A
theatre major at the University of California in Santa Barbara, Douglas took a
summer job at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Conn. -- in fact,
helping to build the facility's new amphitheater, in the hope of landing a
small part in a play in return.
Left:
Michael Douglas (with the sword) in a walk-on in the O'Neill Theater Center's
production of Joel Oliansky's "Bedford Forrest."
Douglas
spent three summers at the O'Neill. "It was like summer camp for people in
theatre," he told CBS News' Tracy Smith. "I happened at that time to
be dealing with plays by John Guare, Israel Horovitz, Sam Shepherd, Lanford
Wilson, some of the great playwrights that we had at that time. Combining that
with a wonderful group of actors, for me it was playing grown-up a little
bit."