HOLLYWOOD legend Michael Douglas has announced his retirement from acting at the age of 80 as he battles throat cancer.
The Wall Street star revealed recently at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic that he has deliberately avoided work since 2022 – and has now fled the sweltering heat of his beloved Mallorca for the cooler climes of the Basque Country.
Douglas, who has been the face of upmarket Mallorcan tourism for four decades, has rented a mansion in the exclusive Neguri district of Getxo, where temperatures have been a refreshing 20C compared to Mallorca’s scorching 40C heat.
“I have not worked since 2022 purposefully because I realised I had to stop,” Douglas revealed at a press conference at the event.
READ MORE: Michael Douglas blames Airbnb and rental cars for tourism backlash in Spain
“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.”
The announcement comes after Douglas enjoyed a recent father-daughter holiday in Menorca with his daughter Carys, where the pair attended the spectacular Sant Joan festival.
“My lovely daughter Carys and I had a wonderful time at this spectacular event in Menorca called Sant Joan festival aka the running of the horses! The event goes on every year and truly blows my mind!” he posted on Instagram.
He later added: “Last day in Menorca! We had a fabulous time at the Sant Joan horse festival this past weekend. Olé!”
READ MORE: Michael Douglas, 79, says he will spend half his time in Mallorca after becoming ‘semi-retired’
The Oscar winner’s connection to Spain runs deep, having first arrived in the Balearic island of Deià in the 1980s before purchasing the stunning S’Estaca estate in Valldemossa, cementing his aristocratic links to Mallorca.
For nearly half a century, Douglas has been synonymous with the island’s luxury tourism scene, with his face even appearing in promotional adverts for the island.
But this summer’s unprecedented heatwave has driven the Hollywood royalty northward, with Douglas now singing the praises of his new temporary home.
During a recent visit to San Sebastián, he gushed: “I’m here in the north of Spain, in the Basque region, in the beautiful city of San Sebastián. How many cities do you know with a beach in their centre?”
His wife Catherine Zeta-Jones has embraced the move wholeheartedly, enrolling as a member of the prestigious Real Sociedad de Golf de Neguri to play at the exclusive La Galea club.
The Chicago star is also filming in northern Spain, though Douglas insists their relocation goes beyond professional commitments.
The actor’s health battles have clearly influenced his decision to step back from the spotlight.Â
Speaking candidly about his throat cancer diagnosis, Douglas explained: “Stage 4 cancer is not a holiday, but there aren’t many choices, are there?
“I went with the programme, 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.”
While Douglas maintains he’s not officially retired – ‘if something special came up, I’d go back’ – he admits he has ‘one little independent movie’ he’s ‘trying to get a good script out of.’
However, he’s content for now to step back, joking that ‘in the spirit of maintaining a good marriage,’ he’s ‘happy to play the wife’ to Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Click here to read more Celebrity News from The Olive Press.
