Marc Eliot - Michael Douglas: A Biography

Steve McQueen: A Biography

Paul Simon: A Life

American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood

Song of Brooklyn: An Oral History of Americas Favorite Borough

Reagan: The Hollywood Years

Jimmy Stewart: A Biography

Cary Grant: A Biography

Down 42nd Street: Sex, Money, Culture, and Politics at the Crossroads of the World

Take It from Me: Lifes a Struggle, but You Can Win (with Erin Brockovich)

To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles

Death of a Rebel: A Biography of Phil Ochs

Kato Kaelin: The Whole Truth (The Real Story of O.J., Nicole, and Kato from the Actual Tapes)

Walt Disney: Hollywoods Dark Prince

Rockonomics: The Money Behind the Music

Down Thunder Road: The Making of Bruce Springsteen

Copyright 2012 by Rebel Road, Inc.

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Archetype, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

Crown Archetype with colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

eISBN: 978-0-307-95238-7

Jacket design by Nupoor Gordon
Jacket photography Greg Gorman/Icon International

v3.1

D EDICATED TO D AVID M ILLER ,

MY R USSIAN IMMIGRANT GRANDFATHER ,

WHO WAS THE BRAVEST, WISEST, AND STRONGEST

MAN I EVER KNEW . H E WAS MY FIRST TEACHER AND

MY EARLIEST INSPIRATION . H E DIED WHEN

I WAS TEN AND REMAINS MY GREATEST HERO .

T HANK YOU , G RANDPA .

A ND TO A NDREW S ARRIS, WHO LED ME OUT OF

THE DARKNESS AND INTO THE CINEMATIC LIGHT .

I AM ETERNALLY GRATEFUL FOR YOUR KNOWLEDGE ,

GUIDANCE, ENCOURAGEMENT, AND FRIENDSHIP .

M AY YOU REST IN HEAVENLY PEACE, IN CINEMAS

ULTIMATE REVIVAL HOUSE .

[ M Y FATHER] TOLD ME, M ICHAEL , I WAS WATCHING ONE OF MY OLD MOVIES ON TELEVISION LAST NIGHT AND, YOU KNOW , I COULDNT REMEMBER THE MOVIE AT ALL . I COULDNT REMEMBER MAKING IT . A ND THEN I REALIZED, HEY, IT WASNT ME . I T WAS YOU.

M ICHAEL D OUGLAS

E VERY KID HAS TO KICK HIS FATHER IN THE BALLS .

K IRK D OUGLAS

I NTRODUCTION

Christ, I saw my father as a gladiator, nailed to a cross, as an artist who cut his ear offand he would be shown doing these superhuman things. Id think, how can I possibly be a man? How can I be the man this man was?

M ICHAEL D OUGLAS

B EING THE SON OR DAUGHTER OF A H OLLYWOOD icon can be the greatest blessing or the deepest curse. For a child of famous parents who lives in that shadow, the struggle to step into the light of ones own identity often carries a heavy price.

Paul Newmans son, Scott, blessed with his fathers good looks but void of his unique talent lived in the shadow of the elder Newmans fame and died of an overdose at the age of twenty-eight. Gregory Pecks son also could not overcome his fathers fame and eventually shot himself. Charles Boyers son, too, committed suicide. Marlon Brandos daughter killed herself after her brother, Marlons son, another failed actor, fatally shot her boyfriend (and went to prison for it).

There are numerous less dramatic instances. Sydney Earle Chaplin, Charlies son, although a fine actor and an ambitious one, was unable to compete with his fathers old-as-film-itself talent and failed to make it as a box office star either on the screen or stage. It was the same story for Sydneys half sister, Geraldine, who had similar performing ambitions but whose career goals, too, were overwhelmed by the reach and heights of her fathers enormous worldwide fame. And despite his singular contribution to 1969s Easy Rider, Peter Fonda never achieved the star status or the prestige of his legendary father, Henry. Although both were alive during the making of Easy Rider, Henry never expressed any real desire to work with his son (except for a brief appearance in Wanda Nevada, an independent film that disappeared almost as soon as it opened, in June 1979, and which may have been the senior Fondas long-overdue and failed attempt to acknowledge his sons talent and abilities). Peters sister Jane did fare a little better. Although she shot her own career in the foot with her Hanoi Jane real-life episode, she finally did get to share the screen with Henry in Mark Rydells 1981 On Golden Pond, the dying senior Fondas Academy Awardwinning swan song. Jane went on to have a long and successful career, a two-time Oscar winner, but nevertheless had to battle forever the demons of her own politics and Daddys long legend. Gender, looks, and her canny ability to choose vehicles that were perfectly suited to her talents helped her to escape the worst of Hollywoods dreaded dynastic curse. And the fact that she was a much bigger star than Peter didnt hurt. By 1981, Henry needed their reconciliation on film as much as Jane did.

Canadian-born Donald Sutherland, who came to prominence in Robert Altmans 1970 M*A*S*H and went on to make more than 160 movies and win a cartful of awards (but no Oscar), is the father of Kiefer Sutherland, a successful TV and film actor limited by his range and hampered by his quick temper and substance-abuse battles, as well as by a lack of breakthrough big-screen roles. Kiefer made his name on the TV series 24, which ran in serial spurts for nearly nine years.

Tom Hanks made himself a force in Hollywood as an actor and producer in film and TV, yet his son Colin has yet to make a solid name in the movies. Sean Connery, films original James Bond, has a son, Jason, who remains relatively unknown as an actor. To the long list add John Wayne and his actor son Patrick; Lana Turner and her daughter, Cheryl; and the Sheens: relatively sane father Martin, relatively crazy son Charlie, and Charlies brother, Emilio Estevez, best known as a member of the cinematically inconsequential 1980s Brat Pack. There are yet dozens more examples of children of filmland famously overshadowed by their more famous parents. Naming them becomes a grim parlor game that could easily last all night.

There are notable exceptions, of course. Jeff Bridges and his brother, Beau, are the sons of affable TV and screen star Lloyd Bridges, a family man and by all accounts a good father, best remembered for his performance on the tube as Mike Nelson in the low-budget independent TV series Sea Hunt (195861) and on the big screen as the smoldering, immature deputy in Fred Zinnemanns stellar 1952 High Noon and in his comic roles in the 1980 Airplane! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker) and the 1982 Airplane II (Ken Finkleman). Eventually both brothers were able to surface from Lloyds shadowwhich, admittedly, was not as long as those of bigger Hollywood legendsand Jeff, relatively late in his career, emerged from the cult film star status he acquired after his memorable performance in Joel Coens 1998 The Big Lebowski