by Marc Eliot
When asked about his future plans, he said he wanted to play Liberace in a TV biopic to be directed by his good friend Steven Soderbergh. “ ‘Why are you going to do that? [people ask].’ And I say, ‘I have no idea.’ … [W]hat I really like and am drawn to is the unpredictable.”
CATHERINE FINISHED her award-winning run on Broadway and took the children to Bermuda. Michael insisted that he and Catherine had agreed it would be better for the children this way, sparing them from having to see their father suffer from his disease and its debilitating treatment. She said Douglas told their children—Dylan, ten, and Carys, seven—the difficult news himself: he “sat them down and told them he has cancer now.”
“The hardest part is seeing his fatigue, because Michael is never tired,” Catherine said when asked about her husband’s condition.
WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS had its world premiere at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, one of Michael’s old stomping grounds, and its regular commercial opening in the United States on September 24, the night before his sixty-sixth birthday. It received mixed reviews and was not a film that created a whole lot of must-see buzz, other than people’s curiosity to see how Michael looked just before he got sick. On a budget of about $65 million, the film grossed $135 million worldwide—good, not great—and won no major awards. It was a disappointment to Stone, but as far as Michael was concerned, it was a huge hit, because he was still alive to see it open on the big screen.
BEFORE RETURNING to the States from Bermuda, Catherine took the kids to Wales, where she had agreed to appear on September 30 at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium to perform as a special guest at a gala concert for the Ryder Cup golf tournament. Backstage, Prince Charles offered Catherine some words of comfort about her situation with Michael. Catherine told the audience that Michael was “doing fantastically well and the doctors could not be happier. As anyone knows, it’s a grueling eight weeks and he’s holding up strong. I’m very proud of him.… I was in love with my husband at first sight and still am. We have the most solid relationship.”
After she finished her performance, she and the children were rushed by police escort to the airport, where they boarded a private jet to America, to be by Michael’s side as his eight-week regimen of treatments came to an end. A spokesperson emphatically denied she was not staying for the rest of the concert because Michael’s condition had taken a turn for the worse.
IN THE MIDST of all this, while he was recovering from chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Michael heard from Diandra, and not in a sympathetic fashion. The last time he’d seen her was at Cameron’s sentencing. She had instituted a lawsuit against him, claiming that according to the divorce settlement, she was entitled to half of any profits from work he had done while they were together, including any spin-offs, meaning Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Michael’s attorney fought the suit, claiming that there had been no plans for the film until long after the marriage was dissolved and therefore it was not a spinoff. He claimed she was not entitled to any more money.
In November 2010, a New York judge rejected Diandra’s lawsuit, not on its merit but because he said it should have been brought in California, where the original divorce claim had been filed. Diandra announced through her attorneys that she intended to continue to appeal. Her motivation may not have been anything so dramatic as lasting vengeance or as pathetic as jealousy or the need to somehow remain relevant in Michael’s life. Or it may have been even more practical and mundane than that. Diandra had lost a great deal of money investing separately with both Kenneth I. Starr and Bernie Madoff and, despite her inherited wealth and her huge settlement with Michael, needed cash.
After Diandra lost her appeal in the New York courts, she made one final appeal for the judge to reconsider his decision, which he said he would.2
Ironically, Michael, known for his generosity to friends and those who needed a helping hand, might have helped Diandra if she had simply asked him to (although friends of Michael suggest that his generosity and at times dicey business investments made to help out friends had been somewhat curtailed by Catherine, who likely would have vetoed any financial help for Diandra, believing the original settlement she had gotten from Michael was more than enough).
And there was something else. Throughout all the years in which Diandra had threatened Michael with divorce, she stayed with him; and after their separation, she made that pact with Michael about not divorcing so they wouldn’t be able to marry anyone else. Michael wanted no part of that tired game. He was over her and had moved on with his life and thought she should as well.
ON JANUARY 9, 2011, Michael went on television once more to discuss his disease. This time he chose the Today show, where he told Matt Lauer the good news, that he believed he had beaten the cancer. “I feel good, relieved the tumor is gone. But, you know, I have to check out on a monthly basis now to maintain. I guess there’s not a total euphoria.… But it’s been a wild six-month ride … [My] salivary ducts have been closed down as a result of the radiation, probably for at least a year or two. So your mouth is very dry—particularly affects you at night, for sleeping. Still have the cheek factor, which will progressively go away. But that’s about it … I’m eating like a pig.… I lost about 32 pounds. And I’ve put about 12 back. But, I mean, I got another 20, 25 to go. I can eat anything I want. They want to keep the cardio down because they want me to put some more weight on. I lost a lot of muscle mass, so I’m going to work on that. I’m going to get my fingers ready for Liberace, you know.… I think the odds are with the tumor gone and what I know about this particular type of cancer, which put a time line on my life, I’ve got it beat.”
