternal grandfather, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Melville Dill, served as Attorney General of Bermuda, as a Member of the Parliament of Bermuda (MCP), and as commanding officer of the Bermuda Militia Artillery.
His great-grandfather, Thomas Newbold Dill (1837–1910), was a merchant, an MCP for Devonshire Parish from 1868 to 1888, a member of the legislative council and an assistant justice from 1888, mayor of the City of Hamilton from 1891 to 1897, served on numerous committees and boards, and was a member of the Devonshire Church (Church of England) and Devonshire Parish vestries. Thomas Newbold Dill's father, another Thomas Melville Dill, was a sea captain who took the Bermudian-built barque Sir George F. Seymour from Bermuda to Ireland in thirteen days in March 1858, but lost his master's certificate after the wreck of the Bermudian-built Cedrine on the Isle of Wight while returning the last convict labourers from the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda to Britain in 1863. The current (installed on 29 May 2013) Bishop of Bermuda, the Right Reverend Nicholas Dill, is a cousin of Michael Douglas.
Douglas has a younger brother, Joel Douglas (born 1947), and two paternal half-brothers, Peter Douglas (born 1955) and Eric Douglas (1958–2004), from stepmother Anne Buydens.
Douglas attended The Allen-Stevenson School in New York City, Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, Massachusetts, and The Choate Preparatory School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut. He received his B.A. in dramatic art from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1968, where he was also the honorary president of the UCSB Alumni Association. He studied acting with Wynn Handman at The American Place Theatre in New York City.
Career
1969–1979: Early years
His first TV breakthrough role came with a 1969 CBS Playhouse special, The Experiment—and it was the only time he was billed as "M.K. Douglas". On November 24, 1969, Douglas formed his first independent film production company, Bigstick Productions, Limited. Michael Douglas started his film career in the late 1960s and early 1970s, appearing in little known films such as Hail, Hero!, Adam at 6 A.M., and Summertree. His performance in Hail, Hero! earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Male Newcomer.
His first significant role came in the TV series The Streets of San Francisco from 1972 to 1976, in which he starred alongside Karl Malden. Douglas later said that Malden became a "mentor" and someone he "admired and loved deeply". After Douglas left the show, he had a long association with his mentor until Malden's death on July 1, 2009. In 2004, Douglas presented Malden with the Monte Cristo Award of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut for the Lifetime Achievement Award.
In late 1971, Douglas received from his father, Kirk Douglas, the rights to the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which had been purchased by Bryna Productions in February 1962. Michael went on to produce the film of the same name with Saul Zaentz. Kirk Douglas hoped to portray McMurphy himself, having starred in an earlier stage version, but was deemed too old for the part by his son Michael. Kirk relented, and the lead role went instead to Jack Nicholson, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Douglas won the Award for Best Picture for producing the film. In December 1976, Michael and his brother Peter became head of their father's film production company, The Bryna Company, though Michael would depart by 1978 to focus exclusively on producing through his own Bigstick Productions.
After leaving The Streets of San Francisco in 1976, Douglas played a hospital doctor in the medical thriller Coma (1978), and in 1979 he played the role of a troubled marathon runner in Running. In 1979, he both produced and starred in The China Syndrome, a dramatic film co-starring Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon about a nuclear power plant accident (the Three Mile Island accident took place 12 days after the film's release). The film was considered "one of the most intelligent Hollywood films of the 1970s". In June 1979, Michael appointed Jack Brodsky Executive Vice-president of Bigstick Productions.
1980–2000: Success in Hollywood
Douglas's acting career was propelled to fame when he produced and starred in the 1984 romantic adventure comedy Romancing the Stone. It also reintroduced Douglas as a capable leading man and gave director Robert Zemeckis his first box-office success. The film also starred Danny DeVito, a friend of Douglas since they had shared an apartment in the 1960s. It was followed a year later by a sequel, The Jewel of the Nile, which he also produced. Bigstick Productions was then partnered with Mercury Entertainment, a company backed by producer Michael Phillips in 1986 to produce independently financed features. In the 1980s, Douglas formed a new film production company, The Stone Group (later renamed Stonebridge Entertainment) with partner Rick Bieber.
