K136_MDOUGLAS
In the 1980s Michael tried his hand at comedies, the most successful being
Romancing the Stone (1984), its sequel
The Jewel of the Nile (1985), and
The War of the Roses (1989), in which he co-starred with
Danny DeVito and
Kathleen Turner. It was in the 1990s, though, in which he gained the most notorious aspects of his reputation. He starred in
Basic Instinct (1992), a thriller, heavy on sex and violence, that was a worldwide hit. Having played a similar role in
Fatal Attraction (1987), it did indeed appear that he was being typecast in "man against woman" type roles, and pictures like
Disclosure (1994) did nothing to dissuade that opinion. He finally tried to break away from this image with
The American President (1995) and
The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), yet when he started dating
Catherine Zeta-Jones, 25 years his junior, this image continued, even after their marriage.
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