THE DOUGLAS DILEMMA
Earlier this month, the 65-year-old actor/producer Michael Douglas — who is also the son of Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas, husband of Oscar winner Catherine Zeta-Jones, and father of three children — was found to have a cancerous tumor in his throat. In a statement to People magazine, he said he will be undergoing radiation and chemotherapy lasting eight weeks, and that he is “very optimistic” about his future. Based on Douglas’ treatment plan, though, numerous cancer specialists have shared their suspicions that his cancer has already reached an advanced stage and that his prognosis is bleaker than he’s letting on.
This unfortunate news comes during what was to be a particularly busy period for Douglas. In May, he received some of his best reviews in years for his performance as a cad who gets his comeuppance in “A Solitary Man” (Anchor Bay Films, 5/21, trailer), and also traveled to the Cannes Film Festival to help promote his much-awaited return to the role of corporate sleazebag Gordon Gekko — for which he won the 1987 best actor Oscar — in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” (20th Century Fox, 9/24, trailer). Back in March, the latter film’s release date was pushed from April 23rd to September 24th, provoking suspicions that its studio planned to make an awards push for Douglas. Now, though, it seems doubtful that Douglas will even be available to help promote the film during the run-up to its release less than a month from now, let alone endure the grueling rigors of another Oscar campaign.
Which leads me to my point…
As a longtime fan of Douglas’ and a sentient human being, all that I care about is that he recovers from this bad blow fully and speedily. As an awards prognosticator, though, I have to be a little more clinical about this and ask what sort of an impact, if any, Douglas’ affliction will have on his prospects over the months to come. And to determine that, I have to ask myself if there is any precedent of an actor or actress’ frail health impacting their awards prospects. The answer? Absolutely.
I was reminded of perhaps the earliest example of this only last month when I visited the former child star Jackie Cooper, who is now 88, in Beverly Hills. Nearly 80 years ago, at the age of 9, Jackie became the youngest best actor Oscar nominee ever — a distinction he holds to this day — for his performance in “Skippy” (1931). When I asked him to share his memories of the Academy Awards ceremony itself, he told me that he remembers crying into his mother’s lap upon losing to the aging veteran Lionel Barrymore, after which Barrymore came over to him and said, “You deserved this, but they gave it to me because they think I’m going to die soon.”
Other noteworthy examples:
- Alice Brady, meanwhile, was nominated for best supporting actress — for the second year in a row — for her work in “In Old Chicago” (1938). This time around, the 46-year-old Brady was known to be suffering from cancer, and on Oscar night her name was announced as the winner. (Her statue was accepted by a man claiming to be at the ceremony on her behalf. He, in fact, was not; the statue was never seen again; and Brady passed away before the Academy could issue her a replacement.)
- Elizabeth Taylor won an Oscar for “Butterfield 8″ (1960) because she was widely reported to be at death’s door right around the time that voters received their ballots. After wrapping the film, the 28-year-old set off to shoot “Cleopatra” in England, where the harsh winter gave her a cold that soon turned into pneumonia. She was hospitalized for a month, during which she underwent an emergency tracheotomy, as headlines around the world reported. The film was not among Taylor’s finest (she herself says she’s hated it ever since she saw it for the first time), but Academy members wanted to show her their love and voted for her anyway. Remarkably, she recovered in time to claim her Oscar in-person, after which fellow nominee Shirley MacLaine quipped, “I lost to a tracheotomy.”
- Henry Fonda, in a just world, would have already won a few Oscars by the time he turned 76, but in fact he had won none. At that age, he completed the film “On Golden Pond” and was found to be suffering from prostate cancer, making the film all the more poignant and prompting the Academy to nominate and finally award him its golden statuette. Due to his rapidly-declining health, Fonda was unable to attend the ceremony, and died four months later of heart disease, with the cancer listed on his death certificate as a concurrent ailment.
Whether or not Douglas manages to survive his bad break, could his awards season prospects get a bounce because of it? Clearly. In all likelihood, his biggest potential hurdle, in that respect, is not the questionable awards-quality of the two movies of which he’s a part this year, but rather the fact that he already has two Oscars to his name: one for producing the best picture winner “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) and the other, as previously mentioned, for “Wall Street” (1987). It has, however, been 23 years since his last win; he has consistently done strong work on screen and for the film community ever since; and he’s ailing, which nobody likes to see; so who knows? When it comes to the Academy, one should never underestimate the power of sentimentality.
Tags: A Free Soul, Alice Brady, Butterfield 8, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Henry Fonda, In Old Chicago, Jackie Cooper, Kirk Douglas, Lionel Barrymore, Michael Douglas, On Golden Pond, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Shirley MacLaine, Skippy, Solitary Man, Wall Street, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps