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Douglas's father was a salesman and his mother a nurse. Douglas has two older sisters.
He attended Barrhead High School and gained 4 'o' grades and Highers in History and Art. One of Douglas's first introductions to theatre was in the school play. One year they put on a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience. But it was when a girl he had a crush on invited him to join her drama school that his real interest in acting began.
When he left school Douglas wanted to be a Sports Commentator:
"I never set out to be an actor until I was about seventeen. Originally I wanted to be a journalist. ....John Motson that's who I wanted to be. I wanted to be sitting in little drafty stadiums commentating on football. But it didn't happen unfortunately. Then I thought about going to art school, but I never got a portfolio together on time. Well, I thought I'll try this acting malarkey and I got into drama school".
Douglas was accepted at Mountview Drama School for which he auditioned using one of Jimmy Porter's speeches from Look Back In Anger.
After leaving drama school he spent six months in London without employment. For a while he tried selling insurance, although he was good at speaking to people on the phone, he didn't sell anything as he could never be ruthless enough to get the people to sign on the line. Eventually he wrote a begging letter to David Hayman of the 7:84 theatre company in Scotland . He was accepted and returned to Scotland working with 7:84 and other Theatre Groups, including the Tron Theatre where he performed Crow with Peter Mullan. Peter later asked Douglas to appear in his film Orphans (1997).
Douglas has since done extensive Theatre, Film and TV work. In the UK he is well known for the drama series Psychos (1999) for which he won Best Actor at the Reims TV Festival, France, 2000 and Kid in The Corner (1999) for which he won a Monte Carlo TV award in 2000 and the film Lawless Heart for which he was nominated as Best Actor at the Evening Standard British Film Awards in 2003. However, away from home he is best known for his portrayal of Levin in Anna Karenina ( 2000) and Edgar Alabaster in Angels and Insects (1995).
Douglas seems to specialise in playing flawed characters from Berry in Lipstick On Your Collar in 1992 to Dan in Loving You in 2003.
" I don't know what that says about me really . I don't know what I would be able to do with perfect people. I don't think I would be able to do them very much justice. I'm better off with people who are a little bit rusty around the edges".
In 2002, after a five year absence, Douglas returned to the London stage, creating the role of Michael Bakunin in Tom Stoppard's trilogy of plays The Coast of Utopia. More stage roles followed in 2004, John Proctor in Arthur Miller's The Crucible in Sheffield and Thomas Huxley in Darwin in Malibu at The Hampstead Theatre. In 2005, Douglas played the role of Biff Loman in Miller's Death of a Salesman at the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue,for which he was nominated for a Whatsonstage.com Award for Best Supporting Actor.
What does Douglas most prefer film, TV or stage?
" I like them for the differences between them. I love radio as well. I've done a bit of radio and thoroughly enjoyed doing that. Film is fab, I find it very exciting, for example if you're meant to be in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness you will probably be in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness.
It's like a band going into a recording studio to make an album, you can do one section again and again and again until you get it right. It's more technically driven in some aspects. But there is nothing really that replaces live performance. Going out in front of a group of people and doing your stuff. There's nothing quite like that".
From 2007 – 2009, Douglas starred in the successful ITV/BBCAmerica series Primeval. In 2008 he gave a critically acclaimed performance in the play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot.
He is married to Croatian writer Tena Stivicic and they have worked on several projects together including the radio version of Tena’s play Fragile!
Douglas's hobbies include reading, football (he supports St. Mirren and enjoys going to watch London teams play) and playing poker.
( all quotes transcribed From The Arts Programme broadcast on Radio 2 January 23rd 2004)
copyright Dianne Martin 2004 - 2012