Since I grew up in the 70s, I think of Michael Douglas, a.k.a. Steve Keller -- with his hair and proximity to the late great, Karl Malden Michael Douglas with Karl Maldenon The Streets of San Francisco -- as major groovy.

 

I'm thrilled that AFI shares my fondness of Mr. Zeta-Jones. I'm sure celebrities will do a much better job than I in sharing fun anecdotes (since they actually worked with him, as opposed to me, who went to college across the street from where he won his Best Actor Oscar®). Still, I'd like to take a moment to pay some tributes to my favorite Michael Douglas moments in history:

 

1. Doing Glenn Close in the kitchen. I just turned 40 and would never let my butt hang out of my shirt the way he did. His portrayal of Dan Gallagher also set the tone for many Michael Douglas roles of "privileged white guy in the kind of trouble we would never get into unless we were President of the U.S. from 1993 to 2001."  Which brings me to...

 

2. The Game, Disclosure, Basic Instinct. He is the poster child for the paranoid successful men who get in way over their heads. Funny how he played a virile Commander in Chief in The American President during the Clinton years.

Douglas in Basic Instinct

3. Two words: Jack T. Colton. Romancing the Stone is one my favorite movies ever. The script is sooooo tight and brilliant - and Michael Douglas's Indiana Jones-ish character is fun in his dance of trustworthiness with his perfect foil, Kathleen Turner.

 

Kathleen Turner

4. "I got more square footage." In playing the husband in the cautionary tale of divorce in The War of the Roses, he got to play out every revenge fantasy and say all the things even people in good relationships sometimes want to say. And, let's face it: He is so man enough to take on Kathleen Turner... yet again.

 

5. Of course, the obvious: Greed is good. Yes, he won the Oscar for seminal '80s-sleazemonger Gordon Gekko in Wall Street. It was a magnetic performance. But that same year was the year of the bare-butted Gallagher, and that role, in my humble opinion, was more of a challenge. Plus, he DID GLENN CLOSE IN THE KITCHEN! And the elevator. And... and...

 

Finally, I want to slap the Academy for not nominating him for Wonder Boys. Sure, sure, he's two for two (in addition to Wall Street, he won for producing One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest). But he went soooo against type in Wonder Boys - because this time, instead of battling Kathleen Turner or Glenn Close, he had to go mano y mano with Richard Thomas - John Boy Walton himself. And in that movie, he kinda loses. How non-MichaelDouglasian of him - and THAT, my friends, is Oscar-worthy.

 

Mr. Douglas won't be ignored. I look forward to watching the tribute on TV Land PRIME, July 19 at 9PM.

 

Photos courtesy (top to bottom):  Getty Images, Paramount Pictures, Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.