Trivia

Turned down MGM's offer of a part in the Clark Gable film Any Number Can Play (1949) because he and Gable had a earlier falling out over a woman in London and were not on speaking terms.

He was the announcer for bandleader Glenn Miller's final radio program in 1944.

Douglas's son, with actress Jan Sterling, Adams Douglas (1955-2003) died of heart failure in December 2003, three months before Sterling's death.

Billy Wilder, while writing the script of The Apartment (1960) with his collaborator I.A.L. Diamond, intended the part of Jeff D. Sheldrake to be played by Douglas in the film. Douglas was cast in the role, but unfortunately, passed away before shooting began. Wilder then re-cast the role of the caddish Mr. Sheldrake with Fred MacMurray, who had played a somewhat similar character in Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944).

Douglas had a penchant for making blunt statements that frequently turned controversial. One of the more notable occurred while he was touring the South in the play "The Caine Mutiny Court Marital" in 1955. After a North Carolina newspaper quoted him as saying, "The South stinks! It's a land of sow belly and segregation," the play's tour was canceled. Douglas claimed, to no avail, that he was misquoted.

Father, with Virginia Field, of daughter Margaret Field Douglas (born in 1945).

He was cast in The Twilight Zone (1959) episode, The Mighty Casey (1960), to play the baseball team manager, a role specifically written for him by Rod Serling, based on his character in Angels in the Outfield (1951). Unfortunately, he died the week the episode was filmed and was replaced by Jack Warden, when re-filming became necessary. Interestingly, the script seems not to have been changed as there are several lines that seem to evoke Douglas' manager character. Even Warden seems to be trying to play the character as Douglas would.

Longtime friends with famed NY restaurateur Toots Shor.

Paul Douglas made his Broadway debut in 1936 as an off-stage radio announcer in Doty Hobart and Tom McKnight's "Double Dummy," at the John Golden Theatre.

At one point featured in advertisements for Chesterfield cigarettes.