He then added, “You know, I’m fortunate I’ve got a mother who’s 88 and my father’s 94. So, you know, I feel good about those genes, but it’s definitely a third act.”
IN FEBRUARY 2011, as part of the Queen’s birthday honors, Catherine was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE, the third-highest rank in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). Michael decided he had to be by Catherine’s side for that. The entire family flew to London to witness the honor. Afterward, Catherine said, “It was worth [it] to have Michael in good health to be able to enjoy it with us.”
In April, back in the States, Catherine publicly admitted for the first time how hard Michael’s illness had been on her: “After dealing with the stress of the past year, she made the decision to check in to a mental health facility for a brief stay to treat her bipolar II disorder,” a rep said, reading from a written statement. “She’s feeling great and looking forward to starting work this week on her two upcoming films.”3
MICHAEL WAS EAGER to resume making movies, beginning with Soderbergh’s Liberace biography. Michael will play the flamboyant homosexual pianist, and Matt Damon is cast as his lover. Filming was scheduled to begin the summer of 2012.
In January 2012, Michael was named the recipient of the twelfth annual Monte Cristo Award from the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, for his career achievements and his contributions to the theater community. Catherine presented the award to Michael on April 16. As Michael had spent those three summers at the O’Neill in the ’60s and been a member of its board since 1980, the award carried both an acknowledgment of his lifelong body of achievement and an appropriate third-act remembrance of how much he owed the O’Neill for the way his life turned out.
AND SO IT WENT, day by day, Michael struggling to remain optimistic, knowing that cancer was a bad loser and had a nasty habit of recurring, and that radiation therapy was an effective option but could only be used once. For the next three years, even as he continued to work, he would have to undergo monthly screenings to see if any sign of the cancer had returned. At the age of sixty-seven, checkups every month seemed a small price to pay to live. According to statistics, 85 to 90 percent of recurrences of the type of cancer Michael had take place within the first two years; 99 percent show up by the third year. If he made it past three years, he could optimistica
lly declare himself completely cured.
In August 2011, Star magazine and others published photos of Michael puffing on a cigarette.
KIRK, OLD AND FRAIL and no longer remotely resembling Spartacus, became a regular visitor to Michael’s home in New York City—to comfort his son, to commiserate on their respective fates, to enjoy the time they had left together. Each day that passed brought them even closer as it pushed them deeper into this ultimately losing competition, not just against each other but against advancing age, illness, and death.
Maybe it is worse for them, who having to grow old and weak in front of their fans who remember them as perfect gods, who continue to watch their handsome faces and strong bodies flicker across the big screen or on TV, gorgeous and timeless, living ghosts of who they once were and who they are now, and what they would all too soon become—memories instead of men.
They enjoyed watching old films together; living in the past is the kind of medicine that doctors can’t prescribe. The cure for everything, Michael and Kirk knew, was right there, in high definition on that big flatscreen, where they were strong, healthy, and virile.
Where movie stars live forever.
1 On December 21, 2011, Cameron was sentenced to an additional four and a half years for trying to smuggle drugs into prison.
2 It wasn’t until June 2011 that the judge announced he still could find no reason to reverse his decision, citing the clear geographical jurisdictions of the case. Diandra then announced she would continue her suit in Los Angeles.
3 Catherine, forty-one, spent about five days in the unidentified facility. Bipolar disorder, a mental illness marked by elevated or irritable moods alternating with periods of depression, afflicts about six million Americans. Those with bipolar II tend to have more depression, with the mood swings spread over a longer period of time and the “up” periods less elevated. The episodes can be triggered by major stress or life changes.
FILMOGRAPHY, INCLUDING
TELEVISION AND AWARDS
FILM
As Actor
Cast a Giant Shadow 1966—United Artists. Producer: Melville Shavelson. Director: Melville Shavelson. Screenplay: Melville Shavelson, from a novel by Ted Berkman. With Kirk Douglas, Senta Berger, Stathis Giallelis, Yul Brynner, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Angie Dickinson, Chaim Topol, Michael Hordern, Michael Douglas uncredited as a Jeep driver.
