by Marc Eliot
2 “I was into hot-rods …” Michael Douglas, quoted in People, May 5, 2003.
3 “murderous …” Kirk Douglas, The Ragman’s Son, 336.
4 “You were terrible …” Kirk Douglas, quoted in Parker, Michael Douglas, 55.
5 “There were, I suppose …” David Garsite, quoted in Parker, Michael Douglas, 48.
6 “On Sundays …” Danny DeVito, interviewed by Charlie Rose for his syndicated PBS television program, November 24, 1994.
7 “One night …” Ibid.
8 “I got into the Maharishi …” Michael Douglas, quoted in Ben Fong-Torres, “The China Syndrome,” Rolling Stone, April 5, 1979.
9 “Our apartment …” Danny DeVito, quoted in People, March 13, 2000.
10 “which Danny drove …” and “Just go through, like Zen …” Fred Schruers, “The Nineteen-Year Friendship Behind The Jewel of the Nile,” Us, December 30, 1985.
11 “This talent scout …” Michael Douglas, quoted in City of San Francisco magazine, October 7, 1975.
CHAPTER 5
1 “I don’t think Kirk …” Michael Douglas, quoted in Peer J. Oppenheimer, “Michael Douglas: Unlike Father,” Family Weekly, May 17, 1970.
2 “add Michael Douglas to …” Bob Thomas, “More than a Smart Kid,” for his column published in the Hollywood Citizen-News, April 18, 1969, and syndicated nationally.
3 “I took David Miller …” Kirk Douglas, The Ragman’s Son, 310.
4 “It’s not an especially …” Vincent Canby, writing in the New York Times, October 24, 1969.
5 “In Hollywood, when you’re a star’s son …” Michael Douglas, quoted in “Kirk Douglas’ Son: Michael Knows What Cynics Saying,” Hollywood Citizen-News, October 5, 1969.
6 “Of course it’s helped being …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Shaun Considine, After Dark, July 1971.
7 “The director was Jules Irving …” Kirk Douglas, in Grant, dir.,… A Father … A Son.
8 “A lot of people think that Summertree …” Michael Douglas, in Grant, dir.,… A Father … A Son.
9 She is a fantastic actress …” and “ ‘Summertree’ is a bad movie …” Greenspun review of Summertree in the New York Times, June 17, 1971.
10 “I’ll keep on trying …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Shaun Considine, After Dark, July 1971.
11 “I loved the role of …” Kirk Douglas, The Ragman’s Son, 341.
PART THREE: INTO THE CUCKOO’S NEST
CHAPTER 6
1 “My producing career evolved …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Jerry Roberts, Variety, August 31, 1998.
2 “a classic story …” Michael Douglas, quoted by Tim Cahill, “Knocking Round the Nest,” Rolling Stone, December 4, 1975.
3 “I remember …” Ibid.
4 “The best work that I actually did …” Michael Douglas, in Fred Schruers, “The Rolling Stone Interview,” Rolling Stone, January 14, 1988.
5 “Michael had stuck in my mind …” Quinn Martin, quoted in Parker, Michael Douglas, 73.
6 “Michael, you’re going to learn a lot …” Kirk Douglas, The Ragman’s Son, 58.
7 “When I started out …” Michael Douglas, interviewed in Total Film: The Modern Guide to Movies, September 1, 2006.
8 “I said, ‘Michael, when you do crap …’ ” Karl Malden, in Grant, dir.,… A Father … A Son.
9 “has fallen in love with a young actress …” Dorothy Manners, Los Angeles Times, November 9, 1973.
10 “Streets is good …” Michael Douglas, interviewed in City of San Francisco magazine, October 7, 1975, on the occasion of his directing one episode of the show.
CHAPTER 7
1 “Ken came in …” Michael Douglas in Playboy, February 1986.
2 “It was too surreal …” Quoted in Ben Fong-Torres, “The China Syndrome,” Rolling Stone, April 5, 1979.
3 “I met with three or four directors …” Michael Douglas, interviewed in Total Film: The Modern Guide to Movies, September 1, 2006.
4 “we turned to each other and started crying …” Ibid.
5 “This was a Czech movie … about a society I lived in … everything I knew …” Miloš Forman, interviewed in Tim Cahill, “Knocking Round the Nest,” Rolling Stone, December 4, 1975.
6 “almost incomprehensible …” Kirk Douglas, The Ragman’s Son, 401.
