Michael douglas

Michael Kirk Douglas (New Brunswick, New Jersey, September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Oscars (one for producer and one for best actor), five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the AFI Life Achievement Award.

In 1975, Douglas produced One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Saul Zaentz, having acquired the rights to the Ken Kesey novel from his father. The film received acclaim from critics and audiences, and won the Best Picture Oscar, earning Douglas his first Oscar as one of the film's producers. He appeared in the musical A Chorus Line (1985) and the psychological thriller Fatal Attraction (1987). He received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone's Wall Street (1987), for which he won the Best Actor Oscar (a role he reprized in the sequel Wall Street: Money Never). Sleeps in 2010, also directed by Stone).

His later film roles included Black Rain (1989), War of the Roses (1989), Basic Instinct (1992), The American President (1995), The Game (1997), Traffic and Wonder Boys (both 2000), and Solitary Man (2009). 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 played an elderly acting coach in the Netflix comedy series The Kominsky Method (2018-2021), for which he won a 2018 Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series (Musical or Comedy), for which he received another nomination the following year in the same category.

Young people have become more known for playing Dr. Hank Pym in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in the films Ant-Man (2015), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). He also voiced an alternate version of the character in the MCU animated television series What If...?

Early Years

Douglas was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the first child of Russian-Jewish actor and producer Kirk Douglas (1916-2020, pseudonym Issur Danielovitch) and Bermudian actress Diana Douglas (1923-2015, born Diana Love Dill).

His paternal grandparents, Herchel "Harry" Danielovitch and Bryna Danielovitch (née Sanglel), immigrated from Gomel, Belarus, at the time of the Russian Empire. His mother and maternal grandparents, Lt. Col. Thomas Melville Dill and Ruth Rapalje Neilson, were originally from Devonshire Parish, Bermuda. His maternal grandfather was an attorney general in Bermuda and an artillery militia officer. Douglas has a younger brother: Joel Douglas (b. 1947) and two paternal half-brothers: Peter Douglas (b. 1955), who also has issue, and Eric Douglas (1958-2004).

His great-grandfather Thomas Newbold Dill (1837-1910) was a merchant, MCP of Devonshire Parish from 1868 to 1888, member of the legislative council and assistant magistrate from 1888, Mayor of the City of Hamilton from 1891 to 1897, served on numerous committees and boards, and was a member of the Church of Devonshire (Church of England) and Devonshire vestry boards. Thomas Newbold Dill's father, another Thomas Melville Dill, was a sea captain who took the Bermuda-built barque Sir George F. Seymour from Bermuda to Ireland in thirteen days in March 1858, but lost his title of captain after the shipwreck of the boat built in Bermuda. He cedrine on the Isle of Wight while returning to Britain in 1863 the last convict workers of the Royal Bermuda Naval Dockyard. The current Bishop (installed May 29, 2013) of Bermuda, the Rev. Nicholas Dill, is a cousin of Michael Douglas.

Career

Douglas began his long career on the television series The Streets of San Francisco, from 1972 to 1976, where he starred opposite Karl Malden.

Despite being a very capable actor, his career took a somewhat strange turn and it took him a long time to become the huge star he is today. After starring in the aforementioned series, for a while, he only appeared in films that were usually not very popular (for example, Running , from 1979).

Douglas received his first Oscar as a producer with the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, translated in some Spanish-speaking countries as Someone Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest i> or Trapped with No Way Out, and starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher in 1975.

Michael Douglas in a series scene The streets of San Francisco

Although in 1979 he co-starred with Jack Lemmon and Jane Fonda in the hit The China Syndrome (The China Syndrome), he remained only a half-known figure, until in 1984 he shot with Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito the romantic adventure comedy Romancing the Stone. His role in this commercially successful film shows him as an actor capable of playing leading roles and in different interpretive registers. In 1985 he returned to collaborate with Turner and DeVito on the sequel The Jewel of the Nile , which was not as successful. Still, he maintained a good chemistry on screen with Kathleen Turner, so they worked together again four years later, in the comedy War of the Roses .

Douglas established himself as a box office star playing a cheating husband in Fatal Attraction, with Glenn Close as the female lead. Automatically the film became a worldwide success and became part of the cult cinema of Hollywood. Her character in that film marked a clear turning point in her film career. Both Douglas and Close attended Choate Rosemary Hall High School. Michael Douglas would insist on a similar role as a troubled man in two other hit movies: Basic Instinct, with Sharon Stone, and Harassment, this time beleaguered by Demi Moore.

His first acting Oscar was obtained for the leading role of Wall Street in 1988. In 2010 the sequel to this film was released, again with Douglas and with Oliver Stone as director, entitled Wall Street 2: Money never sleeps.

His recent work includes Steven Soderbergh's Traffic, the comedy Last Vegas (with Robert De Niro and Morgan Freeman) and Behind the Candelabra (with Matt Damon), where Douglas plays the gay pianist Liberace.

From 2007 to 2015, Douglas was the announcer for the start of NBC Nightly News for NBC, his line was every day to say “From NBC News world headquarters in New York. This, is NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams."

In October 2011, Michael received the Kirk Douglas Award for his contribution to the world of cinema from his father, Kirk Douglas, at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Personal life

Douglas married Diandra Luker on March 20, 1977. They had one son, Cameron Douglas. The marriage was dissolved in the year 2000, after twenty-three years of union. Among the reasons given by Diandra was the fact that he was not a suitable father for her children. On the other hand, Michael had become addicted to sex, so his extramarital behavior caused the breakup.

Shortly thereafter, he met Catherine Zeta-Jones, whom he married on November 18, 2000, and they had 2 children: Dylan (August 15, 2000) and Carys (April 20, 2003). They often visit Spain, since they own a farm in Majorca, like many other famous people, former property of Archduke Luis Salvador, cousin of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz José.

On August 4, 2013, it was announced that Catherine and Michael separated in May, after Catherine Zeta-Jones was admitted to a clinic to treat her bipolar disorder and after the actor participated in the Festival de Cannes making controversial statements about the origin of the cancer that afflicted him; the couple did not initiate divorce proceedings.

On January 2, 2014, they announced their reconciliation. Photos were taken of the couple with their two children and with wedding rings. It is rumored that the couple renewed their vows on his birthday, September 25, 2014, in the synagogue located on Calle Monseñor Palmer in Palma de Mallorca.

Filmography

Awards and nominations