Big anniversary

Happy birthday: cult actor Michael Douglas is 80

For his role as the ruthless stockbroker Gordon Gekko, Michael Douglas won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1988.

(Bild: Warner Bros.)

In a career spanning almost 60 years, he has left his mark on Hollywood like no other. From "Wall Street" to "Basic Instinct" to "Falling Down" - with a myriad of blockbusters, as well as two Oscars and four Golden Globe awards, Michael Douglas has long since created a monument to himself.

There are two types of people with successful parents. Those who wither in the shadow of their overpowering ancestors and those who manage to emerge from the darkness and blossom. Michael Issurovich Demsky, better known as Michael Douglas, is definitely one of the latter. While his grandfather, an emigrant from what was then the Russian Empire, eked out a living as a rag picker in the slums of New York, his father Kirk Douglas was already fighting for a permanent place in film history - as one of the last great stars of Hollywood's golden era. Despite his legendary status, his son Michael was able to overtake him on his way to the Hollywood Olympus and become one of the most successful and sought-after character actors of his profession.

With Kirk Douglas (right) as his father, Michael Douglas followed in big footsteps - with flying colors...

(Bild: ORF)

There's no such thing as impossible

If you had to summarize Douglas' career in one sentence, it would probably be: There's no such thing as impossible. Whether action, drama, thriller, comedy, film or series - there has hardly been a role in his almost 60-year career that he has not slipped into with flying colors. He celebrated his breakthrough in the 1970s alongside Karl Malden in the TV series "The Streets of San Francisco". More or less incidentally, he also won his first Oscar in 1975. As the producer of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", he had acquired the film rights to the novel of the same name from his father and was awarded one of a total of five gold statues in the "Best Film" category.

Douglas celebrated his breakthrough alongside Karl Malden in "The Streets of San Francisco".

(Bild: Warner Bros.)

From stock market shark to founding father

After that, things went from strength to strength. In addition to the nuclear power thriller "The China Syndrome" with Jane Fonda, he co-starred with Kathleen Turner in "On the Hunt for the Green Diamond", directed "A Chorus Line" on Broadway, entered into "A Doomed Affair" with Glenn Close until he finally won his second Oscar, this time for Best Actor in a Leading Role, as the unscrupulous stock market shark Gordon Gekko in "Wall Street". He caused controversy together with Sharon Stone in "Basic Instinct", as well as in "Falling Down", in David Fincher's "The Game" and in Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic". In recent years, Douglas has once again shown that he really can play anything - from the gay entertainer "Liberace" to the hilarious Netflix comedy series "The Kominsky Method" with Alan Arkin to the superhero series "Ant-Man" and founding father Benjamin Franklin in the AppleTV+ mini-series "Franklin".

Douglas caused controversy with Sharon Stone in "Basic Instinct".

(Bild: TriStar Pictures)

Love bliss, cancer drama and immortality

In 1977, Douglas married Diandra Luker, 12 years his junior and the daughter of an Austrian diplomat, with whom he has a son, Cameron. They divorced in 1995 and married fellow actress Catherine Zeta-Jones five years later. In the same year, their son Dylan was born, followed three years later by daughter Carys. Still happily married today, Douglas and Zeta-Jones' relationship was not always a bed of roses. In 2013, the couple took some time out to successfully work on their marriage

Happily married since 2000: Michael Douglas and Cathrine Zeta-Jones.

(Bild: REUTERS)

Douglas' fight against cancer was also successful. In 2010, he announced that he had throat cancer, which was later revealed to be tongue cancer. After undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy, the actor announced in 2011 that the tumor had completely disappeared and the cancer was beaten.

If he has inherited his father's good genes - Kirk was 103 - then Michael Douglas could be granted a long life. Either way, the exceptional talent has long since made himself immortal with his work.