Michael Douglas is an American actor, producer, film director and comedian who has a net worth of $300 million. Michael Kirk Danilovich was born on September 25th, 1944 in New Brunswick, New Jersey (USA). His father is the famous actor Kirk Douglas, famous for his role as Spartacus, while his mother was also an actress from Bermuda called Diana Dill.
His paternal grandparents, Harry Demsky (born Herschel Danilovich) and Bryna Demsky (Sanglel, maiden name), emigrated from Gomel, Belarus, in the era of the Russian Empire. His mother and maternal grandparents, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Melville Dill and Ruth Rapalje Neilson, were originally from Devonshire Parish, Bermuda.
His real last name is Danilovich, although for his acting career, he chose to continue with the artistic name chosen by his father Kirk.
Career.
Michael Douglas began his long career in the television series The Streets of San Francisco from 1972 to 1976, where he starred along with Karl Malden. Despite being a very capable actor, his career followed a rather strange course and took a long time to become the great star he is now.
After starring in the series, for a time he only appeared in films that were usually unpopular (e.g., Running, 1979). Michael Douglas received his first Oscar as producer with the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and carried out by Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher in 1975.
Although in 1979, he co-starred with Jack Lemmon and Jane Fonda in The China Syndrome, he remained a well-known figure until 1984 when he filmed with Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito the romantic adventure comedy Romancing the Stone. In 1985, he returned to collaborate with Turner and DeVito in the sequel The Jewel of the Nile, already without much success. Still, he kept a good chemistry on screen with Kathleen Turner, so they went back to work together four years later, in the comedy The War of the Rose.
Personal Life
Douglas married Diandra Luker on March 20, 1977. They had a son, Cameron Douglas. The marriage dissolved in 2000, after 23 years of marriage. Among the reasons given by Diandra was the fact that he was not an appropriate father for his children; On the other hand, Michael had become addicted to sex, so his extramarital behavior caused the breakup.
Shortly thereafter he met Catherine Zeta-Jones, with whom he has been married since 18 November 2000, and they have two children: Dylan (15 August 2000) and Carys (20 April 2003). They often visit Spain, since they own a property in Mallorca, like many other famous ones, an old property of the archduke Louis XV, cousin of the Austro-Hungarian emperor Francisco Jose.
On August 4, 2013, it was announced that Catherine and Michael were separated in May, after Catherine Zeta-Jones was admitted to a clinic to treat her bipolar disorder and after the actor participated in the Cannes Film Festival, giving some statements about the origin of the cancer that afflicted him.