Michael Keaton

Overview

Born
September 5, 1951 · Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, USA
Birth name
Michael John Douglas
Nicknames
- Michael Douglas
- Keats
- Dougie
Height
5′ 9″ (1.75 m)

Biography

Family

Spouse
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademarks

Wild hyper-kinetic energy in comedies
Receding hairline.

Trivia

Decided to change his name when he began acting because there was already a Michael Douglas in movies and a Mike Douglas in broadcasting. While he uses a stage name, he has never legally changed his name to Michael Keaton.
Tim Burton cast him in the title role of Batman (1989) because he thought that Keaton was the only actor who could believably portray someone who has the kind of darkly obsessive personality that the character has. There was a great deal of fan anger over his selection, forcing the studio to release an advance trailer both to show that Keaton could do the role well and that the movie would not be a campy parody like the television series Batman (1966).
He was originally to play the role of Dr. Jack Shephard on the television series Lost (2004), with the understanding that the character would be killed off early on in the series. Keaton later had to walk away from the role when the creators decided not to kill off the doctor. Matthew Fox ended up playing the character.
Was in a relationship with Courteney Cox from 1989-95.
Was 40 years old when filming Batman Returns (1992), which made him the oldest actor at the time to play Batman in a live-action film. He was later succeeded by Ben Affleck, who was 41 years old when cast in the role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).

Quotes

[after interviewer Michael Parkinson commented on his birth name being Michael Douglas] Yeah, I had to change my name because there were two other actors registered at Equity with that name. One of them is doing quite well from what I understand, the other is making cheap porn movies--like Basic Instinct (1992).
[comparing making Batman Returns (1992) to the first Batman (1989) film] In some ways this one was harder, because I felt like I was doing an impersonation of myself. Which, aside from being nearly impossible, is really weird.
[on his decision not to reprise his role as Batman in Batman Forever (1995)] I was waiting in line for another movie and just kind of poked my head in . . . watched about 10 minutes. I saw enough to know that I made the right decision.
[When asked what he thought of Batman Begins (2005) before its release] My prediction, I don't know anything about it, but I feel this way about it. It's gonna be good, because he's a really good actor [Christian Bale] and that's a really good director [Christopher Nolan]. And they've had years and years and years, and hundreds of millions of dollars, or at least tens of millions of dollars to figure it out. I say it's gonna be good. I picture it's gonna be good. And also, I swear to God it's not an "I told you so", it's maybe an interesting thing, that when I didn't like the third script . . . I just said "I really don't like this, and I don't want to do it", 'cause what I wanted to do, is what I'm told and I don't know if this is true yet so don't hold me to this until I see it, but I'm told it's more a prequel. And that was what I thought would've been a hip way to go the third time. This guy is so endlessly fascinating potentially, why not go and see how he got there.
[when asked if he was ever offered a villain role in a superhero film] No, but it would be fun. I don't think I'd take Jack's [Jack Nicholson] stance on it. I think it'd be fun because those are the roles where you get to chew it up. I'll always stand by the first "Batman". Even for its imperfections, people will never know how hard that movie was to do. A lot of that still holds up.