Michael Douglas announces retirement from acting in heartbreaking update

Michael Douglas has starred in a number of iconic films

Douglas, who has starred across more than a generation of films from Basic Instinct to Ant Man explained that he has no intention of returning to the silverscreen.

The legendary actor, who is now 80-years-old, told Variety: "I have not worked since 2022 purposefully because I realised I had to stop.

"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. I say I'm not retired because if something special came up, I'd go back, but otherwise, no.

Douglas has faced his fair share of health battles after being diagnosed with throat cancer in 2010 for which he went under a long course of radiation and chemotherapy and was given an 80% chance of recovery.

He explained how the diagnosis and subsequent recovery impacted his life and marriage to Catherine Zeta Jones as well as his outlook on life.

Douglas explained that he is "happy to play the wife" to Catherine, who he married 25 years ago.

The star did reveal that he has ''one little independent movie" that he is currently working on trying to "get a good script out of" but otherwise he has no other projects to speak of.

Earlier this year, the icon told Deadline that he was "enjoying" his break from acting.

Speaking about his cancer to the Guardian, Douglas explained that it was caused by a sexually transmitted disease.

He said. "Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV (human papillomavirus).

"I did worry if the stress caused by my son's incarceration didn't help trigger it. But it's a sexually transmitted disease that causes cancer."

At the time his son Cameron, 34, was serving 10-year prison sentence for drug possession and dealing.

"I have to check in regularly, now it's every six months, but I'm more than two years clear," he said. "And with this kind of cancer, 95% of the time it doesn't come back."

Douglas has three children, a son with ex-wife Diandra Luker and two children with current wife Catherine Zeta-Jones.