The Memoir Of Ms. Butterfly

Michael John Douglas, the youngest of seven children, was born at Ohio Valley Hospital in Kennedy Township, Pennsylvania, on September 5, 1951.

He was raised between McKees Rocks, Coraopolis, and Robinson Township, Pennsylvania.

His father, George A. Douglas (1905–1977), worked as a civil engineer and surveyor, and his mother, Leona Elizabeth (née Loftus; 1909–2002), was a homemaker and came from McKees Rocks.

Keaton was raised in a Catholic family. However, his mother was of Irish descent, while his father was of Scottish, Scotch-Irish, German, and English ancestry and was originally from a Protestant family.

Keaton attended Montour High School in Robinson Township, Pennsylvania. He graduated with the Class of 1969, studied Speech for two years at Kent State University, where he appeared in plays, and returned to Pennsylvania to pursue his career.

Keaton gained early recognition for his comedic roles in Night Shift (1982), Mr. Mom (1983), and Beetlejuice (1988).

He gained wider stardom portraying D.C. Comics superhero Batman / Bruce Wayne in Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992).

His subsequent films include Pacific Heights (1990), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), The Paper (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), and The Other Guys (2010).

Keaton had a career resurgence with his starring role in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman (2014), for which he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor, since acting in Spotlight (2015),

 The Founder (2016) and The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), portraying Adrian Toomes / Vulture in Spider-Man:

Homecoming (2017) and Morbius (2022), reprising his role as Bruce Wayne / Batman in Andy Muschietti’s The Flash (2023) and the unreleased HBO Max film Batgirl and reprising the titular role in the forthcoming Beetlejuice 2 (2024). He has also performed voice roles for the animated films Cars (2006), Toy Story 3 (2010), and Minions (2015).

On television, Keaton has starred as a journalist in the HBO film Live from Baghdad (2002).

In addition, he portrayed a drug-addicted doctor in the Hulu limited series Dopesick (2021), for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film.

Keaton first appeared on T.V. in the Pittsburgh public television programs Where the Heart Is and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1975). For Mister Rogers, he played one of the “Flying Zookeeni Brothers” and served as a full-time production assistant.

(In 2003, after Fred Rogers’ death, Keaton hosted a PBS memorial tribute, Fred Rogers: America’s Favorite Neighbor; in 2018, he hosted a 50th-anniversary special of the series for PBS, Mister Rogers: It’s You I Like.

Keaton also worked as an actor in Pittsburgh theatre; he played the role of Rick in the Pittsburgh premiere of David Rabe’s Sticks and Bones with the Pittsburgh Poor Players.

He also performed stand-up comedy during his early years to supplement his income.

Keaton left Pittsburgh and moved to Los Angeles to begin auditioning for various T.V. parts. He appeared in various popular T.V. shows, including Maude and The Mary Tyler Moore Hour.

He decided to use a stage name to satisfy SAG rules, as there were already an actor (Michael Douglas) and daytime host (Mike Douglas) with the same or similar names.

In response to questions about whether he selected his new surname due to an attraction to actress Diane Keaton or in homage to silent film actor Buster Keaton, he has responded by saying, “It had nothing to do with that.

Keaton has said in several interviews that he searched a phone book under “K,” saw “Keaton,” and decided to stop looking. Keaton’s film debut came in a small non-speaking role in the Joan Rivers film Rabbit Test.

His next big break was working alongside Jim Belushi in the short-lived comedy series Working Stiffs, which showcased his comedic talent and led to a co-starring role in the comedy Night Shift directed by Ron Howard.

This was his breakout role as the fast-talking schemer Bill “Blaze” Blazejowski and earned Keaton some critical acclaim.

Night Shift led to Keaton becoming a leading man in the 1983 comedy hit Mr. Mom. Keaton was pigeonholed as a comic lead during this time with films like Johnny Dangerously, Gung Ho, The Squeeze, and The Dream Team.

