The upside of ageing is you choose how to spend your time much more carefully ...because you know it’s finite
but kept him out of movies for years because of snobbery about TV.
He says: “Because TV had commercials the feeling was, ‘Oh, people can watch you for free, where they have to pay to watch you in movies.
“After The Streets of San Francisco it was difficult for me to get into movies. I produced many movies but I was not approved to act in them.”
Contacts helped. His first movie, Adam At 6am, was produced by Steve Mcqueen. Michael got to keep the orange Porsche he drove in it. He says it was “worth more than my paycheck for the whole movie”.
Finally, in 1984, his role as producer and star of Romancing the Stone, which won him a Golden Globe, landed him firmly in Hollywood.
Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction and Wall Street followed, all huge hits.
Michael admits there were pluses to having a famous actor as a father.
He says: “The biggest advantage of being second generation is that when you start your own acting career you have grown up seeing your dad with Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra and Gregory Peck at home, and you have seen their insecurities and what they worry about. You see them as real people and it helps you to have a better understanding about the business.”
But being part of that acting dynasty also took its toll. Before he married Catherine, Michael’s reputation with women and alcohol was the talk of Hollywood.
In the early 1990s he entered rehab for what was reportedly “sex addiction” but which he has always maintained was an alcohol problem.
He and first wife Diandra split in 1997 after 20 years of marriage. Then in 2004, his half-brother Eric, who was
HOLLYWOOD ACTOR
Kirk’s son from his marriage to Anne Buydens, died aged just 46 after struggling for years with drug and alcohol abuse.
Hey, I’m 74 and in most jobs they kick you out at 65. I love my job MICHAEL DOUGLAS
When Cameron was facing jail, Michael wrote a letter to the court blaming “genes, family and peer pressure” for his son’s problems.
He has also had his own health issues to cope with.
In 2010 he was diagnosed with tongue cancer, which he blamed on oral sex. He later said he regretted any embarrassment it caused Catherine.
The pair split in August 2013, but quickly reconciled.
Surviving cancer was another milestone. He says: “It feels like a rebirth after you go through cancer and come out of it. You see priorities differently.
“You have a much deeper appreciation of marriage, of your children – you see everything a little bit clearer, and a little brighter.”