<b>A groundbreaking portrait of one of Hollywood’s most successful stars, from critically acclaimed and bestselling biographer Marc Eliot </b><br> <br> Through determination, inventiveness, and charisma, Michael Douglas emerged from the long shadow cast by his movie-legend father, Kirk Douglas, to become his own man and one of the film industry’s most formi­dable players. <br> <br> Overcoming the curse of failure that haunts the sons and daughters of Hollywood celebrities, Michael became a sensation when he successfully brought <i>One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, </i>starring his friend Jack Nicholson, to the screen after numerous setbacks, including his father’s own failed attempts to make it happen. This 1975 box-office phenomenon won Michael his first Oscar (the film won five total, including Best Picture), an award Kirk hadn’t won at the time, and solidified the turbulent, competitive father-son relationship that would shape Michael’s career and personal life.<br> <br> In the decades that followed, Michael established a reputation for taking chances on new talent and proj­ects by producing and starring in the hugely successful <i>Romancing the Stone </i>and <i>Jewel of the Nile </i>movies, while cultivating a multifaceted acting persona—edgy, rebel­lious, and a little dark—in such films as <i>Wall Street, Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, </i>and <i>Disclosure. </i><br> <br> Yet as his career thrived, Michael’s personal life floundered, with an unhappy and tumultuous first mar­riage, rumors of infidelity (especially with leading ladies such as Kathleen Turner), and a headline-grabbing stint in rehab. Rocked by a series of tragedies, including Kirk’s strokes, his son Cameron’s incarceration, and his own fight against throat cancer, Michael has emerged trium­phant, healthy, and happy in his marriage to Catherine Zeta-Jones, a Welsh actress twenty-five years his junior, and their new young family.<br><br>In <i>Michael Douglas, </i>Marc Eliot brings into sharp fo­cus this incredible career, complicated personal life, and legendary Hollywood family. Eliot’s fascinating portrait of the lows and remarkable highs in Michael’s life—in­cluding the thorny yet influential relationship with his father—breaks boundaries in understanding the life and work of a true American film star.