However, Keaton tried to transition to dramatic charges as early as 1984, playing a hockey player in Touch and Go, which was shelved until 1986. Woody Allen cast Keaton as the lead in The Purple Rose of Cairo the following year, but after filming began, Allen felt Keaton was “too modern.

” He reshot his scenes with Jeff Daniels in the final film, further delaying his transition to drama in the public eye.

When Touch and Go were finally released in 1986, the studio was still trying to figure out how to market the film, making the poster, trailer, and T.V. spots similar to Mr. Mom, which resulted in the movie not finding its target audience.

1988 was the seminal year in Keaton’s career, where he landed two major unconventional roles, forever changing his image to audiences. First, he played the title character in Tim Burton’s horror-comedy Beetlejuice, earning Keaton widespread acclaim and boosting him to Hollywood’s A list.

That same year, he also gave an acclaimed dramatic performance as a drug-addicted realtor in Glenn Gordon Caron’s Clean and Sober.

Keaton’s career was given another significant boost when he was again cast by Tim Burton, this time as the title comic book superhero of the 1989 film Batman.

Warner Bros. received thousands of letters of complaint from fans who believed Keaton was the wrong choice to portray Batman. However, Keaton’s performance ultimately earned widespread acclaim from critics and audiences, and Batman became one of 1989’s most successful films.

According to Les Daniels’s reference book Batman: The Complete History, Keaton initially believed the film would be similar in tone to the 1960s T.V. series starring Adam West, but he understood the darker, brooding side of Batman the film was going for after reading Frank Miller’s comic book miniseries, The Dark Knight Returns, which he portrayed too much fan approval.

Keaton later reprised the role for the sequel Batman Returns (1992), another critically acclaimed success. He was initially set to reprise the role again for a third Batman film, even going as far as to show up for a costume fitting.

However, when Burton was dropped as a film director, Keaton also left the franchise. He was reportedly dissatisfied with the screenplay approved by the new director, Joel Schumacher.

According to the A&E Biography episode on Keaton, after he had refused the first time (after meetings with Schumacher), Warner Bros. offered him $15 million, but Keaton steadfastly refused and was replaced by Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (1995)

Keaton remained active during the 1990s, appearing in many films, including Pacific Heights, One Good Cop, My Life, and the star-studded Shakespearean story Much Ado About Nothing.

He starred in The Paper and Multiplicity and twice in the same role, that of Elmore Leonard’s character Agent.

Ray Nicolette, in the films Jackie Brown and Out of Sight. He made the family holiday movie Jack Frost and the thriller Desperate Measures. Keaton starred as a political candidate’s speechwriter in 1994’s Speechless.

In the early 2000s, Keaton appeared in several films with mixed success, including Live From Baghdad (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe award, First Daughter (playing the President of the United States), White Noise, and Herbie: Fully Loaded. While he continued to receive good notices from the critics (particularly for Jackie Brown), he was not able to re-approach the box-office success of Batman until the release of Disney/Pixar’s Cars (2006), in which he voiced Chick Hicks, a green race car with a mustache, who frequently loses his patience with losing to his longtime rival, Strip Weathers, a.k.a. The King, voiced by Richard Petty. On New Year’s Day of 2004, he hosted the PBS TV special Mr. Rogers: America’s Favorite Neighbor. It was released by Triumph Marketing LLC on DVD on September 28, 2004. In 2006, he starred in Game about the 1986 World Series bid by the Boston Red Sox. He had a cameo in the Tenacious D short film Time Fixers, an iTunes exclusive. The 9-minute movie was released to coincide with Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. Keaton reportedly was cast as Jack Shephard in the series Lost, with the understanding that the role of Jack would be brief. Keaton withdrew once the position was retooled to be a long-running series regular. The part was then given to actor Matthew Fox. The show ran for six seasons, with the Shephard role continuing throughout.

