Iconic Actor, 80, Unlikely to Ever Work Again
Michael Douglas won't be taking on any more roles — at least, he's not planning to.
The iconic actor, who has starred in films like Fatal Attraction, Wall Street and Behind the Candelabra, hasn't worked in three years and has no plans to ever film again.
In an interview with Variety, Douglas talked about surviving a Stage 4 cancer diagnosis and the reason that he decided to step away from the entertainment business — for the most part.
"Stage 4 cancer is not a holiday, but there aren't many choices, are there?" he told the outlet. In 2010, Douglas was told that he had oropharyngeal cancer and was given a couple of options for treatment.
"I went with the program, involving chemo and radiation, and was fortunate. The surgery would have meant not being able to talk and removing part of my jaw and that would have been limiting as an actor," Douglas explained.
🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬
After surviving cancer, Douglas took time to reflect on his life. More than two decades later, he decided it was time to take a break from working.
"I have not worked since 2022 purposefully because I realized I had to stop,' he told Variety. 'I had been working pretty hard for almost 60 years, and I did not want to be one of those people who dropped dead on the set. I have no real intentions of going back. I say I'm not retired because if something special came up, I'd go back, but otherwise, no."
Iconic Actor, 80, Unlikely to Ever Work Again first appeared on Parade on Jul 7, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 7, 2025, where it first appeared.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Where Is Stacey Dash Now? All About the 'Clueless' Alum's Controversies and Life 30 Years After the Movie Was Released
Stacey Dash is just as well-known for her controversies as she is for her iconic role as Cher Horowitz's blunt-yet-caring bestie Dionne Davenport in the hit movie Clueless, which celebrated its 30th anniversary on July 19. The actress, former Fox News contributor and one-time congressional hopeful is infamously outspoken — even at the expense of her career. In 2018, Dash spoke to The Guardian about the backlash she faced for expressing her conservative viewpoints, claiming that it had affected her career as an actress. 'I've been blacklisted,' she said at the time. 'I don't even get to auditions.' Three years later, in March 2021, Dash apologized for many of her previous inflammatory remarks in an interview with The Daily Mail. 'I've lived my life being angry, which is what I was on Fox News. I was the angry, conservative, Black woman,' she explained. 'And at that time in my life it was who I was." According to Dash, her viewpoint on the world has since changed and she said she felt "sorry" for some of the "angry" and "arrogant" things she'd said. Dash has also been open about her past experiences with drug addiction and being physically abused, telling PEOPLE in 2016 that there was a time when she "didn't even want to live anymore." So, where is Stacey Dash now? Here's a look at her life 30 years after Clueless put her on center stage. Who is Stacey Dash? Dash is an American actress who played Dionne Davenport in 1995's Clueless and the subsequent TV show of the same name, which ran for three years from 1996 to 1999. She also starred in various movie and television projects, including 2009's The Game and 2011's Single Ladies. In 2014, the film star pivoted her focus from acting to politics, joining Fox News as a contributing commentator. Dash was also a congressional hopeful, having filed paperwork in February 2018 for a seat in the California House of Representatives under a campaign called 'Dash to D.C.' 'I want to be a catalyst for change,' she told The Guardian at the time. She withdrew from the campaign one month later. What is Stacey Dash known for? In addition to her roles in the Clueless franchise, Dash is known for her outspoken viewpoints on everything from her conservative politics to racism. Fox News hired Dash in May 2014 to share her controversial takes on-air. 'Dash will offer cultural analysis and commentary across various daytime and primetime programs,' the news network said in a press release at the time. During her time at the network, Dash made many inflammatory remarks about President Barack Obama, Black History Month and more. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Fox chose not to renew Dash's contract in 2017. What controversies was Stacey Dash involved in? Dash has been involved in a number of controversies over the course of her career. In 2015, she was suspended from her role as a Fox News contributor for two weeks after using profanity in an on-air criticism of Obama. Dash responded to her suspension in a post on X, writing, 'Consequences. Some of us have to pay them. Gladly.' The following month, the actress received backlash for calling the 2016 #OscarsSoWhite boycott 'ludicrous' on a January 2016 episode of Fox and Friends. In the same episode, she simultaneously called for the end of Black-inclusive networks and awards shows. 'Either we want to have segregation or integration,' she said. 