Biography for
Michael Keaton More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

5 September 1951, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, USA

Birth Name

Michael John Douglas

Height

5' 9" (1.75 m)

Mini Biography

Quirky, inventive and handsome US actor who first achieved major fame with his door busting performance as fast talking, ideas man Bill Blazejowski alongside nerdish morgue attendant Henry Winkler in Night Shift (1982). Keaton was born Michael John Douglas on September 5th, 1951 in Corapolis, Pennsylvannia and studied speech for two years at Kent State, before dropping out and moving to Pittsburgh. An unsuccessful attempt at stand up comedy led Keaton to working as a TV cameraman in a cable station, and he came to realize he wanted to work in front of the cameras.

Keaton first appeared on TV in several episodes of "MisteRogers' Neighborhood" (1968). He left Pittsburgh and moved to Los Angeles to begin auditioning for TV. He began cropping up in popular TV shows including "Maude" (1972) and "The Mary Tyler Moore Hour" (1979). Around this time Keaton decided to use an alternative surname to remove confusion with better-known actor Michael Douglas. After reading an article on actress Diane Keaton, he decided that Michael Keaton sounded good. His next break was scoring a co-starring role alongside James Belushi in the short-lived comedy series "Working Stiffs" (1979), which showcased his comedic talent and led to his co-starring role in Night Shift (1982). Keaton next scored the lead in the comedy hits Mr. Mom (1983), Johnny Dangerously (1984) , Gung Ho (1986) and the Tim Burton horror-comedy _Beetlejuice (1988)_.

Keaton's career was given another major boost when, in 1989, Tim Burton cast him as millionaire playboy / crime-fighter Bruce Wayne in the big budget Batman (1989). To say there were howls of protest by fans of the caped crusader comic strip is an understatement! Warner Bros. was deluged with thousands of letters of complaint commenting that comedian Keaton was the wrong choice for the Caped Crusader. Their fears were proven wrong when Keaton turned in a sensational performance, and he held his own on screen with opponent Jack Nicholson playing the lunatic villain, The Joker. Keen to diversify his work, Keaton next appeared as a psychotic tenant in Pacific Heights (1990), as a hard working cop in One Good Cop (1991) and then donned the black cape and cowl once more for Batman Returns (1992).

He remained in demand during the 1990s, appearing in a wide range of films including the star-studded Shakespearian Much Ado About Nothing (1993), another Ron Howard comedy The Paper (1994), with sexy Andie MacDowell in Multiplicity (1996), as a dogged cop in Jackie Brown (1997) and the mediocre thriller Desperate Measures (1998). More recently, Keaton has appeared in several productions with mixed success, including Live from Baghdad (2002) (TV), First Daughter (2004) and Herbie Fully Loaded (2005).

IMDb Mini Biography By: firehouse44@hotmail.com

Spouse

Caroline McWilliams

(1982 - 1990) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia

When he realized he needed to change his name, he remembered an article he had read with a nice picture of Diane Keaton. He chose her last name with the intention of changing it later. However, the name stuck. Years later, he phoned her and thanked her. The two have never actually met.

Was in a relationship with Courteney Cox (1989-1995).

His hobbies are fly-fishing and riding horses at his California ranch.

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 TV show "Batman" (1966).

Attended Montour High School.

Is the fourth actor to play Batman.

Has a son, Sean Maxwell Douglas (born May 27, 1983), with ex-wife Caroline McWilliams.

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.

One of only two actors to reprise the role of Batman in major, live-action films (Batman (1989)/Batman Returns (1992). Adam West did only one movie (Batman (1966)) as Batman (along with the live-action TV series "Batman" (1966) and voice-work) and Kevin Conroy has only done voice-work as Batman. Christian Bale is the second and most recent actor to play the role more than once with (Batman Begins (2005) followed by (The Dark Knight (2008).

Played Agent Ray Nicolette in Jackie Brown (1997) and again in Out of Sight (1998).

Started his career as a stagehand in "MisteRogers' Neighborhood" (1968) (he operated "Picture, Picture"), and in 2004 he produced a documentary on Rogers, Fred Rogers: America's Favorite Neighbor (2004) (TV).

Turned down the role of the ill-fated mad scientist Dr. Seth Brundle in David Cronenberg's remake The Fly (1986). The part eventually went to Jeff Goldblum.

Is a Second City alumni - a member of the Los Angeles branch.

According to Mike Myers on "Revealed with Jules Asner" (2001), Keaton saw the comic actor perform at Second City Toronto. After the show ended, Keaton went to personally congratulate Myers and said, "Keep up the great work." Myers would soon work with Keaton on an episode of "Saturday Night Live" (1975) when Keaton was guest host.

His son Sean plays keyboard for a band called The Hatch.

Was originally slated to play Jeff Daniels character in Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) and actually did film some scenes, but Allen decided it wasn't working and replaced him with Daniels.

Appeared with the late Christopher Reeve in Speechless (1994). Keaton and Reeve played DC Comics two most iconic characters, Batman and Superman, respectively.

He was originally to play the role of Dr. Jack Shephard in the TV show "Lost" (2004), with the understanding that the character would be killed off early on in the show. Keaton later had to walk away from the part when the creators decided not to kill off the doctor. Matthew Fox ended up playing the character.

Was parodied by Matthew Perry on "Saturday Night Live" (1975).

Was considered for the role of Dr. Curtis McCabe in Vanilla Sky (2001).

Was considered for the role of Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Was considered for the role of Capt. Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).

Was considered for the role of Lt. Col. Kazinski in Jarhead (2005).

An avid Pittsburgh Steelers football fan, he grew up about five miles from former Steelers coach Bill Cowher's hometown of Crafton, Pennsylvania.

Lived in his '63 VW Bug for 2 nights in California while trying to become an actor.

Has only reprised two roles in his career. First, he played Batman in Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). Second, he played Ray Nicolette in Jackie Brown (1997) and Out of Sight (1998). Also appearing in the latter film was George Clooney, who has also played Batman.

Was offered to play either Peter Venkman or Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters (1984) but turned down both parts, which went to Bill Murray and Harold Ramis.

Personal Quotes

After interviewer Michael Parkinson commented on his birthname 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... (reasonable pause) like 'Basic Instinct.'"

Comparing making Batman Returns (1992) to the first "Batman" 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 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, and that's a really good director. 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 to play villain roles in a superhero film]: No, but it would be fun. I don't think I'd take Jack's [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.

Salary

Game 6 (2005)	$100 per day
Batman (1989)	$5,000,000

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