Keaton starred in the 2007 T.V. miniseries The Company, set during the Cold War, in which he portrayed the real-life CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton. The role garnered Keaton a 2008 Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries. In addition, Keaton provided the voice of Ken in Toy Story 3 (2010). The film received overwhelmingly positive acclaim and grossed over $1 billion worldwide, making it one of the most financially successful films ever. He announced in June 2010 his interest in returning for a Beetlejuice sequel. In addition, he played Captain Gene Mauch in the comedy The Other Guys. In 2014 he played the OmniCorp CEO Raymond Sellars in the RoboCop remake as a more active antagonist, taking RoboCop’s wife and child hostage, forcing Joel Kinnaman’s character to struggle to overcome the 4th directive.

Keaton starred alongside Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, and Naomi Watts in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), playing Riggan Thomson, a screen actor famous for playing the iconic titular superhero, who puts on a Broadway play based on a Raymond Carver short story to regain his former glory. For his portrayal of Thomson, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. In addition, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 2015, Keaton appeared as Walter V. Robinson in Tom McCarthy’s Academy Award-winning film Spotlight. In 2016, he starred as businessman Ray Kroc in the biopic The Founder. On July 28, 2016, Keaton was honored with the 2,585th Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to film. The Star is located at 6931 Hollywood Blvd.

In 2017, Keaton played the supervillain The Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming; while making this film, Keaton could not reprise his role as Chick Hicks for Disney/Pixar’s Cars 3 and was replaced by Bob Peterson. Keaton later portrayed Stan Hurley in American Assassin.

In 2019, he played the villain in Disney’s live-action adaptation of Dumbo, directed by Tim Burton, co-starring with Colin Farrell and Eva Green. In 2020, Keaton played U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark in The Trial of the Chicago 7, a legal drama directed by Aaron Sorkin about seven anti-Vietnam protesters charged with inciting riots in 1968. Finally, in 2021, Keaton starred as American lawyer Kenneth Feinberg in the Netflix biographical drama film Worth.

In 2022, Keaton won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Hulu’s Dopesick. Keaton cites his performance in 1988’s Clean and Sober as an early preparation for Dopesick. He also briefly reprised his role as Vulture in the SSU film Morbius, which was released on April 1, 2022

In June 2020, Keaton entered talks to reprise his role as Batman/Bruce Wayne, after last playing the position in 1992, in the upcoming D.C. Extended Universe superhero film, The Flash, which is scheduled to be released on June 23, 2023.

In August 2020, it was reported that Keaton would be reprising his role, though Keaton later disputed these claims, stating that it was not confirmed.

However, on April 19, 2021, Keaton’s talent agency, ICM Partners, officially confirmed his involvement with the film when production had formally begun.

He reprised the character in Batgirl starring Leslie Grace, set for a release on HBO Max, taking some inspiration from the acclaimed D.C. Animated Universe animated series, Batman Beyond, with Keaton playing the elder Bruce Wayne as the title character’s mentor and remote coordinator in the Batcave before the film’s release was canceled in August 2022.

He also reprised the character in the 2023 film Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in a deleted scene.

It has been reported that Keaton will star in Goodrich, a film about a man whose second wife suddenly leaves him, forcing him to take sole care of their nine-year-old twins.

Directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer, filming was set to commence in October 2019, but it ultimately began in April 2023 after a delay. On May 6, 2022, it was reported that Keaton is set to star in and direct the noir thriller Knox Goes Away.

On May 9, 2023, it was confirmed that Keaton would be reprising his role as Beetlejuice for the sequel Beetlejuice 2. Production began in London on May 10, 2023. The film has been given a theatrical release date of September 6, 2024.

Keaton was married to Caroline McWilliams from 1982–90. They have a son, Sean, born in 1983.

Keaton had a relationship with actress Courteney Cox from 1990–95. Keaton, a longtime Pittsburgh resident, and fan of its sports teams, negotiated a break in his Batman movie contract in case the Pittsburgh Pirates made the playoffs that year, although they ultimately did not.

He also wrote an ESPN blog on the Pirates during the final months of their 2013 season.

In the 1980s, Keaton bought a ranch near Big Timber, Montana, where he spends much of his time.

