
Film star Michael Douglas will receive an honorary Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival later this month, the organisers announced on Wednesday.The award recognises the 78-year-old's "brilliant career and engagement with cinema" and there will be a homage to the actor during the opening ceremony on May 16.
Douglas was one of the biggest stars of the 1980s and 1990s, appearing in a string of steamy thrillers such as Basic Instinctand Fatal Attraction.
He won an Academy Award for his iconic role as banker Gordon Gekko in 1987's Wall Streetand continues to be a major screen presence in Marvel's recent Antmanfilms and his award-winning comedy turn in the TV show The Kominsky Method.
The son of legendary Hollywood actor Kirk Douglas, his first foray into filmmaking was as a producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nestin 1975, which also won him an Oscar.
He was last at Cannes for Behind the Candelabra, featuring his much-loved turn as flamboyant pianist Liberace.
Recent winners of the honorary Palme include Forest Whitaker, Agnes Varda and Jodie Foster.
The Cannes Film Festival, running May 16-27, this year includes premieres for the new Indiana Jones and Martin Scorsese movies and opens with Johnny Depp's comeback film, Jeanne du Barry.