Michael Douglas memoir recounts fallout with father Kirk over Cuckoo's Nest casting

Right · 2Michael Douglas, 82, has published a memoir, "One Helluva Ride", and has discussed his relationship with his late father, Kirk Douglas, in interviews to promote it. 1 2 Right · 1According to the Daily Mail's account of the book, Kirk had long wanted to play Randle McMurphy in a film of Ken Kesey's novel, and Michael agreed to produce it on the understanding that his father would star. 1 Right · 1Michael writes that financier Saul Zaentz and director Miloš Forman refused to cast Kirk, who was 57, as too old, and that he had to tell his father in person, calling it "one of the hardest moments of my life". 1

Right · 1He says Kirk felt betrayed and blamed him, and that this "put a distance between us that would take years to overcome". Jack Nicholson, then 38, got the part and won the Best Actor Oscar. 1 Right · 1When the film won Best Picture at the 1976 Oscars, Michael did not mention his father in his acceptance speech. On SiriusXM's Radio Andy he said this "broke my heart" and suggested he had wanted the credit for himself. 1 Right · 1The Daily Mail reports that the two reconciled in the 1990s. Michael credits a 1991 helicopter crash that injured Kirk with changing him into a more reflective person. 1

Right · 1On "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Thursday, Michael recalled that Kirk gave him a $10,000 cheque at 21 and told him he was on his own. He said he protested that he still had two years of college tuition to pay. 2 Right · 1Michael said Kirk later cited that cheque to his younger sons as proof that their brother "never asked for anything". He also described a Christmas gift of two Italian leather suitcases, which he realised could each hold "22 kilos of marijuana". 2 Right · 2Kirk Douglas, born Issur Danielovitch and known for "Spartacus", "Lust for Life" and "Paths of Glory", died on 5 February 2020 aged 103. 2 1