Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones have been through plenty. Together, they’ve moved between the US and Bermuda with their children Dylan Douglas and Carys Zeta-Douglas, and experienced a lot of change.
These days, Dylan is an adult. At 20, he’s now chosen his own path in life. Being the son of a major Hollywood star – and grandchild to another icon, Kirk Douglas – certainly comes with a deal of pressure.
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But his parents made sure that their son had the best childhood possible, even moving away from Bermuda to help him.
Michael Douglas was born on September 25, 1944 in New Brunswick, New Jersey to parents Diana and Kirk Douglas, both whom were actors.
At six years old, Douglas’s parents divorced and he went on to live with his mother. He only saw his father during holidays.
Michael Douglas – growing up
Michael Douglas attended the Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, Massachusetts, and later on the Choate School, an elite preparatory school.
Douglas got a feel for the acting business at an early age. He used to spend summers together with his father, Kirk, who was more often that not shooting films. Douglas hung out with his father on movie sets, and in his teens, he knew he wanted to be an actor, asking his father to find him some roles.
However, Kirk didn’t think the acting industry would be a good fit for Michael, since it was one of huge pressure and a constant carousel of ups and downs. He didn’t want either of his sons to enter show business, but in the end, he couldn’t stop Michael.
Michael chose to turn down studying at Yale University, instead moving to California.
“I grew up on the East Coast and was going to go to an Ivy League School, but at the last minute I decided to be a hippy,” he explained. “It was the protest movements on the war, peace movements were going on at our university. It was a fantastic time.”
While studying at University of California Santa Barbara, he continued to ask his father Kirk for a “foot in the door” to the movie industry. In 1966, he landed his first role.
Start of acting career
Michael Douglas made his debut in Cast a Giant Shadow – in which his father also starred – where he played the role of an uncredited driver.
“I was fortunate to grow up and watch how my father behaved – how Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, and Frank Sinatra were at the house all the time,” Michael Douglas said on The Talk. “You see stars with their insecurities and how they conduct themselves, so I think that’s kept me level.”
Michael Douglas graduated with a bachelors degree in 1968 and decided to move back to the east coast. This time he ended up in New York City, where he continued his pursuit of a career in the film industry.
Douglas studied at the American Place Theatre and later at the Neighborhood Playhouse. He got some leading roles and spent time in between performing in off-Broadway productions.
Academy Award winner
Before his first role in a film, Michael Douglas had a brief part in the television show The F.B.I. Producer Quinn Martin was impressed, and Douglas then got a part in the new police series The Streets of San Francisco. The show premiered in 1972, and would turn out to be Douglas’s big breakthrough role.
The show became one of ABC’s highest-rated programs in the mid 1970s, airing on prime-time, and Michael Douglas received three straight Emmy Award Nominations for his performance. He also directed two episodes of the series, giving him experience in a field he later would return to.
In 1975, Michael produced the classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a movie that put him among some of the greatest. The film earned several Academy Awards, and Douglas himself won an Academy Award for Best Picture.
By now Douglas was a great producer and director, and everyone wanted to work with him. He produced as well as starred in The China Syndrome (1979) alongside Jane Fonda. The movie earned more Academy Award nominations and was named one of the best films of the year by the National Board of Review.
