Some Michael Douglas Films I Love

 September 25th is the birthday of actor/producer Michael Douglas. He's one of those stars I loved interviewing. Like his dad, Kirk Douglas, he was always present and charming and smart in his interviews. And he made it a point to remember your name. Michael Douglas has had terrific success in the film area of show business. We saw him in box office hits such as THE CHINA SYNDROME, ROMANCING THE STONE, JEWEL OF THE NILE, FATAL ATTRACTION and BASIC INSTINCT. He won the Best Actor for WALL STREET (1987). He won a producer Oscar for giving us the Best Picture of 1975 -- ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST.

As an actor, we know him from and like him in those box office hits. I certainly do. However, my favorite Michael Douglas performances are in smaller films, films that may have been a bit under the box office radar in their theatrical release. They are films in which leading man Michael Douglas lets his hair go gray, if you will. In those smaller movies, he gives his acting muscles a real workout. He stretches himself and it's excellent to see. Mind if I share my favorites with you?

BEHIND THE CANDELABRA (2013): I still feel that if this HBO production had been a theatrical release, Michael Douglas would have been in the Best Actor Oscar race. After films like ROMANCING THE STONE and WALL STREET, he seemed like an unlikely choice to play the flamboyant pianist/showman, Liberace, but he's remarkable in the role. He plays Liberace as he was in the last highly-publicized and highly-successful chapter of his career. He's shrewd, self-absorbed, lusty, involved with a younger man and is going pleasantly to seed. Matt Damon co-stars. This is one of those features that shows what an underrated actress Debbie Reynolds was. She plays Liberace's mother.

SOLITARY MAN (2009): Off-screen, Douglas had a reputation for having been a lovable and liberal Lothario. In this indie movie, he stars as a successful car dealer who gets a medical check-up. When he realizes that he's getting older and has a medical issue, he's forced to face some facts about past business practices and romances.

KING OF CALIFORNIA (2007): In this loopy indie movie role, Douglas plays a jazz-loving dad with a conquistador beard who's released from a mental institution. He moves in with his daughter. She works at a McDonald's. He makes her life a little chaotic when he believes that there's Spanish gold buried underneath a local Costco store and he's determined to dig it up.

WONDER BOYS (2000): Based on a novel by Michael Chabon. Screenplay by Steve Kloves who gave us THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS. Directed by Curtis Hanson who gave us L.A. CONFIDENTIAL. Douglas is in peak form as a gray-haired novelist/professor experiencing a long streak of writer's block. This frustrates his young editor. His book is overdue, his wife s leaving home, he's having some other high drama in his personal life. What a juicy role and what a fine performance in an equally fine film.

There you have it. A few of my favorite Michael Douglas film performances. By the way, did you know that he and his Oscar winner wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, share a birthday? Happy Birthday to them both.