Douglas was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Lena Priscilla (née Shackelford) and Edouard Gregory Hesselberg, a concert pianist and composer.

[1][2] Douglas, in his autobiography, See You at the Movies (1987), wrote that he was unaware of his Jewish background until later in his youth: "I did not learn about the non-Christian part of my heritage until my early teens."

[citation needed] Douglas developed his acting skills in Shakespearean repertory while in his teens and with stock companies in Sioux City, Iowa, Evansville, Indiana, Madison, Wisconsin and Detroit, Michigan.

He had a long theatre, film and television career as a lead player, stretching from his 1930 Broadway role in Tonight or Never (opposite his future wife, Helen Gahagan) until just before his death.

Douglas shared top billing with Boris Karloff and Charles Laughton in James Whale's sardonic horror classic The Old Dark House in 1932.

[citation needed] Douglas appeared as the hero in the 1932 horror film The Vampire Bat and the sophisticated leading man in She Married Her Boss (1935).

However, Douglas confirmed in one of his final interviews that he refused to attend the 52nd Academy Awards ceremony because he could not bear having to compete against child actor Justin Henry for Kramer vs.

[citation needed] Gahagan Douglas (she began using her husband's name when she entered politics), as a three-term congresswoman, was Richard M. Nixon's unsuccessful opponent for the United States Senate seat from California in 1950.

[9] Melvyn and Helen Gahagan Douglas hired architect Roland Coate to design a home for them in 1938 on a 3-acre (1.2 ha) lot they owned in Outpost Estates, Los Angeles.

[citation needed] Sources: Internet Broadway Database[11] and Playbill[12] Douglas also staged Moor Born (1934), Mother Lode (1934) and Within the Gates (1934-1935) and produced Call Me Mister (1946-1948).