Guess who wasn’t home in Pacific Palisades, California basting the Thanksgiving turkey? We’re talking about actor Michael Douglas, who toted his family to Orlando, Florida for the school break.
With his famously beautiful wife Catherine Zeta-Jones and their children Dylan (10) and Carys (7), Douglas was caught by the Universal Studios’ PR team as he flew over the themepark’s newest attraction, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
In the photo above, they are seen whizzing past Hogwarts Castle while riding Flight of the Hippogriff at Universal Orlando Resort on November 27, 2010.
Multi-Academy award-winning actor Michael Douglas is the son of Hollywood all-American star Kirk Douglas, and has had a long and rich career of his own. As a teen at the Eaglebrook and Choate Schools, Michael Douglas decided he wanted to be an actor, much to his father’s dismay.
After his success in a 70s TV cop show, “The Streets of San Francisco,” Douglas went on to star opposite Kathleen Turner in the action adventures “Romancing the Stone” and its sequel “The Jewel of the Nile.” His handsome-as-the-devil roles in “Fatal Attraction” and “Basic Instinct” made the two thrillers big hits, and made the actor, now estimated to have a net worth of $200 million, a wealthy man. His two Academy Awards were granted to him as producer of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) and as Best Actor in “Wall Street” (1987).
Douglas began appearing in public with Welsh-born beauty Catherine Zeta-Jones, like him born on September 25th but 25 years earlier, after the two did the Steven Soderbergh film “Traffic.” In November 2000, after the birth of their son Dylan, Douglas and Zeta-Jones were married.
Zeta-Jones was already a popular actress in Britain from her series “The Darling Buds of May” and other TV specials, when she became a huge star for American audiences as the beauty in “The Mask of Zorro.”
Always on the go, Douglas can afford to slow down and enjoy a family vacation this year. The two films he recently starred in, “Solitary Man” and “Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps,” have Oscar-watchers predicting that he’ll be nominated for both. The actor also recently announced that he’s battling stage 4 throat cancer, perhaps another motivator to spend quality time with his children.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has brought millions of fans like the Douglas family to Orlando. Like most followers of the “Harry Potter” books and films, the Douglas family also stayed within this themepark in a park to sample Butterbeer, get fitted for wands at Ollivanders and tour Hogwarts Castle.
For information about your own Harry Potter family vacation, and the “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” themed shows going on from December 4 – January 1, 2011 at the parks, visit Universal Orlando.
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