Biography of Michael Douglas
From generation to generation
September 25, 1944Michael Kirk Douglas aka Michael Kirk Demsky, sees the light Monday, September 25, 1944 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, New York, town in the hinterland of Middlesex County. Michael is the son of Bermuda's most famous actress Diana Dill and actor Kirk Douglas. Michael's paternal grandparents were Russian Jews immigrated from the former Soviet Union. Herschel Danielovitch and Bryna grandmother Sanglel grandfather, are in fact originate in Gomel (or Homel) second largest city in Belarus, after the capital Minsk.
His maternal grandparents, come instead from Bermuda, where his grandfather Thomas is an army General. In 1951 the father Kirk, said in the film career, is separated from his wife. The little six year old Michael tap to go live with his mother and his brother Joel, born in 1947, in Connecticut. He attended the Allen-Stevenson; in 1960 goes Deerfield, Massachusetts and attended Eaglebrook School and graduated at the age of nineteen in 1963 at the Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut.
Sure to have a future in the movie business wants to play in his father's footsteps, which initially didn't see kindly to this choice. He moved then in California, and more specifically in Santa Barbara, where he enrolled at the University. On campus makes acquaintance with Danny DeVito who becomes his roommate. He attended the University of California, which in 1966 confers a degree in dramatic arts. After University, he decided to move to New York to pursue acting career. Yet in contrast with his father Kirk Douglas who wants him involved in anything, the young actor you pay out of his own pocket the acting classes. The younger Michael is still a promising actor and Director Melville Shavelson makes debut in a role in a dramatic film starring the father himself. The title is "night fighters" and the cast includes other famous names like Frank Sinatra, John Wayne and Yul Brynner. After years of appearances and ranks, in 1969, thanks to her performance in the film "Hail, Hero!" the young actor receives the first awards by audiences and critics that mentions the Golden Globe in the category of new promises.
In the early 1970s refuses a couple of roles in major motion pictures, not wanting to be the alter-ego of the father which physically resembles very much; in 1972 Michael Douglas accepts a role as an actor starring in the police drama "the streets of San Francisco". The production entrusted him with the role of the young Inspector Steve Keller who works in tandem with the more experienced detective Mike Stone played by actor Karl Malden. It is a success: the series is mentioned in many awards and has been going on for four years; in total twenty-one episodes are recorded. Besides being a good actor, unlike his father, Michael Douglas also has an entrepreneurial spirit. With the proceeds from "the streets of San Francisco" began his career as a film producer. He opened his own production studio: the "Big Stick" in 1975 Productions invests in film that wins the Oscar best picture, "one flew over the cuckoo's nest" starring among others by Danny DeVito and a Masterful Jack Nicholson. He married Diandra Luker on March 20, also a producer, of 1977; the following year she starred in the film "deep Coma" in the role of Dr. Mark Bellows; then comes the son Cameron Douglas.
In 1979 gets hit with her performance in the film "the China Syndrome" alongside Jack Lemmon and Jane Fonda. Then, due to a serious accident while wake, from 1980 to 1983 it must forcibly remove from the scene. His return to the big screen is in the company of his old friend Danny DeVito. With him and the actress Kathleen Turner plays in 1984 the adventure movie "Romancing the stone". The film was a moderate success, such that the following year the cast is confirmed for the production of the sequel: "the jewel of the Nile". Two years later Michael Douglas reads with Gleenn Close a part in the movie "fatal attraction", which makes it a sex symbol.
In the same year, directed by Oliver Stone, plays the role that consecrates the Olympus of the best actors in Hollywood; his performance in the role of Gordon Gekko in the movie "Wall Street" makes him win in one fell swoop the Oscar as best supporting actor, a Golden Globe, an Academy Awards and other accolades. In 1989 stretching her production company, reads for a movie directed by Ridley Scott ("Black Rain") and "the war of the Roses", where he reformed the trio with Danny DeVito and Kathleen Turner as additional Golden Globe nominations. The success and alcohol give you the head. Is forced to another period of forced removal from the scene to Detox. Back in 1992 when interpreting another film that leaves its mark: "Basic Instinct". Michael Douglas starred in another bombshell, Sharon Stone. Follow years in which starred in successful films, but none of the previous level. In 1993 "one day of ordinary madness" alongside Robert Duvall. In 1997 starred with Sean Penn in "The Game-no rules," produces "Face/Off" as performed by John Travolta and Nicolas Cage and "the Rainmaker" with Matt Damon and Danny DeVito, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The 1998 is the year of the remake of "perfect crime" in the company of beautiful American actress Gwyneth Paltrow. In the summer of that year he met in France at a festival, the actress Catherine Zeta-Jones. Micheal falls in love with her.
That same year he was nominated for the Emmy due to its participation in the tv show "Will & Grace." He founded a non-profit organisation "Michael Douglas Foundation" which seeks various humanitarian purposes: from nuclear disarmament to the preservation of the planet's ecosystem. As a result, Kofi Annan appointed Secretary of the United Nations "Messenger of peace". At this time prefer to organize charity golf tournaments in background, and play with it rather than acting; in 2000 he divorces his wife and marries Catherine Zeta-Jones. From this marriage the day August 8 Dylan Michael Douglas. He returned to acting in 2003, playing a role in the serial "Freedom-a History of Us", starring starring Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Michael Caine, Susan Sarandon, Kevin Spacey, Tom Hanks, Glenn Close and Samuel l. Jackson. With his father, mother and son Kirk Cameron plays a role in the film "it runs in the family".
The day 20 February the couple Douglas/Zeta-Jones has another heir: Carys Zeta. Reads then in films of "cassette" ("you, me and Dupree" in 2006, "Charlie" in 2007, "ghosts of former" in 2009). In 2009 returns on set with Danny DeVito and Susan Sarandon to participate in the film "Solitary Man". On August 16, 2010 is reported that Michael Douglas is suffering from throat cancer and is already making radiation therapies. On 31 August, Michael is a guest on "Late show with David Letterman where confirms the news; After about six months of chemo and radiation therapy, at the beginning of 2011, claims to have cured an American NBC in an interview.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.