Michael Douglas Shares DNA With Criminals and a Marvel Actress

Michael Dougless

Actor Michael Douglas appeared on PBS’ genealogical documentary series Finding Your Roots and learned some remarkable family history he knew nothing about. On one side of his family, his ancestors are generations of prominent people, including a Revolutionary War hero who was friends with George Washington. On the other side, he’s descended from criminals.

Douglas’ parents were actors Kirk Douglas and Diana Dill. Kirk Douglas’ father was known as Harry Demsky, but that wasn’t his real name, and Michael would soon find out the reason for his alias.

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The truth about Michael Douglas' paternal grandfather

Demsky was a rag salesman in Amsterdam, New York. Kirk grew up very poor and had a very troubled relationship with his father, who was a difficult man. Michael never knew much about his grandfather’s life before he came to America. He had heard that he had come to America to avoid serving in the Russian army, but that was about it.

The Finding Your Roots research team could not find records from Ellis Island on Harry Demsky, but they were able to find records from a town called Chausy in present-day Belarus that was then part of the Pale of Settlement, the area of the Russian Empire where Jews were allowed to reside. They discovered a notice in a 1906 newspaper that Movsha Danielovich, Harry’s brother and Michael’s great-uncle, was wanted for armed robbery. They also found a record that Movsha had been in prison in 1901 for a different crime.

The records on Movsha led them to other records on a Girsh Danielovich, which it turns out was Harry Demsky’s birth name. Girsh also had trouble with the law. In 1903, he and two other men were charged with robbery, though not armed robbery like Movsha. Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. theorized that the reason why they couldn’t find records on Harry Demsky or Girsh Danielovich at Ellis Island is because he came through using an alias.

The story Michael knew was that his grandfather came to America to escape the army. But the truth was that he came to escape prison. He left that story behind in the old country.

Douglas said that finding out information about his Jewish ancestors helped him feel a connection and some continuity with his heritage. “Understanding the struggles that they had and their inspiration to motivate them to get here for me to have the life that I have now rather than some small town in Belarus,” he said. “So I feel more of a spiritual, religious connection to Judaism than I ever had before.” He added that he wished he could share all this with his father, who died in 2020 at age 103.

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Michael Douglas' connection to George Washington...and the dark side of U.S. history

Douglas is descended from prominent families on his mother’s side, so that history is much more well-documented. He knew a lot about the Dills, his mother’s father’s family, who were powerful British colonial leaders in Bermuda going back to the 1600s. But he knew almost nothing about his mother’s mother’s side. And it turns out they were perhaps even more auspicious.

Finding Your Roots focused on his fourth-great-grandfather John Neilson, who was a merchant born in 1745 in Raritan Landing, New Jersey. During the revolutionary era, most people of Neilson’s social class were loyalists. But not him. In fact, to this day there’s a statue of him in downtown New Brunswick commemorating his moment in history. On July 9, 1776, John Neilson stood on a table in front of a tavern and read the Declaration of Independence out loud. It was only the third official reading of the document in public.

During the Revolutionary War, he became a colonel in the northern New Jersey militia. During the Battle of Bennet’s Island, he led a raid on a British stronghold. The militiamen were untrained, outmanned and fighting uphill in February. But they managed to capture the whole British regiment while only losing one of their own.

Neilson’s valor earned the attention of George Washington, and during the war Neilson provided the general with military intelligence. Douglas read a letter from Washington to Neilson in which Washington thanked him for his services and asked him to keep him updated with intelligence.

Douglas was blown away by this. “To think you’re a direct descendant of someone of that heroic proportion is cool,” he said.

But not everything about John Neilson was admirable. Researchers found his will from 1827, in which he passed down slaves to his children. Slavery was not fully abolished in New Jersey until 1865. During Neilson’s time, enslaved people were held in bondage until they reached mandatory manumission age, which was 21 for women and 25 for men. So Neilson kept young Black people enslaved until he was legally no longer allowed to do so.

For Douglas, the tension of his ancestor’s revolutionary courage and his commitment to the institution of slavery is “the essence of what the United States is about.” There are proud things and there are shameful things in American history continuing through the present. And Douglas said he feels connected to all of it in a much more personal way now. And learning about his ancestor makes him want to be a better person.

Which Marvel actress is Michael Douglas related to?

Finally, Douglas learned that he shares DNA with actress Scarlett Johansson, which means they are distant relatives who share a common ancestor.

Next, Inside Michael Douglas' Marriage to Catherine Zeta-Jones