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 laborers from the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda to Britain in 1863.[15] The current (installed on 29 May 2013) Bishop of Bermuda, the Right Reverend Nicholas Dill, is a cousin of Michael Douglas.[16][17][18]
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".[23] On November 24, 1969, Douglas formed his first independent film production company, Bigstick Productions, Limited.[24][25][26] 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.[27]
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.[29][30] Michael went on to produce the film of the same name with Saul Zaentz.[31] Kirk Douglas hoped to portray McMurphy himself, having starred in an earlier stage version, but the director, Milos Forman, went with Jack Nicholson, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Douglas won the Award for Best Picture for producing the film.[32] 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.[33][34]
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".[20] In June 1979, Michael appointed Jack Brodsky Executive Vice-president of Bigstick Productions.[35]
1980–2000: Success in Hollywood
Douglas' 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, giving director Robert Zemeckis his first box-office success. The film also starred Danny DeVito, a friend of Douglas' with who he had shared an apartment in the 1960s.[36] 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.[37] In the 1980s, Douglas formed a new film production company, The Stone Group (later renamed Stonebridge Entertainment) with partner Rick Bieber.[38][39]
In 1992, Douglas founded the short-lived Atlantic Records distributed label Third Stone Records.[42] He founded the label with record producer Richard Rudolph, who became the company's president and CEO.[43] Among the acts signed to Third Stone were Saigon Kick and Nona Gaye.[44]
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.[50][51] 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.[52][53] He then starred in and produced the action-thriller The Sentinel in 2006.[54] During that time, he also guest starred on the episode "Fagel Attraction" of the television sitcomWill & 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.[55]
According to film historian and critic David Thomson, Douglas was capable of playing characters who were "weak, culpable, morally indolent, compromised, and greedy for illicit sensation without losing that basic probity or potential for ethical character that we require of a hero".[89] Critic and author Rob Edelman points out similarities in many of Douglas' roles, writing that in some of his leading films, he personified the "contemporary, Caucasian middle-to-upper-class American male who finds himself the brunt of female anger because of real or imagined sexual slights".[20]
These themes of perceived male victimization are seen in films such as Fatal Attraction (1987) with Glenn Close, The War of the Roses (1989) with Kathleen Turner, Basic Instinct (1992) with Sharon Stone, Falling Down (1993), and Disclosure (1994) with Demi Moore. For his characters in films such as these, "any kind of sexual contact with someone other than his mate and the mother of his children is destined to come at a costly price."[20] Edelman describes his characters as the "Everyman who must contend with, and be victimized by, these women and their raging, psychotic sexuality".[20]
Conversely, Douglas also played powerful characters with dominating personalities, including Gordon Gekko, in the Wall Street franchise, who was described as the "greedy yuppie personification of the Me generation," and says "greed is good" in the movie; in Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile, he played an idealistic soldier of fortune; in The Star Chamber (1983), he was a court judge fed up with an inadequate legal system, leading him to become involved with a vigilante group; and in Black Rain (1989), he proved he could also play a Stallone-like action hero as a New York City cop.[20]
Having become recognized as a successful producer and actor, he describes himself as "an actor first and a producer second". He has explained why he enjoys both functions:
I love the fact that on one side, with acting, you can be a child—acting is wonderful for its innocence and the fun ... On the other side, producing is fun for all the adult kinds of things you do. You deal in business, you deal with the creative forces. As an adult who continues to get older, you like the adult risks. It's flying without a net, taking chances and learning. I was never good in economics or business—had no business background, you know, and I like it.
I think I'm a chameleon. I think it's something that I possibly inherited early on as a child going back and forth between two families. I know that whether it's right or wrong, I have an ability to sort of fit into a lot of different situations and make people feel relatively comfortable in a wide range without giving up all my moral values. I think that same chameleonlike quality can transfer into films. I think if you can remember the reason you got involved with it in the first place and try to keep that impulsive, instinctive feeling even when you're being beaten down or exhausted or waylaid, you'll be successful."[90]
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.[91]
In March 1977, Douglas married Diandra Luker, twelve years his junior and the daughter of an Austrian diplomat.[92][93] 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.[93][94]
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."[95] They have two children, son Dylan Michael (born August 8, 2000)[96] and daughter Carys Zeta (born April 20, 2003).[97] The family has a coastal estate near Valldemossa, Mallorca.[98]
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.[99] A representative for Zeta-Jones subsequently confirmed that they "are taking some time apart to evaluate and work on their marriage".[100] It was reported in November, that the couple had reconciled and Zeta-Jones moved back into their New York apartment.[101]
Legal issues
In 1997, New York caddie James Parker sued Douglas for $25 million.[102] Parker accused Douglas of hitting him in the groin with an errant golf ball, causing Parker great distress. The case was later settled out of court.[103]
In 2004, Douglas and Zeta-Jones took legal action against stalker Dawnette Knight, who was accused of sending violent letters to the couple that contained graphic threats on Zeta-Jones' life. Testifying, Zeta-Jones said the threats left her so shaken she feared a nervous breakdown.[104] Knight claimed she was in love with Douglas and admitted to the offenses, which took place between October 2003 and May 2004. She was sentenced to three years in prison.