'If we don't want segregation, then we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the [NAACP] Image Awards, where you're only awarded if you're Black.' Dash also doubled down on her belief that there shouldn't be a Black History Month on the segment — a topic she previously wrote about in an October 2015 Patheos blog post. 'We're Americans. Period,' she stated. In June 2016, Dash targeted members of the LGBTQ+ community while addressing statements she made in her memoir, There Goes My Social Life: From Clueless to Conservative, which criticized Caitlyn Jenner's use of women's bathrooms. Later that month, Dash criticized Jesse Williams' BET Humanitarian award speech after he delivered a powerful message about social injustice, claiming his words were "racist" and an "attack on White people." NBC News reported in September 2019 that Dash was arrested for allegedly slapping her ex-husband, Jeffrey Marty, during an argument. According to the outlet, she pleaded not guilty to a domestic battery charge, which was dropped the next day, as reported by KTVH. Though Dash retreated from the public eye for a time, she told The Daily Mail that she is 'not a feminist' while apologizing for her previous controversial comments. 'Right now I feel like women need to support men, lift them up, love them and respect them,' she said, adding, 'On the other hand, it's a two-way street. If men want us to do that, they have to respect us, cherish us, adore us, love us. We can't do one without the other. We need each other.' Where is Stacey Dash now? Dash previously struggled with an addiction to Vicodin, telling Dr. Oz in October 2021 that she was taking between 18 and 20 pills a day at one point. At the time of the interview, Dash said she was celebrating five years of sobriety after going to rehab. 'Not only have I been able to be honest with myself and become a better person, I've been able to understand my parents and that they did love me,' she said, explaining that her parents were addicts too. Deadline reported in March 2022 that Dash was working on a new series, A New Thing — With Stacey Dash, that would focus on Dash's return to the public eye and her new life as an interior designer with Debbe Daley Designs. However, it is unclear whether production has halted on the show. That same year, Dash reunited with costar Alicia Silverstone in a TikTok of them mouthing along some of their lines from the 1995 classic. Since then, Dash has continued to post videos on both Instagram and TikTok, where she has over 300,000 followers. In May 2025, she gave fans a look at her well-being with a simple message on Instagram, writing, 'So much joy and peace.' If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP. Read the original article on People
Forbes
12 minutes ago
- Forbes
A Surprising Update About ‘Untamed' Season 2 On Netflix
Untamed Netflix has a new #1 show, Untamed, a series about a federal agent investigating an apparent murder in Yosemite National Park. It's reviewing pretty well, fans seem to like it, and once you binge the six episodes, you may be wondering about a second season. Well there's bad news but actually, some surprising good news. The bad news is that as you may have seen, this is listed as a limited series, meaning that it was originally meant to be a self-contained offering with no continuation afterward. And recent comments from its star, Eric Bana, don't seem the most promising, even if he says it's not impossible: 'I haven't given too much thought on this, to be honest,' star and executive producer Eric Bana said to TV Insider. 'It was so encompassing, but obviously we knew that the nature of his job is that these ISB agents do get moved around from park to park, which is why the ending is the way that it is because that is a very feasible thing and it was part of the story structure. So yeah, I guess it's always possible, but it wasn't something that we structurally played with whilst putting these episodes together.' Untamed So, he's not thinking about it and the show was not structured this way. Does that mean everyone is moving on? Not exactly. Here's co-showrunner Elle Smith, who seems far more optimistic about the possibility: 'Oh, we would do this forever if they let us, but we'll see,' she says. 'We'll see how many adventures Turner has left in him… They go to different national parks and they do travel from park to park and case to case and things like that. So I think that's what was interesting to us, and if we got the opportunity to do it again, it would be getting to explore a different park, a different case." It feels like we had these exact same conversations about co-showrunner Mark L. Smith's last Netflix production, American Primeval, which did very well on the service, leading to questions about making the limited series not so limited after all. There was positive talk about a potential prequel series there, but nothing came of it yet. Here, it seems that a sequel season 2 could be more likely, but it still may be a longshot. However, if Untamed remains in the top spot for a long while, this may become more and more likely if Netflix wants to return to the concept and character. I still haven't gotten to it yet, but I've meant to. At only six episodes, it seems like it will be a fairly breezy watch, and I'm always down for a good murder mystery. I'll see if I think it should nab a season 2 myself soon enough. What do you think, if you've seen it? Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘I Know What You Did Last Summer' Director on the Shocking Twist Ending — and a Few Other Surprises
