Academy Award winner Michael Douglas has had a career of almost 50 years in feature films. In his distinguished career, Douglas has been nominated for two Oscars and won both of them — as producer of the 1975 Best Picture winner “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and as Best Actor for 1987’s “Wall Street.” For his film work, he has also been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards, winning three — two for producing “Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Romancing the Stone” and one for his performance in “Wall Street.” And as a member of the cast of 2000’s “Traffic,” Douglas won a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the Ensemble. One of his biggest box office successes was also “Fatal Attraction” opposite Glenn Close.
The proud son of screen legend Kirk Douglas returned to the small screen with “The Kominsky Method,” for which he won a Golden Globe and earned SAG and Emmy nominations. He won an Emmy for playing pianist Liberace in “Behind the Candelabra” in 2013.
Beyond his television work, let’s take a tour of his 14 greatest feature films as an actor, ranked from worst to best.
-
14. A CHORUS LINE (1985)
Image Credit: ITV/REX/Shutterstock Director: Richard Attenborough. Writer: Arnold Schulman, based on the Tony-winning musical by James Kirkwood Jr., Nicholas Dante. Starring Michael Douglas, Alyson Reed.
When the Broadway production of “A Chorus Line” premiered in 1975, it won most of the critical awards that year at the expense of his main musical rival, Bob Fosse’s “Chicago.” However, when the musicals were turned into films, the Rob Marshall-directed “Chicago” (2002) was the one that was critically acclaimed, while Richard Attenborough’s adaptation of “A Chorus Line” was the critical also-ran. Douglas, however, received solid notices as “A Chorus Line’s” musical-within-a-musical’s hard-nosed director.
-
13. HAIL, HERO! (1969)
Image Credit: SNAP/REX/Shutterstock Director: David Miller. Writer: David Manber. Starring Michael Douglas, Peter Strauss, Arthur Kennedy Teresa Wright.
Douglas’ first credited screen role was as college student Carl Dixon, who, during the Vietnam War, decides to leave school and volunteer for the military in hopes of fostering peace and love from within the ranks of the Army. Although the film’s storyline now feels very much of its time, Douglas’ screen debut brought him considerable attention, so much so that for his performance as Carl, Douglas was nominated for his first Golden Globe Award.
-
12. FALLING DOWN (1993)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Joel Schumacher. Writer: Ebbe Roe Smith. Starring Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall, Barbara Hershey, Tuesday Weld.
In Joel Schumacher’s thriller, Douglas takes on an Everyman role as William Foster, a laid-off defense worker, who abandons his overheated car in traffic and begins to walk across Los Angeles in an effort to get to his young daughter’s birthday party. On the way, however, he is beset by every kind of urban horror imaginable, from street gangs to white supremacists, in his Odyssey-like quest to make it to his daughter’s home.
-
11. THE GAME (1997)
Image Credit: Polygram/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: David Fincher. Writers: John Brancato, Michael Ferris. Starring Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, James Rebhorn.
David Fincher’s complex puzzle-like film features Douglas as rich investment banker Nicholas van Orton, who is given a birthday gift by his brother Conrad (Sean Penn) of participation in a game that Conrad swears will alter his brother’s life. Once Nicholas finds himself in the midst of The Game, however, he finds that it promises not to change his life but instead looks to threaten it. Douglas initially plays Nicholas as a Gordon Gekko-type but brings us over to his side as he runs for his life.
-
10. ANT-MAN (2015)
Image Credit: Zade Rosenthal/Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Peyton Reed. Writers: Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, Adam McKay, Paul Rudd. Starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michael Peña, Corey Stoll.
Douglas received a late-career boost in Peyton Reed’s Marvel film as physicist Hank Pym, who was once that original Ant-Man and is now searching for just the right person to shrink. Douglas brings a kind of a world-weariness to the role that is absolutely appropriate and has given his career a big boost thanks to the film’s sequel “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” With any luck for Douglas, this franchise can go on for years, and his performance can only help it.
-
9. ROMANCING THE STONE (1984)
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox/REX/Shutterstock Director: Robert Zemeckis. Writer: Diane Thomas. Starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito.
Douglas began a sub-career as a dashing romantic adventurer in Robert Zemeckis’ box-office hit, “Romancing the Stone,” in which he plays Jack, an exotic bird handler who teams up with romance novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner), who has come to South America desperate to find her kidnapped sister. The comedy/adventure proved to be so popular that it led to a Douglas/Turner sequel, 1985’s “The Jewel of the Nile.”
-
8. THE WAR OF THE ROSES (1989)
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Danny DeVito. Writer: Michael J. Leeson. Starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito.