The year 1987 saw Douglas star in the thriller Fatal Attraction with Glenn Close. That same year he played tycoon Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone's Wall Street for which he received an Academy Award as Best Actor. He reprised his role as Gekko in the sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in 2010, also directed by Stone.
Douglas starred in the 1989 film The War of the Roses, which also starred Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. In 1989 he starred in Ridley Scott's international police crime drama Black Rain opposite Andy García and Kate Capshaw; the film was shot in Osaka, Japan.
In 1992, Douglas had another successful starring role when he appeared alongside Sharon Stone in the film Basic Instinct. The movie was a box office hit. In March 1994, Douglas announced that he had formed a new film production company, Douglas/Reuther Productions, in partnership with Steven Reuther. In 1994 Douglas and Demi Moore starred in the hit movie Disclosure. Other popular films he starred in during the decade were Falling Down, The American President, The Ghost and the Darkness, The Game (directed by David Fincher), and a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic – Dial M for Murder – titled A Perfect Murder. In 1998 Douglas received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. On November 19, 1997, Douglas formed his fourth film production company, Further Films.
In 2000, Douglas starred in Steven Soderbergh's critically acclaimed film Traffic, opposite Benicio del Toro and future wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones. That same year he also received critical acclaim for his role in Wonder Boys, as a professor and novelist suffering from writer's block. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama and for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
2001–2012: Established actor
Douglas starred in Don't Say a Word (2001), filmed shortly before his marriage to Zeta-Jones. In 2003, he starred in It Runs in the Family, which featured three generations of his family (his parents, Kirk and Diana, as well as his son, Cameron). Although a labor of love, the film was not successful, critically or at the box office. Also in 2003, Douglas starred in The In-Laws. Douglas was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes in 2004. Michael and Kirk Douglas are the only father and son pair to have both been awarded this recognition. He then starred in and produced the action-thriller The Sentinel in 2006. During that time, he also guest starred on the episode "Fagel Attraction" of the television sitcom Will & 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. Douglas was also the voice of founding father Benjamin Franklin in Freedom: A History of US, the PBS television adaptation of Joy Hakim's 10-volume book A History of US.
Douglas was approached for Basic Instinct 2, but declined to participate in the project. In 2006, Douglas was Mr. Thompson in You, Me, and Dupree. The following year, Douglas played Charlie in King of California. In December 2007, Douglas began announcing the introduction to NBC Nightly News. Howard Reig, the previous announcer, had retired two years earlier. That same year, Douglas received the Career Achievement Award from the National Board of Review.
In the late 2000s, Douglas starred in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009), Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, and Solitary Man. In 2009, he was honored with the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award and the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures from the Producers Guild of America. In 2011, Douglas voiced Waylon on Disney Channel's cartoon Phineas and Ferb and starred in the dramatic thriller Haywire. He was also honored that year by the French Minister of Culture with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres with the rank of Commandeur. In 2012, Douglas was honored with the Monte Cristo Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center for his "monumental achievements and contributions to the American and international theater community."
2013–present: Resurgence and expansion
Douglas collaborated with Steven Soderbergh again on the 2013 film Behind the Candelabra, playing Liberace, opposite Matt Damon as Scott Thorson. The film dramatizes the last 10 years of the pianist's life and the relationship he had with Thorson. His portrayal of Liberace received critical acclaim, which resulted in him receiving the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards. He also won SAG and Golden Globe Awards for the performance. Also that year, he starred in Last Vegas, a comedy also starring Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Kline. In 2014, Douglas starred alongside Diane Keaton in the romantic comedy, And So It Goes and he produced and starred in Beyond the Reach.
He played Hank Pym, the Marvel Comics superhero, in the films Ant-Man (2015), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). In 2016, Douglas received his second Cesar d'Honneur for Career Achievement from the French Cesar Awards; the first was in 1998. In 2017, Douglas starred in the action thriller Unlocked.
In 2018, he starred with Alan Arkin in The Kominsky Method, playing Sandy Kominsky, an aging acting coach. He received a Golden Globe Award for his performance. The same year, he starred in a Chinese film, Animal World, based on the Japanese manga series Kaiji. In 2018, Douglas received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Starting in 2019, Douglas voiced the character Guy-I-Am in the Netflix animated series Green Eggs and Ham (TV series).