7 “I bought the book from Ken Kesey …” Kirk Douglas, Grant, dir.,… A Father … A Son.
8 “The director makes the casting calls …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Hilary de Vries, Los Angeles Times Magazine, January 21, 2001.
9 “also fascinated with Burt Reynolds …” Michael Douglas, quoted in McDougal, Five Easy Decades, 168.
10 “Michael Douglas talked to me …” Anjelica Huston, quoted in McDougal, Five Easy Decades, 167.
11 “the starting problem with Cuckoo was …” Jack Nicholson, quoted in Brode, The Films of Jack Nicholson, 185.
12 “Michael Douglas will spend his summer hiatus …” Hollywood Reporter, May 2, 1973.
13 “I think the warning signs …” Brenda Vaccaro, quoted in Parker, Michael Douglas, 78.
14 “We were a beautiful couple …” Brenda Vaccaro, quoted in Ben Fong-Torres, “The China Syndrome,” Rolling Stone, April 5, 1979.
CHAPTER 8
1 “It was magical …” Michael Douglas, quoted by Robert Wallace, Rolling Stone, November 5, 1987.
2 “We think of drooling …” Miloš Forman, quoted in Tim Cahill, “Knocking Round the Nest,” Rolling Stone, December 4, 1975.
3 “For more than four months …” Jack Nicholson, quoted in McDougal, Five Easy Decades, 178.
4 “Usually, I don’t have much trouble …” Jack Nicholson, quoted in Brode, The Films of Jack Nicholson, 187.
5 “Well, I’ve learned that …” Michael Douglas, quoted in City of San Francisco magazine, October 7, 1975.
6 “It was a really magical experience …” Michael Douglas, quoted in Playboy, February 1986.
7 “They took out the morality …” Ken Kesey, quoted by several sources, including the Los Angeles Times, Variety, and Parker, Michael Douglas (who offers no further attribution).
8 “It was a bittersweet thing …” Michael Douglas, quoted in Playboy, February 1986.
9 “I told you …” and “You try not to …” Ibid.
10 “I want to thank you for teaching me …” Louise Fletcher’s acceptance speech for winning the Academy Award, 1976.
11 “Well … I guess this proves …” Jack Nicholson’s acceptance speech for winning the Academy Award, 1976.
12 “It’s all downhill from here …” Michael Douglas, quoted by Tom Roston, Hollywood Reporter, June 11, 2009. In Playboy, February 1986, Michael remembers it was Forman who said it to him. Every other source has Michael saying it to Forman.
13 “The dream started at the Rialto Theater …” Saul Zaentz’s acceptance speech for winning the Academy Award, 1976.
14 “I think It Happened One Night …” Michael Douglas’s acceptance speech for winning the Academy Award, 1976.
15 “It was a wonderful moment …” Michael Douglas, interviewed in Richard Brown, “The Actor as Producer,” American Premiere, Summer 1986.
CHAPTER 9
1 “Everybody was happy to see me.…” Playboy, February 1986.
2 “We had a blast …” Parker, Michael Douglas, 101.
3 “I was single …” Parker, Michael Douglas, 101.
4 “He had this enormous …” Diandra Douglas, quoted in Ben Fong-Torres, “The China Syndrome,” Rolling Stone, April 5, 1979.
5 “If my mother calls,” Diandra Douglas, quoted in Wendy Goldberg and Betty Goodwin, Marry Me!, 108.
6 “A lot of people …” Michael Douglas, Playboy, February 1986.
7 “a great horror movie …” Ibid.
8 “I had thought …” Ibid.
9 “Jim’s reasons …” Jane Fonda interviewed by Aljean Harmetz, New York Times, March 11, 1979.
10 “a
contemporary thriller …” and “an astonishing look …” and “monster movie with …” Columbia Pictures’ PR book for The China Syndrome.
11 “Jack Lemmon was such …” Michael Douglas in Parade, July 12, 2009.
12 “blinding flash of promotion” and “time riding around …” Tom Buckley, New York Times, April 16, 1979.
13 “One of the things I …” Michael Douglas, quoted in Look, April 2, 1979.
14 “My father didn’t …” Ibid.
15 “was well-received [at first] …” In Total Film: The Modern Guide to Movies, September 1, 2006.
16 “The first thought [for me] about the movie …” Michael Douglas in Variety, January 9, 2004.
