Reminiscing with Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas born September 25, 1944 is an American actor and producer. His first significant role came in the TV series The Streets of San Francisco from 1972 to 1976, in which he starred alongside Karl Malden. Douglas later said that Malden became a "mentor" and someone he "admired and loved deeply". In 1975 Douglas produced One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, having acquired the rights to the Ken Kesey novel from his father. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, earning Douglas his first Oscar as one of the film's producers. After leaving The Streets of San Francisco in 1976, Douglas went on to produce films including The China Syndrome 1979 and Romancing the Stone 1984. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture | Musical or Comedy for Romancing the Stone, in which he also starred, thus reintroducing himself to audiences as a capable leading man.
After reprising his Romancing the Stone role as Jack Colton in the 1985 sequel The Jewel of the Nile, which he also produced, and along with appearing in the musical A Chorus Line 1985 and the psychological thriller Fatal Attraction 1987, Douglas received widespread acclaim for his portrayal of amoral corporate raider Gordon Gekko in the Oliver Stone-directed drama Wall Street, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He reprised the role in the sequel Wall Street | Money Never Sleeps 2010.
Douglas's subsequent film roles included: Black Rain 1989 | The War of the Roses 1989 | Basic Instinct 1992 | The American President 1995 | The Game 1997 | Traffic and Wonder Boys 2000 | Solitary Man 2009 and Ant-Man 2015. In 2013, Douglas's performance as Liberace in the HBO biopic, Behind the Candelabra, received universal critical acclaim, and the actor won numerous accolades for his role, including Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Awards.