Douglas landed his first leading man role in Romancing the Stone (1984), portraying Jack Colton, an Indiana Jones-type adventurer. This successful teaming of Douglas with Danny DeVito and Kathleen Turner led to a sequel, The Jewel of the Nile (1985). The three worked again in The War of the Roses (1989), a black comedy about an ugly divorce.

He made two films in 1987 which reflected a much darker side: Fatal Attraction, in which he played an adulterer stalked by an ex-lover (played by Glenn Close); and co-starred in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street as the corporate raider Gordon Gekko, whose trademark slogan is “Greed is good.” Douglas won a Best Actor Academy Award for this role. In 1992 he continued exploring his dark side by co-starring with Sharon Stone in the thriller Basic Instinct.

In 1988, Douglas formed a production company, Stonebridge Entertainment, Inc., which produced Joel Schumacher’s Flatliners (1990) and Richard Donner’s Radio Flyer (1992). In 1993 he produced Made in America, then starred as a sexually harassed man in Michael Crichton’s Disclosure (1994), and as the Chief Executive Officer in Rob Reiner’s The American President (1995), co-starring Annette Bening.

He signed a development deal at Paramount in 1994, which included The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), The Game (1997) and A Perfect Murder (1998). He executive-produced The Rainmaker (1997) starring Matt Damon, and John Woo’s action film Face/Off (1997). Other projects include Still Life with Meryl Streep (1999), One Night at McCool’s (2000), and A Song for David (2000), which will co-star his father, Kirk.

Douglas married Diandra Luker in 1977. They had a son, Cameron. The couple divorced in 1995. He is romantically linked with Welsh actress Catherine Zeta Jones.

Douglas is active in promoting human rights and serves as a United Nations Messenger of Peace