CHAPTER 10
1 “My producing career …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Jerry Roberts, Variety, August 31, 1998.
2 “be a bad influence …” Michael Douglas, quoted by Claire Safran in “The Michael Douglas Syndrome,” Redbook, November 1979.
3 “I guess what I found out …” Michael Douglas, quoted in Playgirl, February 1981.
4 “Try to pick up a copy of …” Robert Vare in Cue, October 27, 1978.
5 “The script knocked me out …” Ibid.
6 “I just loved it …” Michael Douglas, quoted in an interview for the special DVD edition of Romancing the Stone, Twentieth Century Fox, 1986.
7 “I was looking …” Ibid.
8 “It was a bidding …” Ibid.
9 “The role of Jack Colton is …” Michael Douglas in GQ, December 1985.
10 “Michael’s just scratched the surface …” Kirk Douglas in GQ, December 1985.
11 “I have not had …” Parker, Michael Douglas, 132.
12 “We had Tootsie … ” Frank Price in Esquire, April 1984.
13 “What has happened to the movie business …” Michael Douglas in Esquire, April 1984.
14 “My father taught me …” Ibid.
PART FOUR: ACTION STAR
CHAPTER 11
1 “Romancing’s script included …” Michael Douglas in Vogue, August 1984.
2 “At twenty-three [sic] his career was over …” Michael Douglas quoted in an interview for the special DVD edition of Romancing the Stone, Twentieth Century Fox, 1986.
3 “jaw-dropping” Josh Green, New York Times, March 20, 2005.
4 “I remember arriving on location …” Michael Douglas, quoted in Cable Guide, April 1985.
5 “Poor Kathleen’s double …” Ibid.
6 “I remember terrible arguments …” “The Last Movie Star,” Entertainment Weekly, August 2, 1991.
7 “Kathleen’s a real trouper …” Michael Douglas, quoted by Roderick Mann, Los Angeles Times, May 13, 1984.
8 “Mind you, during the …” Michael Douglas, in People, July 6, 2009.
9 “When we were doing Romancing …” Grant, dir.,… A Father … A Son.
10 “We carried on …” Ibid.
11 “I’ve been told that …” Michael Douglas, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, May 13, 1984.
CHAPTER 12
1 “My first responsibility is …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Richard Brown in American Premiere, Summer 1986.
2 “To balance my family life …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Jane Ardmore in the Sunday Times (London), December 8, 1985.
3 “I had to make a living …” Michael Douglas in an interview by Michael Gross, New York Times, June 22, 1987.
4 “Being young …” Ibid.
5 “She [Diandra] really wasn’t …” Michael Douglas, interviewed in the Sunday Times (London), June 8, 1995.
6 “For the gift of life itself …” Ibid.
7 “One of the reasons …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by David Livingston in Cable Guide, April 1985.
8 “for the joy of it …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Michael Gross, New York Times, June 22, 1987.
9 “is closer to a prick …” Michael Douglas, interviewed in Cable Guide, April 1985.
10 “And when we fell behind …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Louise Bernikow, GQ, December 1985.
11 “Michael never let one leotard go by …” Attenborough, interviewed by Louise Bernikow, GQ, December 1985.
12 “Michael’s determination …” Ibid.
13 “It’s always difficult …” and “What we wanted to do …” Michael Douglas, interviewed in the Sunday Times (London), December 8, 1985.
14 “We’ll follow them …” Michael Douglas, interviewed in Cable Guide, April 1985.
15 “We finished shooting …” Michael Douglas, interviewed in the Sunday Times (London), December 8, 1985.
16 “I take my hat off to Kathleen …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Richard Brown in American Premiere, summer 1986.
17 “I can’t fucking believe it” Michael Douglas, quoted in GQ, December 1985.
18 “After our experiences …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Richard Brown in American Premiere, summer 1986.
19 “Everybody knew …” Fred Schruers, “The Nineteen-Year Friendship Behind The Jewel of the Nile,” Us, December 30, 1985.
20 “He’s had more work done …” The source wishes to remain anonymous.
PART FIVE: SEX SYMBOL
CHAPTER 13
1 “I haven’t had a break …” Michael Douglas, quoted by Jane Ardmore in the Sunday Times (London), December 8, 1985.
2 “He takes my breath away …” Kathleen Turner, quoted in GQ, December 1985.
3 “I could never have done it …” Michael Douglas in People, June 6, 2009.
