Michael Douglas has opened up about the real reason his relationship with his legendary father, Kirk Douglas, broke down for years.
In his new memoir, One Helluva Ride, Michael, 82, explains how their bond was left badly damaged after he produced the 1975 classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Based on Ken Kesey’s novel of the same name, the film went on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Jack Nicholson, who played rebellious psychiatric patient Randle McMurphy.
Kirk had spent years hoping to play McMurphy. He viewed the part as a chance to revive his career and finally secure an Oscar, but the Spartacus star had been unable to bring Kesey’s book to the screen despite his determined efforts.
At the time, Michael was eager to move from acting into producing. He eventually agreed to pursue the film, on the understanding that his father would take the lead role.
Michael joined forces with producer Saul Zaentz to make the project a reality. Zaentz, however, believed that Kirk, who was then in his mid-fifties, was ‘too old’ to portray McMurphy.
Michael Douglas has revealed that he ‘fired’ his father, Kirk, from his ‘dream’ role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a decision that damaged their relationship for years
‘I knew it would break my father’s heart if, after all this time, he didn’t get to play the role,’ Michael wrote in his memoir.
‘I knew that he had entrusted me with his baby and that it was always the plan that I would make it for him, but I also knew that without someone like Saul on board, the movie would never get made,’ he continued.
‘Every single studio and financier had passed and dad was in his fifties. It was a problem.’
Zaentz ultimately provided the entire budget for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and worked with Michael to choose Czech filmmaker Miloš Forman as director.
Michael continued campaigning for his father to get the part, but both Zaentz and Forman rejected the idea, again pointing to Kirk’s age.
‘I argued my case hard, I swear, but they wouldn’t budge. Dad was 57, and just too old,’ Michael recalled.
‘To be honest, I knew they were right,’ he admitted. Michael then faced the painful task of telling his father in person that he would not be playing McMurphy.
‘One of the hardest moments of my life was firing my dad from his dream role,’ he said.
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Kirk Douglas dreamed of playing Randle McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but at 57 he was considered ‘too old’ for the role
Jack Nicholson, who was 38 at the time, ultimately landed the role and won the Academy Award for Best Actor
The tension deepened when Michael failed to thank his father while accepting the Academy Award for Best Picture, even though Kirk had originally fought to bring the book to the screen
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‘I told him that the financier felt that he was too old and could no longer play the role. I saw a flash of my father’s rage, and then he was silent.
‘Just as I feared, dad blamed me. He said that I had betrayed him. I was crushed.’
Michael said that he had ‘broken his father’s heart’, and that Kirk felt that, as a producer, he should’ve ‘insisted’ that he get the part.
‘It put a distance between us that would take years to overcome,’ he said.
Things got even worse when One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest swept the Academy Awards in 1976, which included a Best Picture win.
As the film’s producers, both Michael and Zaentz accepted the award, but Michael failed to mention his father’s name during his speech – despite thanking everybody else including ‘the cast and crew’ and ‘the state of Oregon’.
‘The fact that I forgot his name that night broke my heart,’ Michael admitted during an interview on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy this week.
‘But on the other hand, I think subtly it was something about me wanting to get the credit. Because he had found the book originally and I had taken it over, wanting to produce the picture with Saul [Zaentz] and made the choice decisions we had with casting,’ he continued.
‘I think I was too young to really free myself up to give that acknowledgement.’
Michael and Kirk’s relationship was fractured for years after that, but they eventually reconciled in the ’90s and became much closer after that
Michael is pictured as a young child with his father Kirk in 1949
Despite their issues, Michael and Kirk were able to repair their relationship in the ’90s and eventually grew much closer.
Michael says that it was a tragic 1991 helicopter crash, which killed two people and left Kirk seriously injured, that changed his father.
‘It dramatically changed him — from an actor desperate to find his next role, into a more reflective person who embraced his Jewish roots, his family, and his legacy,’ Michael wrote.
‘All of us in the family knew he had become a much better man after being given his second chance.’
Kirk, one of the reigning icons of Old Hollywood, lived to the grand old age of 103 before his death in February 2020.
He is buried beside his second wife Anne Buydens in Westwood, California.
Before his relationship with Anne, Kirk was married to the actress Diana Dill, with whom he welcomed Michael in 1944.
Kirk is one of Hollywood’s most legendary actors thanks to his roles in classics like Detective Story, Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and the 1960 historical epic Spartacus.
He was nominated for three Academy Awards throughout his career, but lost all of them.
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