After nearly 60 years in Hollywood, Michael Douglas, 80, recently revealed he’s stepping back from acting, saying he wants to stop before he drops “dead on the set.”
Douglas won his first Oscar in 1976 as producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and became a star in the ’80s and ’90s with roles like Gordon Gekko in Wall Street (his second Oscar), Fatal Attraction, and Basic Instinct.
Younger fans may know him best as Dr. Hank Pym in Marvel’s Ant-Man films, last appearing in 2023’s Quantumania. He also starred in Netflix’s The Kominsky Method, and played Benjamin Franklin in Apple TV+’s 2024 miniseries Franklin.
Now, Douglas says he’s enjoying time off and focusing on life, though he’s not fully retired. “If something special came up, I’d go back,” he said, adding that he’s happy just watching his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, work.
He also reflected on his 2010 battle with stage IV cancer, saying he was lucky to avoid surgery that could have ended his acting career: “Stage 4 cancer is not a holiday.”
Douglas will next appear in Looking Through Water (formerly Blood Knot), a film co-starring his son, Cameron.