Michael Douglas (full name Michael Kirk Douglas) - film actor, Hollywood superstar, born September 25, 1944 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Parents, famous actors Kirk Douglas and Diana Douglas Darrid, divorced when Michael was five years old. The boy stayed with his mother, graduated from school, and then for a long time could not decide how to build his future life. In the end, Michael Douglas, whose biography then opened its first page, entered the American Place Theater in New York.
First roles
Student years passed quickly, Douglas was full of energy and getting ready for his first movie roles. The young actor played his debut role in the television series "Streets of San Francisco", which was shot for four years - from 1972 to 1976. Michael's character was police inspector Steve Keller, a recent college graduate, a vocation detective. However, working on television did not quite suit Douglas, he wanted to participate in film projects, especially since he watched how the dizzying career of his father, Kirk Douglas, was developing.
First Oscar
At that time, director Milos Forman began filming the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,” which was supposed to be produced by Kirk Douglas. Michael persuaded his father to give him the rights of the producer and set to work. The picture made a splash, with a microscopic budget of $ 4.4 million, box office revenues amounted to about 110 million. In addition, the film received five Oscars and a large number of nominations. One Oscar went to Michael Douglas for making the best film of 1976.
Then the already held actor Michael Douglas made his appearance in the latest episodes of San Francisco Streets and in 1978 took part in the production of the action-packed thriller Coma, in which he played the main role. His character, Dr. Mark White, at first does not believe the information about criminal events in the clinic, but terrifying facts in the end make him wary.
"Chinese syndrome"
In 1979, the film "Chinese Syndrome" directed by James Bridges, about the catastrophic events at a nuclear power plant, was released. Douglas became the producer of the film project and, in addition, played one of the main roles in the film. His character, Richard Adams, a television operator, along with television reporter Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda), gets to the plant at the time of the accident. The confrontation begins between television and large officials from the nuclear energy department, who do not stop at anything, just to prevent the publicity of what happened at the station. The film received several prestigious awards, among which were the Oscars, Golden Globes and BAFTA.
Accident
The accident that occurred with Michael Douglas in 1980 on a ski track, permanently disabled the actor. Three years were needed for treatment, and Michael returned to work only in 1983. He starred in Peter Hyams's Star Chamber, but the picture was not successful. But the adventure movie, directed by Robert Zemeckis in 1984, under the name "Novel with a Stone," made a splash. This was facilitated by the magnificent play of Hollywood star Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas himself. The film was once again produced by Michael Douglas. The box office at the box office was 12 times higher than the cost of producing a movie; in addition, Roman with a Stone received several awards.
Adventure movies
The following year, in hot pursuit of The Novel with a Stone, the film Pearl of the Nile by Lewis Teague was released. Familiar characters - Jack Colton and Joan Wilder - live in abundance, but a measured existence without adventure begins to bother them. And when the Arab sheikh invites the writer to take up writing his biography, she agrees. And here adventures began, Joan was abducted, the sheikh turned out to be a seasoned adventurer, a criminal of international proportions. Jack Colton goes in search of his girlfriend, taking with him an old friend Ralph (Denny De Vito). "The Pearl of the Nile" was accepted by the public more restrained compared to the previous film. There were no awards this time.
Men's weakness, how they end
Two years after the adventure stories, Michael Douglas starred in one of his best films, "Fatal Attraction," directed by Adrian Line. In this thriller picture, the main character - lawyer Dan Gallagher - also had adventures, but of a slightly different character. The lawyer's calm life ended when his wife and daughter went to stay with their parents, and Dan was left alone with his freedom. The lawyer met in the office of the company he served, an interesting woman named Alex Forrest, and immediately invited her to spend time together. The woman agreed, and they instantly became lovers. Spent several hours in the house of Gallager, then settled in Alex's apartment. By the end of the second day Dan was about to return home, but his lover decided not to let him go. To begin with, she opened her veins, and a bewildered lawyer rushed to do her dressing and in every way to calm her down ... The film received a BAFTA award, six nominations for an Oscar and four nominations for a Golden Globe. After the release of "Fatal Attraction," films with Michael Douglas became even more popular.
Douglas main movie
In the same 1987, Douglas starred in his main film, for which he received Oscars and Golden Globes. It was the Wall Street movie directed by Oliver Stone. The plot focuses on the activities of brokers on the Wall Street Exchange, experienced Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), aspiring broker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) and aging Karl Fox, father of Bud (Martin Sheen). Both Gordon and Bad do not differ in cleanliness when concluding transactions; they do not hesitate to violate the law governing exchange trading. Bud's father, as an honest man of the old school, does not support the dubious methods of his son, one day he has a heart attack. Bad considers the father of Gordon Gekko to be responsible for the disease and arranges for him a provocative deal, as a result of which Gekko loses a huge amount of money. In retaliation, Gordon hands Bad Fox to the financial police.
Rose War
In 1989, director Danny De Vito directed the psychological tragicomedy War of the Rose. On the set, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner met again. Denny DeVito himself played a lawyer, and Douglas and Turner were a happy couple whose happiness turned out to be short-lived, and minor quarrels soon grew into a major, all-consuming conflict with a deadly ending. Spectators were perplexed as to how to create such global problems within the same family on a completely level ground. As it turned out, it is possible, and the events according to the scenario developed in a logical way, both warring parties were right each in their own way, and no one wanted to concede.
Personal life
The personal life of Michael Douglas can not be called cloudless. If the roles in film projects brought the actor success and fame, then in ordinary life he had to suffer. Michael was married twice, the first wife was Diandra Lucker, born in 1958, they got married in 1977. A year later, the couple had a son, Cameron. Twenty-three years, Diandra and Michael were together, and divorced in 2000. The fate of their son, Cameron Douglas, was tragic: in 2010 he was sent to prison for five years for drug trafficking.
While still married to Diandra, Michael met the English actress
Catherine Zeta-Jones. Katherine did not ask how old Michael Douglas was, although it was obvious that the age difference was huge. When a woman loves, she does not think about such things. Perhaps this acquaintance caused the actor’s divorce from his wife, according to the chronology of events, we can conclude that Michael Douglas divorced when Zeta-Jones was already pregnant. Katherine is 25 years younger than Michael, has a beautiful appearance, friendly character and is one of the most successful movie stars of the present. Michael and Catherine had a son, Dylan Michael, in 2000. The daughter of Caris Zeta was born in 2003.
In 2010, Michael Douglas discovered throat cancer, before the end of the year, the actor underwent a course of treatment, and the results were encouraging. A little later, he announced full recovery. All this difficult period, Catherine Zeta-Jones was nearby and strongly supported her husband. But soon she became ill with a mental disorder in the form of severe depression. In August 2013, the couple nearly divorced, but in December 2013, reconciliation was announced. Today, Michael Douglas, whose biography contains many pages about his difficult fate, is preparing to shoot the next film with his participation. The appearance of the actor has changed significantly, recently he began to think about the fact that it was time to change his role and play the role of aging characters. Perhaps the best films with Michael Douglas are yet to come.