[1] Before becoming an actor, Douglas spent 20 years in the 20th Century-Fox newsreel department as a narrator and writer of captions.

[2] Douglas made his Broadway debut in 1936 as the radio announcer in Doty Hobart and Tom McKnight's Double Dummy at the John Golden Theatre.

He also played Richard Widmark's police partner in the 1950 thriller Panic in the Streets, frustrated newlywed Porter Hollingsway in A Letter to Three Wives (1949), Sgt.

In 1955, Douglas appeared in the play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, but his union placed him on probation for allegedly saying "The South stinks.

The comedic episode was deemed unfit for broadcast, but it was resurrected some months later with Douglas's scenes reshot with Jack Warden.

Billy Wilder, who had directed Douglas's wife Jan Sterling in Ace in the Hole (1951), had cast Douglas in the role of Mr. Sheldrake, the boss of the character played by Jack Lemmon and the lover of the character played by Shirley MacLaine, in The Apartment (1960).