A rare breed this guy. Paul Douglas became an unlikely middle-aged cinema star by simply capitalizing on his big, burly, brash and boorish appeal to the nth degree. The 5'11", 200 lb. actor was a bold, unabashed risk taker. He forsook an extremely successful career as one of the country's top radio/sports announcers to prove his value as an actor. ...
April 11, 1907, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Died
September 11, 1959, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States
Place Of Birth
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Height
5' 11" (1.8 m)
Profession
Actor, Soundtrack
Spouse
Jan Sterling (m. 1950–1959), Virginia Field (m. 1942–1946), Geraldine Higgins (m. 1940–1941)
Children
Adams Douglas, Celia Douglas, Margaret Field Douglas, Johnnie Douglas
Star Sign
Aries
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Quote
1
An actor who isn't working is nothing and you get to a point in pictures where you get fat mentally. It doesn't call for much upstairs. It's a challenge to sustain a play from 8:45 to 11:00, which you are never confronted with in pictures...You have to go away from Hollywood and play a lead before they'll re-believe you're a leading man...Every seven years you have to be rediscovered. -- PD, on why he returned to Broadway in 1957
2
"The Method" give me a great big pain. How can Hollywood expect these method swingers to play comedy when they are so serious they have no sense of themselves, anyone else or about anything. If you ask me, this new breed working in movies and on TV today has lost contact with their humanity. -- PD, from a 1959 L.A. Mirror-News article
3
Greta Garbo could pick up her phone today and call a studio and get half-million dollars for just consenting to appear in a movie. And this is despite the fact that, today, she looks like Spencer Tracy -- PD, from a 1958 L.A. Mirror News article.
4
By and large theatre actors are better than movie actors because they understand responsibility. When the curtain goes up on a play you are on you own. You're trapped. I think that the two mediums to look forward to working in are the theatre and television, but I must say that Hollywood isn't a dead city by any means, I'll surely be going back some time.
5
The public's so relieved to see somebody besides a junior Adonis in the boy-meets-girl set-up they give me a cheer. Guys look at me and say, 'If that mug can win a gal, It's a cinch for me.'
6
The studio camera man enjoys working with me. You know why? It's because he doesn't have to worry about my bad angle -- they'e all bad. He doesn't have to fuss with the lights or anything, because nothing he could do could make me look better. I'm a cinch for the make-up men too. They figure nothing can be done, so that's what they do.
7
I have an Adam's apple that would kill the sale of collars, a nose that looks as if it has been left over from a bargain sale and the build of one of those post offices that were constructed during the depression days of the Nineteen Thirties.
8
I was a character (actor) ever since I was born.
9
"If you go to bat often enough, you're bound to get a hit." - On marrying Jan Sterling, his fifth wife.
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Fact
1
Paul Douglas made his Broadway debut in 1936 as an off-stage radio announcer in Doty Hobart and Tom McKnight's "Double Dummy," at the John Golden Theatre.
2
Longtime friends with famed NY restaurateur Toots Shor.
3
During Paul and Jan Sterling's 1950 double ring ceremony, some difficulty was encountered in placing the rings on the couple's fingers. It seems they were a tight fit.
4
Turned down MGM's offer of a part in the Clark Gable film Any Number Can Play (1949) because he and Gable had a earlier falling out over a woman in London and were not on speaking terms.
5
He was the announcer for bandleader Glenn Miller's final radio program in 1944.
6
Douglas had a penchant for making blunt statements that frequently turned controversial. One of the more notable occurred while he was touring the South in the play "The Caine Mutiny Court Marital" in 1955. After a North Carolina newspaper quoted him as saying, "The South stinks! It's a land of sow belly and segregation," the play's tour was canceled. Douglas claimed, to no avail, that he was misquoted.
7
He turned down the chance to play the part of Harry Brock in Born Yesterday (1950), the successful movie adaptation of the stage play in which he created this role. He found the part had been considerably reduced for the film. The Harry Brock role went to Broderick Crawford.
8
Billy Wilder, while writing the script of The Apartment (1960) with his collaborator I.A.L. Diamond, intended the part of Jeff D. Sheldrake to be played by Douglas in the film. Douglas was cast in the role, but unfortunately, passed away before shooting began. Wilder then re-cast the role of the caddish Mr. Sheldrake with Fred MacMurray, who had successfully played against type in Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944).
9
He was cast in The Twilight Zone (1959) episode, The Twilight Zone: The Mighty Casey (1960), to play the baseball team manager, a role specifically written for him by Rod Serling, based on his character in Angels in the Outfield (1951). Unfortunately, he died the week the episode was filmed and was replaced by Jack Warden, when re-filming became necessary. Interestingly, the script seems not to have been changed as there are several lines that seem to evoke Douglas' manager character. Even Warden seems to be trying to play the character as Douglas would.
10
Son Adams Douglas (1955 - 2003). Died of heart failure.
$600,000
