Michael Douglas's 10 Best Roles of His Career

We're picking the best of the best—from 'Fatal Attraction' to 'The Kominsky Method'.

Happy birthday, Michael Douglas! The two-time Oscar-winning actor celebrates his 78th special day Sept. 25, as does his wife, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones. With over 50 years in the entertainment business—including playing President Ronald Reagan in the just-announced TV miniseries Reagan & Gorbachev—and a staunch record of political activism (nuclear disarmament, combating the recruitment of child soldiers and more), he surely has lots to celebrate. Here, we honor the performer with our 10 favorite roles.

Michael Douglas's Best Roles

Hail, Hero! (1969)

Douglas’ first film-starring role is as Carl Dixon, a college student and Vietnam War protestor who quits school to join the Army with the hope of using love and idealism in the U.S. conflict with the Viet Cong.

Related: Michael Douglas Trivia

The Streets of San Francisco (1972–1976)

For four seasons, Douglas played a new homicide detective on the police force in this ABC crime drama. He left the show early in its fifth season after producing the Academy Award–winning One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

The China Syndrome (1979)

The title is a phrase used to describe the farcical result of a nuclear meltdown—as in reactor components melting through the earth “all the way to China.” But the fictional film, about a television crew investigating such an event (with Douglas producing and playing cameraman to Jane Fonda’s news reporter), resonated when, 12 days after its release, came the partial meltdown in Pennsylvania known as the Three Mile Island accident.

Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile (1984 and 1985)

An emerald hunt through crocodile pits, drug lords and the Colombian jungle…that’s this famed 1984 action-romance-comedy starring Douglas as exotic bird smuggler Jack T. Colton and novelist-in-distress Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner). Douglas produced both this and its 1985 sequel.

Fatal Attraction (1987)

1987’s highest grossing film worldwide is about a man (Douglas) whose weekend affair with publishing company editor Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) becomes a violent case of stalking and harassment.

Wall Street and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (1987 and 2010)

Warren Beatty and Richard Gere were first tapped to play Douglas’ character, who famously quips “greed, for lack of a better word, is good,” in this film directed and co-written by Oliver Stone. Douglas won his Best Actor Oscar for the role of hotshot Wall Street stockbroker Gordon Gekko, who in the 2010 sequel is released from prison and works alongside his daughter’s fiancé (Shia LaBeouf).

Basic Instinct (1992)

Another crime caper with Douglas playing a detective, this erotic neo-noir thriller follows his investigation into the murder of a rockstar and the turbulent relationship he builds with a suspect (Sharon Stone) along the way.

Behind the Candelabra (2013)

Based on a memoir written by the pianist Liberace’s (Douglas) one-time lover Scott Thorson (Matt Damon), this HBO movie dramatizes their tumultuous romance and the musician’s last 10 years of life (as well as the first U.S. same-sex palimony case). Douglas won two Best Actor awards (Golden Globe and Emmy) for miniseries or television film.

Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Avengers: Endgame, What If...? and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2015, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023)

Douglas joined the Marvel cinematic universe as Dr. Hank Pym, a scientist and the original Ant-Man who hands the antennas to Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), in five film iterations of the comic book story, including the animated What If...? (Douglas provides his voice) and the upcoming 31st MCU film.

The Kominsky Method (2018–2021)

In this Netflix comedy that lasted three seasons, Douglas plays a once-promising actor who’s now a Hollywood acting coach; after the first season, he won a comedic Best Actor Golden Globe. Douglas reunites with his Romancing the Stone co-star Kathleen Turner and shares the screen with Alan Arkin, Paul Reiser and more.

Related: Kathleen Turner on the Final Season of The Kominsky Method, Working With Michael Douglas, Activism and More