One of the most successful actors and prominent producers in Hollywood, double Academy Award winner Michael Douglas has over 30 years of experience in theatre, film, and television.
As one of the stars of the hit television series The Streets of San Francisco, Douglas further established himself as a true Hollywood powerhouse when he left the series to make his foray into producing films with the classic film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The film was both a critical and commercial success and went on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Actress.
Douglas won the Best Actor award for his performance in Wall Street, and as both an actor and producer, he has continued to show an uncanny knack for choosing projects that are socially relevant and successful entertainment. Over the span of his career, he has chosen politically influential and controversial motion pictures including Cuckoo's Nest, The China Syndrome, and Traffic, and such popular hits as Fatal Attraction, Romancing the Stone, Basic Instinct, and The American President.
Douglas has long been a champion of social and environmental causes. He has been especially active in working with the United Nations (UN) and was named a UN Messenger of Peace by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1998. His two primary areas of focus are nuclear abolition and the prevention of small arms proliferation.
During 2006, he appeared in a UN public service announcement to raise awareness of the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons and to promote a UN conference on small arms. In the previous year, he lent his support to numerous causes with activities as diverse as representing the UN Messengers of Peace at the 2005 Observance of the International Day of Peace at United Nations Headquarters; narrating public service announcements to promote the Millennium Development Goals and the International Year of Micro Credit (program for micro financing among the poor); and, hosting a tribute to American veterans during the Super Bowl. He assisted the UN and the Government of Thailand with Tsunami relief; conducted a “Global Nomads” video conference lesson on the plight of child soldiers with high school throughout the US; and, hosted the eighth annual Michael Douglas & Friends Celebrity Golf that benefits the Motion Picture and Television Foundation.
In addition to producing dramatic works, Douglas uses his production skills to champion the humanitarian causes about which he cares passionately. One of his most notable achievements is his role in the 2003 Showtime documentary What’s Going On which portrays the abuse of child soldiers in Sierra Leone and the impact of the UN rehabilitation program.
Douglas is an active supporter of social, environmental and artistic advocacy groups such as The Brady Center for Handgun Control, The Cancer Research Institute, Ploughshares, Humanistic Robots, Global Security Institute, and the American Film Institute. He has received numerous awards for his public works, including the Humanitarian Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Courage Award from the Cedars-Sinai Research for Women’s Cancer, the Peace Award from the World Peace Conference, and honors from the Christopher Reeve Foundation and Brady Center. He is the recent recipient of the World Economic Forum’s prestigious Crystal Award for outstanding excellence in the field of culture and for using his art to reach out to other cultures.
The son of celebrated Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas, he attended Choate School in New England and spent his summers on movie sets with his father. Douglas received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara before moving to New York City to continue his dramatic training at the American Place Theater.
