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Michael Douglas
Ploughshares Fund Board Member
One of the most successful actors and prominent producers in Hollywood, Michael Douglas has over 30 years of experience in theatre, film and television. Yet when he was named UN Messenger of Peace in 1998 by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, he said that the honor “means as much to me as either of my two Oscars.” Douglas won his first Academy Award in 1975 for producing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and a best actor Oscar in 1987 for Wall Street.
He told Secretary-General Annan that he would use his celebrity status to call for the elimination of nuclear weapons and non-proliferation of small arms.
Douglas established himself as a true Hollywood powerhouse when he left the hit television series, The Streets of San Francisco, to make his foray into producing films with the classic film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He has shown an uncanny knack for choosing projects that are socially relevant and successful entertainment. Over the span of his career, he has chosen politically influential and controversial motion pictures including The China Syndrome andTraffic, and such popular hits as Fatal Attraction, Romancing the Stone, Basic Instinct, and The American President.
In addition to producing dramatic works, Douglas uses his production skills to champion the humanitarian causes about which he cares passionately. During 2006, he appeared in a UN public service announcement to raise awareness of the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons and to promote a UN conference on small arms. In the previous year, he lent his support to numerous causes with activities as diverse as narrating public service announcements to promote the Millennium Development Goals and the International Year of Micro Credit and conducting a “Global Nomads” video conference lesson on the plight of child soldiers with high school throughout the U.S. He is the recent recipient of the World Economic Forum’s prestigious Crystal Award for outstanding excellence in the field of culture and for using his art to reach out to other cultures.
In 2005, Douglas joined the Board of Directors of Ploughshares Fund, one of the largest grantmaking foundations in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to peace and security funding. “The events of the past year in Iran, North Korea, Iraq and elsewhere have strengthened my resolve to take decisive action to reduce the nuclear threat,” he said. “Having been a Ploughshares Fund contributor for the past five years, I have come to admire the leading role it plays in catalyzing initiatives to prevent nuclear terrorism, stop the development of new nuclear weapons and prevent armed conflict.”
Born in 1944 to Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas and Diana Douglas, he attended Choate School in New England and spent his summers on movie sets with his father. Douglas received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara before moving to New York City to continue his dramatic training at the American Place Theater.
Douglas is married to Academy Award-winning actress Catherine Zeta-Jones. The couple has one son and one daughter and Douglas has another son from a previous marriage.