[Editor's note: The following interview contains major spoilers for 'I Know What You Did Last Summer.'] One of the great delights of the new 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' for fans of the original is the movie's thoughtful, satisfying use of the first movie's stars: Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt don't just make perfunctory cameo appearances, they're integral components of the plot. Which leads to another great delight — and surprise — when Prinze turns out to be one of the movie's two killers. More from IndieWire 'I Still Know What You Did Last Summer' Has Slasher Fans Nostalgic for... Jack Black in Dreads? China Just Started Using AI to Animate Film Adaptations - Is Labubu Next? For co-writer and director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, securing Prinze and Hewitt on board early was key — she ensured they were on board with the direction she wanted to take before even writing the script. 'There were some big swings with the characters, so those were conversations I had early on with them,' Robinson told IndieWire on an upcoming episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. 'I didn't want to run in a direction that one or both of them would have disliked.' Robinson was determined to craft versions of the characters that would feel like a natural evolution from where they began in the 1997 film, and was delighted when she met Prinze in a diner and found that he was quickly on board with his character crossing over to the dark side. 'It was not necessarily the pitch he thought he was going to get from me, but he was immediately on board,' Robinson said. The fact that Prinze was a huge horror fanatic who constantly recommended films to Robinson during production was an added bonus. 'I leaned on him hugely during this process.' That said, the greatness of Prinze's performance in the film comes from the fact that he plays his character without a shred of self-consciousness or winking at the audience — the revelation that he's the killer is as tragic as it is scary, thanks to the clarity and depth with which Prinze delivers his climactic monologue. 'He committed so hard,' Robinson said of Prinze in his final speech. 'That was the last thing we shot with him, and I was so taken aback. Everything was layered and deep and nuanced, and you could feel that pain. He executed it so beautifully.' While Prinze and Hewitt's appearances in 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' were announced well in advance of production, Robinson and the studio kept a couple other performances by legacy cast members secret until release. Perhaps the biggest surprise was a cameo by Sarah Michelle Gellar; while the appearance is completely justified as part of a dream sequence, it nevertheless comes as a shock because Gellar gave interviews publicly proclaiming how ridiculous it would be for her dead character to return to the franchise. 'It was a very easy misdirect because neither of us have lied,' Robinson said. 'People say, 'Is she going to be in the movie?' and I say, 'She's dead.' And she is dead. It was fun to…obfuscate, but not lie.' Robinson had worked with Gellar on her previous movie, 'Do Revenge,' so when the director was offered 'I Know What You Did Last Summer,' Gellar was her first call. 'I said, 'I kind of want to do this. Is this weird?' And she was so supportive. She was like, 'You have to do this.'' Another surprise cameo comes in the film's post-credits sequence, when Brandy returns as her character from 1998's 'I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.' Like Gellar, Brandy had been evasive in pre-release interviews, making her appearance more surprising — and, thanks to the way Robinson ties all the films in the series together, more satisfying. 'I always wanted Brandy in the film, but I wanted to make sure that it felt true to the story we were telling and the characters and the tapestry.' The fact that Hewitt's character had retreated into isolation due to her trauma gave Robinson the hook she needed to bring Brandy back. 'I liked that the events of this movie pushed her back to her former best friend, and now her potential partner in crime,' Robinson said. 'The movie had a reason to push you to Brandy and give you that prize at the end of enduring the experience of 'I Know What You Did Last Summer.' It gives you a fun moment of levity at the end, where you have someone commenting on the craziness that you just witnessed. It felt true and it felt right.' 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' is now playing in theaters. To make sure you don't miss the Jennifer Kaytin Robinson episode of Filmmaker Toolkit, subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform. Best of IndieWire The 16 Best Slasher Movies Ever Made, from 'Candyman' to 'Psycho' Martin Scorsese's Favorite Movies Include 'Eddington': 87 Films the Director Wants You to See The Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in July, from 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' to 'Emily the Criminal'