Hail, Hero! 1969—Cinema Center Film/Halcyon Production/National General (Warner). Producer: Harold D. Cohen. Director: David Miller. Screenplay: David Manber, from a novel by John Weston. With Michael Douglas, Peter Strauss, Arthur Kennedy, Teresa Wright.
Adam at Six a.m. 1970—National General (Warner). Producers: Robert W. Christiansen, Robert E. Relyea, Rick Rosenberg. Director: Robert Scheerer. Screenplay: Stephen Karpf and Elinor Karpf. With Michael Douglas, Lee Purcell, Joe Don Baker, Grayson Hall, Charles Aidman, Meg Foster.
Summertree 1971—A Bryna Production distributed by Columbia Pictures. Producer: Kirk Douglas. Director: Anthony Newley. Screenplay: Ron Cowen, based on his own play; Edward Hume; Stephen Yafa. With Michael Douglas, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jack Warden, Brenda Vaccaro, Kirk Callaway, Bill Vint.
When Michael Calls 1972 (for television)—Palomar Pictures/Twentieth Century-Fox. Producer: Gil Shiva. Director: Philip Leacock. Screenplay: James Bridges, from the novel by John Farris. With Ben Gazzara, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley, Karen Pearson, Albert S. Waxman.
Napoleon and Samantha 1972—Walt Disney Productions. Producer: Winston Hibler. Director: Bernard McEveety. Screenplay: Stewart Raffill. With Michael Douglas, Jodie Foster, Henry Jones, Will Geer, Johnny Whitaker, Arch Johnson, Ellen Corby.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 1975—Fantasy Films/United Artists. Producers: Michael Douglas, Saul Zaentz. Director: Miloš Forman. Screenplay: Lawrence Hauben, Bo Goldman, from the novel by Ken Kesey. With Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Brad Dourif, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Will Sampson.
Coma 1978—MGM. Director: Michael Crichton. Producer: Martin Erlichman. Screenplay: Michael Crichton, from the novel by Robin Cook. With Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Tom Selleck, Elizabeth Ashley, Rip Torn, Richard Widmark, Lois Chiles, Lance LeGault.
The China Syndrome 1979—Columbia Pictures. Producers: Michael Douglas/IPC Films Presentation and Columbia Pictures. Director: James Bridges. Screenplay: Michael Gray, T. S. Cook, James Bridges. With Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady, Jack Lemmon, James Hampton, Peter Donat, Wilford Brimley, James Karen, Diandra Luker (Douglas).
Running 1979—Universal Pictures. Producer: Ronald I. Cohen, Bob Cooper. Director: Steven Hilliard Stern. Screenplay: Steven Hilliard Stern. With Michael Douglas, Susan Anspach, Lawrence Dane, Philip Akin, Eugene Levy, Charles Shamata.
It’s My Turn 1980—Columbia Pictures. Producer: Martin Elfand. Director: Claudia Weill. Screenplay: Eleanor Bergstein. With Jill Clayburgh, Michael Douglas, Beverly Garland, Charles Grodin, Steven Hill, Teresa Baxter, John Gabriel, Joan Copeland.
The Star Chamber 1983—Twentieth Century-Fox. Producer: Frank Yablans. Director: Peter Hyams. Screenplay: Roderick Taylor, Peter Hyams. With Michael Douglas, Yaphet Kotto, Hal Holbrook, Joe Regalbuto, Sharon Gless, James B. Sikking, Diana Dill, Don Calfa, Jack Kehoe.
Romancing the Stone 1984—Twentieth Century-Fox. Producer: Michael Douglas. Director: Robert Zemeckis. Screenplay: Diane Thomas. With Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, Alfonso Arau, Zack Norman, Holland Taylor, Manuel Ojeda.
A Chorus Line 1985—Embassy/Polygram. Producer: Cy Feuer, Ernest Martin. Director: Richard Attenborough. Screenplay: Arnold Schulman, adapted from the original stage play; concept by Michael Bennett; book by James Kirkwood Jr., Nicholas Dante. With Michael Douglas, Alyson Reed, Terrence Mann, Gregg Burge, Cameron English, Vicki Frederick, Nicole Fosse, Audrey Landers, Janet Jones.
The Jewel of the Nile 1985—Twentieth Century-Fox. Producer: Michael Douglas. Director: Lewis Teague. Screenplay: Mark Rosenthal, Lawrence Konner. With Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito, Avner Eisenberg, Spiros Focas, Holland Taylor, the Flying Karamazov Brothers.
