Michael Douglas Michael Douglas was born in 1944 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His father is actor, Kirk Douglas, and his mother Diana was a Bermudian actress. He has one full brother, Joel, and two half brothers, Peter and Eric Douglas. Michael attended Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, Massachusetts and only saw his father on school holidays. In his early teens he decided he wanted to become an actor and went to his dad for help. Kirk was determined not to let any of his sons become actors and initially said no. After much persistence, Michael persuaded his father to help him in becoming an actor. He graduated from U.C. Santa Barbara in 1968. Douglas began his acting career in the early 1970’s, intentionally trying to stay away from roles that may cause critics to peg him as the “next Kirk Douglas.” His first big break came in 1972 when he landed a role on the TV show, The Streets of San Francisco, opposite Karl Malden. Michael left the show to produce One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), starring Jack Nicholson. He won an Academy Award for his role as producer. His acting career stalled throughout the rest of the 1970’s and Michael married Diandra Lukor, in 1977. Their son, Cameron was born in 1978. Diandra divorced Michael after 23 years of marriage in 2000, stating that she was tired of his womanizing and not being around for her or his son.
In 1980, Douglas was in a skiing accident that caused him to put his acting on hold for the next three years. Following his return to acting, Douglas landed his next big role in Romancing the Stone (1984), co-starring Kathleen Turner and Michael’s old roommate, Danny DeVito. The role made him a superstar and opened up more opportunities for leading roles. He received another Academy Award when he starred in Wall Street (1987) and co-starred with Daryl Hannah, Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, and Hal Holbrook. Other films that Douglas has starred in include Basic Instinct (1992) co-starring Sharon Stone, The Game (1997) co-starring Sean Penn, A Perfect Murder (1998) co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Viggo Mortensen, and Traffic (2000) co-starring Catherine Zeta Jones, Dennis Quaid, Benicio Del Toro, Jacob Vargas, Salma Hayek, Topher Grace, and Erika Christensen. In each of those four movies, Douglas commanded a salary between ten and 20 million dollars.
Shortly after his divorce to Diandra was finalized, Michael married actress, Catherine Zeta Jones in November of 2000. The two share the same birthday and Catherine is exactly 25 years younger than Douglas. The couple has two children together, Dylan Michael, born in August 2000 and Carys Zeta, born in 2003. Douglas is making an effort to be a bigger part of his children’s lives and is working on changing his image from womanizer to family man. In 2003 he starred alongside Kirk Douglas and Cameron Douglas in It Runs in the Family. The film was a modest success. On top of his acting career, Michael is also an advocate for nuclear disarmament. He is also a supporter of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and is on the Board of Directors for the Ploughshares Fund, whose goal is to prevent the spread and use of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. In 1998, he was named a United Nations Messenger of the Peace. In 2003, Michael and Catherine Zeta-Jones hosted the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Norway. The award that year was given to Shirin Ebadi. |
