Kirk panned Michael's stage debut

Veteran actor Kirk Douglas told his son Michael Douglas he couldn't act when he first saw the Basic Instinct actor on stage.

The 20000 Leagues Under the Sea legend (aged 89), discouraged Michael from following an acting career as a young man and refused to praise his early theatre performance in the 1960s.

Douglas tells PageSix.com: "I'm a big fan of my son.

"But I didn't encourage him in the beginning because I didn't want him in the business. The first show he did was as You Like It in college. I said: 'Michael, you were awful.'"