As Michael Douglas is going back and reflecting on the ups and downs he has faced throughout his life for his new memoir, the actor recalled a terrifying situation that happened to him when he was just a child.
Douglas is the son of actor Kirk Douglas and actress Diana Dills, and described that having a famous father “came with real danger.”
Specifically, when he was eight years old, Douglas recalled just barely escaping kidnappers.
“I was swinging around on the awning outside our apartment building. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a man pressing himself up against the building’s wall, behind the front door. He was looking right at me. Then I heard a car door slam on the other side of the street. I turned around and saw another man striding directly toward me,” he wrote.
Douglas said he felt like his “heart was about to jump out of my chest.”
“I reached the end of our building and dashed down a ramp to the basement. As I opened the basement door, I turned back and saw they were chasing me,” he continued. “I ducked into the boiler room. My pulse was roaring in my ears with such force I thought the would-be kidnappers might hear it. I cracked open the door just wide enough to see their feet walking around in the next room, looking for their prey.”
He further explained that he “waited there as long as I could,” and then “made a break for the elevator.”
“All I wanted was the safety of our apartment. Fortunately, the elevator car was already at basement level,” Douglas wrote. “It was an old-style elevator with a glass porthole in the door. I jumped in and pushed the button for our floor, waiting in terror for the door to slide shut. Just as the elevator started to climb, there was a thump against the door and the whole elevator shook. A man’s face pushed up against the porthole window.”
Michael Douglas Reveals How This Experience Impacted Him
In his cover story interview with PEOPLE, Douglas spoke about the scary incident, saying he felt “hysterical” because of it. But, did it have an impact on his entire life?
“I mean, I was definitely scared,” he told the outlet. “That’s fate. I don’t think it left an overly lasting impression, but it was one that I sort of had to take it hard… why did this happen, and understanding a little bit about celebrity and all of that.”
In the book, Douglas further explained how he was eventually able to realize that it “was not my fault. Rather, it was part of the baggage that comes from having a famous father.”
Michael Douglas Remembers Having Conversations With Rob Reiner Over ‘Famous Dads’
In his book, Douglas also spoke about Rob Reiner, having learned of his passing while he was writing it. And with that, he reflected on the two having connected on both having famous fathers.
“I had known Rob for more than fifty years,” Douglas wrote in his book. ““From the time we met in 1971 during the making of Summertree when he played my roommate, Rob and I had spent a lot of time talking about the challenges of growing up as second generation Hollywood figures and dealing with the large shadows our fathers’ careers had cast.”
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Michael Douglas Recalls Escaping Kidnappers In Terrifying Experience When He Was a Child