4 “I don’t know how much …” Diandra, quoted in Parker, Michael Douglas, 173.
5 “I grew up with writers …” Diandra Douglas in the New York Times, June 22, 1987.
6 “Stanley [Jaffe] and Sherry …” Michael Douglas, from a short featurette called Remembering Fatal Attraction, made for the 2002 DVD release of the film.
7 “I had had …” Ibid.
8 “While in London …” Stanley Jaffe, from a short featurette called Remembering Fatal Attraction, made for the 2002 DVD release of the film.
9 “When I created Diversion …” James Dearden, interviewed in Myra Forsberg, “James Dearden: Life After ‘Fatal Attraction,’ ” New York Times, July 24, 1988.
10 “I kept on coming back …” Sherry Lansing, from a short featurette called Remembering Fatal Attraction, made for the 2002 DVD release of the film.
11 “It was a Paramount picture …” Ibid.
12 “I went to see 9½ Weeks …” Ibid.
13 “I had flown out from …” Glenn Close in Entertainment Weekly, October 14–21, 2011. In the Hollywood Reporter, January 23, 2004, Close states she took Valium before the audition for Fatal Attraction.
14 “I walked in and the first thing …” Glenn Close in Entertainment Weekly, October 14–21, 2011.
15 “We were turned down …” Jaffe, from a short featurette called Remembering Fatal Attraction, made for the 2002 DVD release of the film.
16 “For me … the appeal of …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Gene Siskel, Daily News, January 3, 1988.
17 “I remember …” Michael Douglas, quoted in Jack Mathews, “Playing the Bad Good Guy,” Los Angeles Times, September 13, 1997.
18 “And something else …” Michael Douglas, in Grant, dir.,… A Father … A Son.
19 “The movie touched …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Patrick Pacheco in Us magazine, December 14, 1987.
20 “It was not anything we …” Stanley Jaffe in Social Attraction, 2002, a short film analyzing the social implications of Fatal Attraction.
21 “She was a deeply disturbed woman …” Glenn Close in Entertainment Weekly, October 14–21, 2011.
22 “She had been so powerful …” Michael Douglas in Entertainment Weekly, October 14–21, 2011.
23 “It was all rather bizarre …” Dearden, in Myra Forsberg, “James Dearden: Life After ‘Fatal Attraction,’ ” New York Times, July 24, 1988.
24 “I think what was
…” Michael Douglas, from a short featurette called Remembering Fatal Attraction, made for the 2002 DVD release of the film.
25 “The picture used to really drive me nuts …” Michael Douglas, in Fred Schruers, “The Rolling Stone Interview,” Rolling Stone, January 14, 1988.
26 “He saw a killer …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Patrick Pacheco, Us magazine, December 14, 1987.
27 “Mephistopheles—now there’s …” Tom Rothman, quoted in Fox Legacy, broadcast on the Fox Movie Channel and included as extra commentary in the deluxe box set release of Wall Street.
28 “That’s where I learned that a director …” Michael Douglas, Variety, January 9, 2004.
29 “When Douglas’ Dan Gallagher …” Jack Mathews, “Playing the Bad Good Guy,” Los Angeles Times, September 13, 1997.
30 “well-fed yuppie with a face …” J. Hoberman, “Victim Victorious,” Village Voice, March 7, 1995.
31 “If the situation …” and “Gekko’s conduct …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Patrick Pacheco, Us magazine, December 14, 1987.
32 “Fatal Attraction couldn’t …” Kinn and Piazza, The Academy Awards, 252.
33 “Thank you … thank you all very much …” Michael Douglas’s acceptance speech, Academy Awards, 1988.
34 “It was tremendous …” Michael Douglas, interviewed by Robert Hofler, Buzzweekly, September 12, 2007.
35 “They’re both hugely important …” Michael Douglas, interviewed in Total Film: The Modern Guide to Movies, September 1, 2006.
36 later that night Kirk took Michael aside … The source of this conversation wishes to remain anonymous. A similar but different version of the scene appears in Parker, Michael Douglas, and still another in Leslie Bennetts, “Fathers and Sons: A Movie Dynasty,” New York Times, April 2, 1987.
CHAPTER 14
1 “I’m very, very lucky …” Michael Douglas, quoted by Gene Siskel, Daily News (Los Angeles), March 3, 1988.
2 “We needed to introduce …” Michael S. Phillips, reported in Variety, July 8, 1988.