An avid fisherman, he is often seen on the saltwater fishing series Buccaneers & Bones on Outdoor Channel, along with Tom Brokaw, Zach Gilford, Thomas McGuane, and Yvon Chouinard, among others.

While Keaton’s Batman was brooding and solemn, Schumacher wanted to focus on the character in the comic books, thus calling for the actor to tone down his much more serious take on the role.

Instead, Keaton argued that the key to Batman is figuring out who the man behind the mask is (similar to what Christopher Nolan set out to do in The Dark Knight trilogy).

Therefore, exploring Bruce Wayne’s tortured past is relevant as it defines who he is — and what ultimately makes the character so popular.

According to Keaton, Schumacher dismissed this by asking “why everything has to be so dark and sad.” After realizing the director was set on his vivid vision of Batman, Keaton decided to exit the franchise.

The studio even offered him $15 million to convince him to stay, but Keaton stood his ground.

In The Jess Cagle Podcast, he also attributed the mandatory publicity of playing Batman (like going to conventions) as the reason for walking away from the role.

If you grew up in the 80s or 90s, you have seen a lot of takes on the Dark Knight himself.

And if you really care to fight about it, you probably have a lot of feelings about Michael Keaton’s Batman.

But, of course, the beloved actor has been a fixture in nerdom for quite some time, and his role as Bruce Wayne in the Tim Burton films cemented his legacy (and ushered in a love for the part that inspired movies like Birdman and then landed Keaton a role as Adrian Toomes in Spider-Man: Homecoming).

But we haven’t seen Keaton as the caped crusader in decades. That is, until now.

The Flash is the first time fans will be reunited with Keaton as Bruce Wayne, and getting him there wasn’t an easy time.

Keaton’s return to the world of D.C. comes after years of praise and mockery for those first few movies with Keaton’s Bruce Wayne at the helm. But for so many of us, one of the first times we’ve seen Batman live-action was through Keaton’s performance in both Batman and Batman Returns. 

At a special screening of The Flash that Collider’s Therese Lacson attended, Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muchietti spoke about the film, which falls into the DCU.

There were a lot of moments that came from a place of nostalgia for past D.C. movies, specifically on how they got Keaton to join the cast for the film. Interestingly, a lot of it came down to his super suit. He was also meant to return in the now-canned Batgirl movie, so for fans of Keaton, his return in The Flash is significant and long overdue.

We are, as a society, present for Batman content. Of course, there is always a new movie, but whether it is a good take on the character is almost always up for debate. For many, Batman is hard to navigate.

He’s a character who is a complicated but brilliant detective, and outside of Robert Pattinson’s take on Bruce in the Matt Reeves movie The Batman, the only other Dark Knight who really got to flex his investigative skills was Keaton’s.

So it is brilliant having him back in the world of The Flash and the DCU, and everyone knows that. At the screening, Barbara Muschietti revealed that they took Keaton to an Italian restaurant to talk about the role, and he left with the script rolled under his arm.

“So Michael hadn’t put on the suit for 30 years, and the last time he had put on the suit, Sean, his son who’s now a talented music producer with his own family, was a little kid.

So he put on his suit, and the guy looked fucking great, and Alex Byrne, our costume designer, also made a fantastic suit where this guy could actually move his neck, lift his leg.”

Andy Muschietti elaborated on Keaton putting the suit back on, saying, “At one point, the first scene that we shoot where he’s wearing a full suit, he’s like, ‘Can you take a picture? It’s for my grandson.

‘” Muschietti shared a touching story about one of Keaton’s first days on set, seeing the practical location for the Batcave for the first time, saying Keaton just took some time to marvel at it. The director said it was “very emotional because he’s a cool guy.”

He began cropping up popular T.V. shows, including Maude (1972) and The Mary Tyler Moore Hour (1979). Around this time, Keaton used an alternative surname to remove confusion with better-known actor Michael Douglas.

He looked into the “K”‘s for surnames and thought it was inoffensive to choose ‘Keaton.’

Ms. Butterfly Genesis