Health issues
In 1980, Douglas was involved in a serious skiing accident which sidelined his acting career for three years. On September 17, 1992, the same year Basic Instinct came out, he began a 30-day treatment for alcoholism and drug addiction at Sierra Tucson Center.[105][106]
Douglas attributed the cancer to stress, his previous alcohol abuse, and years of heavy smoking.[112] In July 2011, Star magazine published photographs which appeared to show him smoking a cigarette while on holiday that month.[113] A representative declined to comment on the photographs.[114]
In November 2010, Douglas' doctors put him on a weight-gain diet due to excessive weight loss that left him weak.[115] 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).[116] He said he would require monthly screenings because of a high chance of recurrence within three years.[117] In June 2013, Douglas told The Guardian that his type of cancer is caused by the human papilloma virus transmitted by cunnilingus,[6] leading some media to report this as well. His spokesman denied these reports and portrayed Douglas' conversation with The Guardian as general and not referring specifically to his diagnosis.[118]
Although Douglas described the cancer as throat cancer, it was publicly speculated that he may have been diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer.[119][120] 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.
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.[128]
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.[129] 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.[130] Additionally, he has been involved with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.[131] 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.[132]
Allegations of sexual misconduct
In 2018, journalist and author Susan Braudy alleged on Today, an NBC morning news show in the United States, and in several other interviews that,[133] that in 1989 when Braudy was in her 40s and working as an assistant to Douglas, he regularly made degrading sexual comments about or to her. She stated this caused her to wear baggy clothing at work, and also recalled a one-on-one script meeting where Douglas allegedly undid his pants and fondled himself with her in the room.[134]
In a preemptive statement, Douglas admitted to using coarse language but categorically denied any other wrongdoing.[134][135] Zeta-Jones, asked about the allegations while promoting Cocaine Godmother, did not address them directly but said that her husband was "110 percent behind" the #MeToo movement and that she was "very, very happy" with his statement.[136] These accusations have never been corroborated or confirmed; no evidence has been found to prove the accusations and no charges were ever filed against Douglas.
Douglas is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations(CFR).[141] He also a board member of RepresentUs.[142] In 2019, Douglas appeared in a short film for RepresentUs titled Unbreaking America:Divided We Fall.[citation needed] In 2023, Douglas was a key speaker at the American Democracy Summit in Los Angeles.[143]
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 tortured, drugged, and forced to commit atrocities."[150][151]
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.[150]
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.[150]
In 2009, Douglas joined the project Soldiers of Peace, a movie against all wars and for global peace.[152]
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.[153][154][155][156] 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.[157]
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.[158]
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.[159]
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.[160][161]
He supports PEN America and has presented awards at the organization's annual galas.[162][163]
In 1999, Douglas funded the establishment of UC San Francisco’s Michael Douglas Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Center.[164]
Douglas is a supporter of the Clinton Global Initiative, part of the Clinton Foundation.[165][166] In 2023, Douglas voiced the opening film, "Keep Going!" shown at the opening event of the annual meeting.[167]
For 12 years, Douglas hosted the Michael Douglas and Friends Celebrity Golf Tournament, raising over $10 million for the Motion Picture & Television Fund.[168]
At UC Santa Barbara, he supports the Center for Film, Television, and New Media.[169] He also founded and funds the Michael Douglas Foundation Visiting Artists Program for the Department of Theater and Dance.[164]
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.[170]
^ ab"Status Check: Michael K. Douglas". doiapps.gov.bm. Department of Immigration, Bermuda. Archived from the original on September 26, 2015. Our records indicate that Michael K Douglas, 09/25/1944 has Bermudian status.
^ abcdefEdelman, Rob; Unterburger, Amy L. (Ed.) International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers-3: Actors and Actresses (3rd Ed.), St. James Press (1997) pp. 347–348