Celebrating Michael Keaton’s 66 years!

CAIRO – 5 September 2017: September 5 is the 66th birthday of famed Hollywood actor, Michael Keaton, best known for his role in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice”, and more recently “Birdman” and “Spiderman: Homecoming”.

Born in 1951, Keaton was originally called Michael John Douglas, but changed his name to Keaton to avoid confusion with actor Michael Douglas.

His first major role was in the 1982 black comedy “Night Shift”, where Keaton played a morgue attendant alongside Henry Wilker as they hatch a wild scheme to invite prostitutes and turn their morgue into a brothel at night. Keaton was recognized with the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Keaton’s breakthrough was with the 1983 comedy film “Mr. Mom”, where Keaton played a stay-at-home dad who was way in over his head. Comically endearing, the film earned over $64 million at the box office, and was just the start of a successful career for Keaton.

It was Tim Burton’s spooky classic “Beetlejuice” in 1988 that propelled Keaton to fame. He portrayed the titular character, a scumbag ghost that helps a recently departed ghost couple kick a family out of their house. The film also starred the young Winona Ryder and Alec Baldwin.

Keaton would work again with Burton in a rather unexpected role; “Batman. The 1989 adaptation of the popular superhero was a new take on the character at the time, darker and grittier than his previous incarnations. It proved to be a hit, and Keaton reprised his role for the sequel “Batman Returns” in 1992. The franchise also starred Jack Nicholson as Batman’s eternal arch-nemesis, the Joker.

The actor returned to superheroes in 2014’s “Birdman” or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), a film which also helped return him to the public eye. Portraying a washed up actor who once portrayed a beloved superhero, the film also starred Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. Keaton was nominated for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Oscar for the film.

In 2015, Keaton was the lead actor in the new drama “Spotlight”, which adapted the true story as to how the Boston Globe newspaper uncovered the Catholic Church sex scandal. Recently, Keaton even starred in “

The Founder

”, a biographic film about the creation of McDonalds.

Walking a tightrope between comedy and darkness, Keaton acting has managed to successfully blend the two like no one else can.