In 2023, Douglas again played Hank Pym in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). The Ant-Man films were directed by Peyton Reed and starred Paul Rudd. Douglas reprised the role, voicing Hank Pym in the animated series What If... (2021-2023). In May 2023, Douglas was honored with an Honorary Palme d'or for Lifetime Achievement at the Cannes Film Festival and the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award at the 54th International Film Festival of India in November 2023.
In 2024, he starred in the Apple TV+ miniseries Franklin, portraying Benjamin Franklin during the eight years that he spent in France attempting to convince King Louis XVI to support the burgeoning United States in the American Revolutionary War.
Personal life
Marriage and relationships
After the filming of Summertree in 1971, Douglas began dating actress Brenda Vaccaro, a relationship that lasted nearly six years.
In March 1977, Douglas married Diandra Luker, 12 years his junior and the daughter of an Austrian diplomat. They had one son, Cameron, born in 1978. In 1995, Diandra filed for divorce and was awarded $45 million as part of the divorce settlement.
In March 1999, Douglas began dating Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones. The pair married on November 18, 2000. Zeta-Jones says that when they met in Deauville, France, Douglas said, "I want to father your children." They have two children, son Dylan Michael (born August 8, 2000) and daughter Carys Zeta (born April 20, 2003). The family has a coastal estate near Valldemossa, Mallorca.
In August 2013, People claimed that Douglas and Zeta-Jones began living separately in May 2013, but did not take any legal action towards separation or divorce. A representative for Zeta-Jones subsequently confirmed that they "are taking some time apart to evaluate and work on their marriage". It was reported in November, that the couple had reconciled and Zeta-Jones moved back into their New York apartment.
Health issues
In 1980, Douglas was involved in a serious skiing accident which sidelined his acting career for three years.
It was announced on August 16, 2010, that Douglas was suffering from throat cancer (later revealed to have been tongue cancer), and would undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment. He subsequently confirmed that the cancer was at stage IV, an advanced stage.
Douglas credits the discovery of his cancer to the public Canadian health system when a doctor in Montreal, Quebec diagnosed the actor's medical condition after numerous American specialists failed to do so. Douglas has since participated in fundraisers for Montreal's Jewish General Hospital, where he was diagnosed, and the McGill University Health Centre with which the hospital is affiliated.
Douglas attributed the cancer to stress and years of heavy smoking. In July 2011, Star magazine published photographs which appeared to show him smoking a cigarette while on holiday that month. A representative declined to comment on the photographs.
In November 2010, Douglas' doctors put him on a weight-gain diet due to excessive weight loss that left him weak. On January 11, 2011, he said that the tumor was gone, though the illness and aggressive treatment had caused him to lose 32 pounds (14.5 kg). He said he would require monthly screenings because of a high chance of recurrence within three years.
Although Douglas described the cancer as throat cancer, it was publicly speculated that he may have been diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer. In October 2013, Douglas said he suffered from tongue cancer, not throat cancer. He announced it as throat cancer upon the advice of his physician, who felt it would be unwise to reveal that he had tongue cancer given its negative prognosis and potential for disfigurement, particularly because the announcement came immediately before Douglas' promotional tour for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
Faith and charity work
Douglas was born to a Jewish father and an Anglican (Church of England) mother. His cousin, the Right Reverend Nicholas Dill, is the bishop of the established Anglican Church of Bermuda. Douglas was not raised with a religious affiliation but stated in January 2015, that he now identifies as a Reform Jew. His son, Dylan, had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony and the Douglas family traveled to Jerusalem to mark the occasion.
Douglas received the 2015 Genesis Prize, a $1 million prize awarded by the Genesis Prize Foundation for Jewish achievement. He donated the prize money to activities designed to raise awareness about inclusion and diversity in Jewish life and to find innovative solutions to pressing global and community problems.
