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Michael Douglas, photo by Georges Biard.

Top 10 Facts about Michael Douglas

Michael Douglas is an American actor and producer, born in September 25, 1944 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to actor Kirk Douglas and his wife, Diana Dill. Douglas grew up with his brothers Joel, Peter and Eric.

He is famous for staring in Oscar-winning films and an excellent film producer. His fame is attributed to his father, Kirk Douglas, who was also a famous actor, even though they had a strained relationship.

He studied drama and theater and generally enjoyed the entertainment industry. In his acting career, he has been a part of more than 50 Hollywood films including Wall Street, Romancing the Stone and Fatal Attraction.

He has received a diverse number of accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the AFI Life Achievement Award. Here are top 10 facts about Michael Douglas.

1.He was born in a family of actors

Michael Kirk Douglas was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey to the famous Hollywood actors, Kirk Douglas and Diana Dill. He is the eldest son of the two actors and was named after his father.

His father was known for acting in shows such as war films and serious dramas. He was nominated for the academy award for the best actor in the film his role in Champion. He later received his second nomination for the role he played in The Bad and the Beautiful.

He however has a younger brother, and two paternal half-brothers, from stepmother Anne Buydens. His other younger brother Joel and two half-brothers Eric and Peter also work in the entertainment industry.

Read more on famous actors in the US here.

2.He began his career as an assistant director

Douglas with Tisha Sterling in the CBS Playhouse production The Experiment, photo by CBS Television.

Douglas’ career started when he got a position as an assistant director on some of his father’s 1960s films. He later got several roles in diverse television dramas and had a breakthrough after appearing in the CBS Playhouse show The Experiment.

His most significant role was when he co-starred with Karl Malden in the 1970s TV series The Streets of San Francisco from 1972 to 1977. He also directed two episodes of the show, and received three consecutive Emmy Award nominations for his role.

3.He got married twice

Douglas with his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, photo by David Shankbone.

Michael Douglas got married twice after he got divorced from his first wife, Diandra Luker. The couple divorced in 1995 and they had one son, Cameron, after a marriage of nearly 18 years.

He has had three children from both unions. He then later married Catherine Zeta-Jones, his second wife, and together they had two children. The two are still together to date.

4.He is well educated

Michael Douglas was well privileged to study acting and theater. He studied at The Allen-Stevenson School in New York City, Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, Massachusetts, and The Choate Preparatory School in Wallingford, Connecticut.

In 1968, he studied drama at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he got hi BA in drama. He then studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York and the American Place Theatre.

Read more about the 10 best universities and colleges in California.

5.He worked with his father

Considering that both his parents were in the entertainment industry with his father as an infamous actor, his career was highly influenced by his parents. His father was a prominent actor and he starred in some films with his mother.

He participated in various films with his parents. He has performed together with his mother in two different films, and he’s worked with his father in five films.

6.His love for music

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Michael Douglas is not only a great actor, but also a talented musician. He has featured in a number of productions as the great role of Liberace in the HBO movie Behind the Candelabra and performed two songs as the famous showman.

Previously, in the 1985 musical Chorus Line, nearly 30 years prior he played a major singing role which was one of his achievements as an actor.

7.He had a terrible skiing accident

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In 1980, the actor had a frightening and dreadful terrible skiing accident. He was badly injured and had to take a medical leave, causing him not to appear in any films. His acting career was revived in 1983, 3 years later after the accident.

Read more about the best ski resorts in the U.S. here.

8.He was diagnosed with Cancer

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Michael Douglas went through a rough journey after he was diagnosed with cancer. He revealed the same to the public in 2010, specifically tongue cancer. At first it was said to be throat cancer but was clarified to be tongue cancer.

Just like any other cancer patient he went through the necessary treatments of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. A year later Michael Douglas announced that the tumor was gone and was well.

In he was extremely grateful to the Canadian doctors who made the diagnosis in Montreal and has since then taken part in several fundraisers for both McGill University Health Centre and the Jewish General Hospital, both located in Montreal.

In 2013, his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, was blamed for his sickness after it was discovered that the type of cancer had been caused by HPV, transmitted via sexual contact, which was later disputed by his spokesman.

9.He has received several awards

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His acting career and his work as a producer has been very successful filled with a number of achievements such as the winning two Academy Awards. One of the awards he won was for acting in Wall Street, and the other was a Best Picture Oscar for producing One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

The only other person who has ever won the Best Actor and Best Picture awards is Laurence Olivier. In 2004, Michael Douglas was honored as the recipient of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for his “outstanding contribution to the entertainment field just like his father Kirk Douglas.

10.He spent time working on humanitarian causes

Michael Douglas has always had a soft spot for issues touching on humanity. He has long been part of the activism for nuclear disarmament with a sit on the board of the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

He was later named by the United Nations as a Messenger of Peace in 1998 which he held for more than two decades. Usually, The Messengers of Peace serve in their position for three years.

In addition, in 2003, Douglas presented a factual documentary on the subject of child soldiers. He did his investigations and had the chance to have a face to face meeting with former child soldiers, a necessary step to acquire valuable information for the project.

Michael Douglas is an amazing actor and a talented producer who made it in the Hollywood scene with not much of a struggle. Despite his parents and siblings being in the entertainment industry, he was really talented and did not need much of their help to stand on his feet.