2. Michael Douglas - One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
You may have got the impression from this list so far that actor-producers are a relatively new thing. Far from it, although in the past they tended to multitask the roles on the same productions. A glistening example of the contrary is One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, for which Michael Douglas won his very first Oscar (at the ripe old age of thirty one no less). Still an up-and-coming actor, Douglas became a producer much in the same way he became an actor; thanks to his father. Kirk Douglas had tried to get the film made before in the early sixties, but the money just wasnt there. Trying again following the films resurgence off-Broadway at the start of the next decade, he was about to sell on the rights before a struggling Michael, out of love for the source material, asked to have a shot with it. The film proved essential in Douglas career, starting a stint at producing that helped get him get into better and better roles as an actor, until he happened upon Oliver Stone and the now career defining Gordon Gekko.