The undeniable chemistry between Douglas and Kathleen Turner was given a third outing in Danny DeVito’s very black comedy about attorney Oliver Rose (Douglas) who finds himself in an increasingly bitter divorce case with his angry wife Barbara (Turner) who will stop at nothing to get Oliver out of the house and end her misery. For his performance as Oliver, Douglas received his third Golden Globe nomination for his film acting.
-
7. WONDER BOYS (2000)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Curtis Hanson. Writer: Steve Kloves, based on the novel by Michael Chabon. Starring Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Richard Thomas.
Douglas earned his fifth Golden Globe nomination for his film acting in Curtis Hanson’s “Wonder Boys” as Professor Grady Tripp, who teaches creative writing at a Pittsburgh-area university. Grady, who has written one novel, is having problems finishing his second, so he distracts himself by having an affair with Sara (Frances McDormand), who just happens to be the husband of his English department boss (Richard Thomas).
-
6. TRAFFIC (2000)
Image Credit: Bob Marshak/Bedford Falls/Initial Ent/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Steven Soderburgh. Writer: Stephan Gaghan. Starring Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Don Cheadle, Dennis Quaid.
Although he is first-billed, Douglas is very much an ensemble player under Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-winning direction in this multi-layer story about the war on drugs. Douglas plays conservative judge Robert Wakefield, who works his way up to be appointed the nation’s drug czar, only to quickly learn that the war against drugs is simply not winnable. For “Traffic,” Douglas earned his first Screen Actors Guild Award for Ensemble Cast.
-
5. BASIC INSTINCT (1992)
Image Credit: SNAP/REX/Shutterstock Director: Paul Verhoeven. Writer: Joe Eszterhas. Starring Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone.
Paul Verhoeven’s “Basic Instinct” is one of the most iconic films of the 1990s, but, as good as he is in the film (and he is good), the reason for that is definitely not Michael Douglas. Although it is difficult to compete with Sharon Stone in that chair when she uncrosses her legs, Douglas’ police detective Nick Curran grounds the procedural in reality while Stone sends it spinning into sexual fantasy. Verhoeven’s visuals also emphasize the sexual tension between the couple that makes “Basic Instinct” a classic among erotic thrillers.
-
4. THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT (1995)
Image Credit: Francois Duhamel/Castle Rock/Universal/Wildwood/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Rob Reiner. Writer: Aaron Sorkin. Starring Michael Douglas, Annette Bening, Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, Richard Dreyfuss.
Beloved in many political quarters, Rob Reiner’s “The American President,” with a script by Aaron Sorkin, provided Douglas with one of the juiciest roles of his career as President Andrew Shepherd, a widower who is preparing to run for another term but who runs into romance when he encounters environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening). Whether or not you like Sorkin’s scripts, he does know politics and he does know character, and he gives Douglas plenty of character to chew on.
-
3. THE CHINA SYNDROME (1979)
Image Credit: Columbia/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: James Bridges. Writers: Mike Gray, T.S. Cook, James Bridges. Starring Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas.
It’s rare that a film makes front-page headlines when real life intercedes with a movie plot, but it happened in 1979 with the release of “The China Syndrome,” a film about a fictional meltdown of a nuclear reactor, a premise that some skeptics felt was far-fetched at the time. Twelve days later, the exact same thing happened at Three Mile Island, PA. With Oscar winners Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda and Douglas on board, a movie thriller never seemed so relevant.
-
2. FATAL ATTRACTION (1987)
Image Credit: Paramount/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Adrian Lyne. Writer: James Dearden, based on his short film. Starring Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer.
One of the more significant films to influence the culture since its release, Adrian Lyne’s erotic thriller stars Douglas as lawyer Don Gallagher, who has what he thinks is a weekend fling with editor Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) while his family is away. But when Alex refuses to let go and becomes threatening when Don doesn’t return her clinging affection, the audience’s sympathy unexpectedly turns toward Douglas’ character, even as Alex warns him, “I won’t be ignored.”
-
1. WALL STREET (1988)
Image Credit: SNAP/REX/Shutterstock Director: Oliver Stone. Writers: Oliver Stone, Stanley Weiser. Starring Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen.
Arguably, Douglas’ most famous role, corporate raider Gordon Gekko epitomized to many the selfishness of those who had been making a killing on Wall Street, with Gekko’s famous line, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” For his performance as Gekko, Douglas earned his second Academy Award (and his first for acting) and his third Golden Globe Award (his second for acting). The film’s success also generated a sequel, 2010’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” which earned Douglas his sixth Golden Globe nomination for acting.
