Michael Douglas will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Producers Guild of America during the group's annual bash at the Hollywood Palladium on January 24, it said Monday.

 The third son of actor Martin Sheen, intense, square-jawed Charlie Sheen exploded into the public's consciousness as the narrator-grunt of Oliver Stone's autobiographical Vietnam War picture "Platoon" (1986), a deja vu of sorts that returned him to the Philippines, the scene of his first feature film (as an extra), Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" (1979), starring his father. That performance coupled with his role as Michael Douglas' unscrupulous protégé whose naked ambition leads him into conflict with his blue-collar father (played by his real-life dad) in Stone's "Wall Street" the following year, catapulted him to the status of one of the hottest young actors in Hollywood. Since then, Sheen has worked prolifically, but for much of the 90s, it was his profligacy that earned the biggest headlines and arguably prevented him from fulfilling his early promise.

 Welsh-born actress Catherine Zeta-Jones first captivated U.S. film audiences with her swashbuckling turn in “The Mask of Zorro” (1998) – leaving moviegoers so mesmerized by her ebony-tressed old Hollywoodesque beauty, it was a wonder she was able to move beyond all the comparisons to Ava Gardner and Vivien Leigh – enough to garner respect as a serious actress. It was her impressive turn in “Traffic” (2000) and Oscar-winning scenery-chewing for her musical showstoppers in “Chicago” (2002) which firmly established her as a Hollywood A-lister. That, and a fairytale-likened marriage to one of the industry’s most respected actors-producers, Michael Douglas; thusly, entry into one of Hollywood’s most famous and respected families.

BIOGRAPHY