Michael Douglas

Michael Kirk Douglas, born September 25, 1944, is an American actor and film producer. Over the course of his career, he has received numerous honors, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Honorary Palme d'Or, and the AFI Life Achievement Award.

Douglas was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to actors Kirk Douglas and Diana Dill. He holds United States citizenship by birth and Bermudian status through his mother's heritage. After attending The Allen-Stevenson School, Eaglebrook School, and Choate Preparatory School, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in dramatic art from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1968. He studied acting with Wynn Handman at The American Place Theatre in New York City and gained early transformative experience performing at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center starting in 1966.

Beginning his film and television career in the late 1960s, Douglas appeared in early features such as Hail, Hero! and the television special The Experiment. His first significant television role came in the series The Streets of San Francisco from 1972 to 1976 alongside Karl Malden. In 1975, Douglas achieved major critical success as a producer after acquiring the film rights to the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest from his father, earning the Academy Award for Best Picture. He later starred in the medical thriller Coma in 1978 and both produced and starred in the 1979 nuclear power drama The China Syndrome.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Douglas solidified his status as a leading Hollywood star. He produced and starred in the romantic adventure film Romancing the Stone (1984) and its sequel The Jewel of the Nile (1985). In 1987, he starred in Fatal Attraction and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, a role he reprised in 2010's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. His notable feature films during this era include The War of the Roses, Black Rain, Basic Instinct, Falling Down, Disclosure, The American President, The Game, A Perfect Murder, Traffic, and Wonder Boys. In addition to his on-screen roles, Douglas established several production companies over his career, including Bigstick Productions, Stonebridge Entertainment, Douglas/Reuther Productions, and Further Films.

Douglas maintained a prominent screen presence in television and film throughout the 2000s and 2010s. He portrayed Liberace in the HBO film Behind the Candelabra (2013), winning a Primetime Emmy Award, and starred in the Netflix comedy series The Kominsky Method (2018–2021), for which he earned a Golden Globe Award. From 2015 to 2023, Douglas played Hank Pym in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he subsequently portrayed Benjamin Franklin in the 2024 miniseries Franklin. In 2025, Douglas announced his retirement from acting, citing his age and a desire to spend more time with his family.

Outside of entertainment, Douglas is recognized for his political and humanitarian activism. He sits on the board of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, serves as an honorary board member of the Ploughshares Fund, and was appointed a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 1998. Douglas has been married to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones since 2000.