Fatal Attraction 1987—Paramount Pictures. Producers: Stanley Jaffe, Sherry Lansing. Director: Adrian Lyne. Screenplay: James Dearden. With Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer.
Wall Street 1987—Twentieth Century Fox. Producer: Edward R. Pressman. Director: Oliver Stone. Screenplay: Stanley Weiser, Oliver Stone. With Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, Terence Stamp, Sean Young, Hal Holbrook, Sylvia Miles.
Black Rain 1989—Paramount/UIP. Producers: Stanley Jaffe, Sherry Lansing. Director: Ridley Scott. Screenplay: Craig Bolotin and Warren Lewis. With Michael Douglas, Ken Takakura, Andy Garcia, Yusaku Matsuda, John Spencer, Shigeru Koyama, Stephen Root, Guts Ishimatsu, Tomisaburo Wakayama.
The War of the Roses 1989—Twentieth Century Fox. Producers: James L. Brooks, Arnon Milchan. Director: Danny DeVito. Screenplay: Michael Leeson, based on the novel by Warren Adler. With Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, Marianne Sagebrecht, Sean Astin, G. D. Spradlin, Heather Fairfield, Peter Donat, Dan Castellaneta, Gloria Cromwell, Susan Isaacs, Jacqueline Cassell.
Shining Through 1992—Twentieth Century Fox. Producers: Sandy Gallin, Howard Rosenman, Carol Baum. Director: David Seltzer. Screenplay: David Seltzer, based on the novel by Susan Isaacs. With Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffith, Liam Neeson, Sir John Gielgud, Joely Richardson.
Basic Instinct 1992—Carolco/Tri-Star. Producer: Alan Marshall. Director: Paul Verhoeven. Screenplay: Joe Eszterhas. With Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzundza, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Leilani Sarelle.
Falling Down 1993—Warner Bros. Producer: Arnold Kopelson. Director: Joel Schumacher. Screenplay: Ebbe Roe Smith. With Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall, Barbara Hershey.
Disclosure 1993—Warner Bros. Producers: Michael Crichton, Barry Levinson. Director: Barry Levinson. Screenplay: Michael Crichton, Paul Attanasio, from the novel by Michael Crichton. With Michael Douglas, Demi
Moore, Donald Sutherland, Caroline Goodall.
The American President 1995—Columbia. Producers: Barbara Maltby, Charles Newirth, Rob Reiner, Jeffrey Stott. Director: Rob Reiner. Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin. With Michael Douglas, Annette Bening, Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, Richard Dreyfuss.
The Ghost and the Darkness 1996—Paramount. Producers: Grant Hill, Michael Douglas, Steven Reuther, Paul Radin. Director: Stephen Hopkins. Screenplay: William Goldman. With Michael Douglas, Val Kilmer, John Kani, Brian McCardie, Emily Mortimer.
The Game 1997—Polygram Filmed Entertainment. Producers: Ceán Chaffin, Steve Golin. Director: David Fincher. Screenplay: John D. Brancato, Michael Ferris, Andrew Kevin Walker (uncredited). With Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, Deborah Kara Unger, James Rebhorn, Peter Donat, Armin Mueller-Stahl.
A Perfect Murder 1998—Warner Bros. Producers: Arnold Kopelson, Anne Kopelson, Peter Macgregor-Scott, Christopher Mankiewicz. Director: Andrew Davis. Screenplay: Patrick Smith Kelly, from the play by Frederick Knott, With Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, Viggo Mortensen, David Suchet.
Wonder Boys 2000—Paramount. Producers: Curtis Hanson, Scott Rudin. Director: Curtis Hanson. Screenplay: Steve Kloves, based on the novel Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon. With Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr., Frances McDormand, Katie Holmes, Rip Torn.
Traffic 2000—Bedford Falls Productions, Compulsion Inc., Initial Entertainment Group (IEG), Splendid Medien AG, USA Films. Producers: Laura Bickford, Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz. Director: Steven Soderbergh. Screenplay: Simon Moore (miniseries Traffik), Stephen Gaghan. With Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Benicio Del Toro, Don Cheadle, Luis Guzmán.
Don’t Say a Word 2001—Regency Enterprises, Village Roadshow Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox. Producers: Arnon Milchan, Arnold Kopelson, Anne Kopelson. Director: Gary Fleder. Screenplay: Andrew Klavan, Anthony Peckham, Patrick Smith Kelly. With Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, Brittany Murphy, Guy Torry, Jennifer Esposito, Famke Janssen, Oliver Platt.