Michael Douglas has been involved in various charitable activities, focusing on healthcare, nuclear disarmament, and human rights. Since 1998, he has served as a United Nations Messenger of Peace, primarily concentrating on disarmament issues. Douglas has supported the Motion Picture & Television Fund, which aids those in the entertainment industry, and has participated in fundraising efforts for the Jewish General Hospital and the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, where he was diagnosed with cancer. Additionally, he has been involved with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Michael Douglas has also raised awareness about the link between human papillomavirus (HPV) and oropharyngeal cancer, citing medical evidence and his diagnosis to promote public health education and preventive measures. He was featured in the "100 Influential Celebrities in Oncology: The 2023 Edition" by OncoDaily for his contributions to public awareness.
Activism
Political activities
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Douglas is a registered Democrat and has donated money to the campaigns of Barack Obama, Christopher Dodd, Al Franken, Edward Markey Michael Bloomberg, and Joe Biden.
Douglas is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He also a board member of RepresentUs. In 2019, Douglas appeared in a short film for RepresentUs titled Unbreaking America: Divided We Fall. In 2023, Douglas was a key speaker at the American Democracy Summit in Los Angeles.
Douglas is on the board of selectors of the Jefferson Awards for Public Service.
Disarmament and gun control
Douglas has been a major supporter of gun control since John Lennon was murdered in 1980. Since then Douglas has supported gun safety organizations like Everytown for Gun Safety and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
He is an advocate of nuclear disarmament, a supporter of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and is an honorary board member of the anti-war grant-making foundation Ploughshares Fund. In 1998, he was appointed UN Messenger of Peace by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
In 2003, Douglas hosted a "powerful film" on child soldiers and the impact of combat on children in countries such as Sierra Leone. During the documentary film, entitled What's Going On? Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone, Douglas interviewed children, and estimated that they were among 300,000 other children worldwide who have been conscripted or kidnapped and forced to fight. Of one such child he interviewed, Douglas stated, "After being kidnapped by a rebel group, he was forced to commit atrocities."
Douglas discussed his role as a Messenger Peace for the UN:
I'm in an enviable position ... When I talk about movies I can talk about messages of peace, and infuse them into the entertainment pages.
In 2006, he was a featured speaker for a United Nations-sponsored conference on the trade of illicit arms, especially of small arms and light weapons. Douglas made several appearances, saying:
The conference is an opportunity for UN member states to build on the Program of Action and to encourage countries to strengthen their laws on the illicit trade, ... an issue that affects us all ... [and] while owning guns is a legal right in most countries, the illegal trade in guns continues to fuel conflict, crime and violence.
In 2009, Douglas joined the project Soldiers of Peace, a movie against all wars and for global peace.
In February 2012, following his return to the character of financial criminal Gordon Gekko, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a public service announcement video of Douglas calling on viewers to report financial crime. In August 2014, Douglas was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.
In 2023, Douglas served as executive producer and narrator for the political documentary by David Smick, America's Burning, that predicts a coming tidal wave of political, social, and economic division in America.
Philanthropy
In a 2016 interview with Town & Country magazine, Douglas described his philanthropic giving as the “sprinkle approach”. He has given to over 70 organizations including Memorial Sloan-Kettering, the hospital where he was treated for cancer.
Douglas is a benefactor and board member of the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York City and a longstanding board member of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT where he worked for three summers during college. He attended the ribbon-cutting opening ceremony in September 2023.
He supports PEN America and has presented awards at the organization's annual galas. In 1999, Douglas funded the establishment of UC San Francisco’s Michael Douglas Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Center.
Douglas is a supporter of the Clinton Global Initiative, part of the Clinton Foundation. In 2023, Douglas voiced the opening film, "Keep Going!" shown at the opening event of the annual meeting.
For 12 years, Douglas hosted the Michael Douglas and Friends Celebrity Golf Tournament, raising over $10 million for the Motion Picture & Television Fund. At UC Santa Barbara, he supports the Center for Film, Television, and New Media. He also founded and funds the Michael Douglas Foundation Visiting Artists Program for the Department of Theater and Dance.
He serves on the Board of Trustees of The Douglas Foundation which has granted more than $118 million to organizations committed to providing more equitable access to education, healthcare, and the arts. The foundation was founded by his father and stepmother, Kirk and Anne Douglas, in 1964.
See also
In Spanish: Michael Douglas para niños
- List of actors with Academy Award nominations
- List of actors with Hollywood Walk of Fame motion picture stars
