LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Melvyn Douglas: Richard Nixon
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Born in Macon, Georgia, as Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, Douglas was married for 50 years to Helen Gahagan, who appeared in one film before becoming a Democratic U.S. Representative from California. After two terms, she ran for the Senate and lost to Richard Nixon in a rather famous contest. Melvyn Douglas was a true American leading man of the thirties and forties. In his later years he spent time on Broadway and did well with several character roles. Melvyn Douglas is one of the very few actors to win not only an Oscar, but ... a Tony and an Emmy Award.
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After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Douglas became a strong supporter of entering World War II (1941-45) and was appointed head of the Office of Civilian Defense Arts Council in February 1942. The office organized artists' talents in support of the war effort. In December of that year Douglas enlisted in the army as a senior recruit and in 1943 was assigned to serve in India, where he entertained troops who were opening supply lines to China. While Douglas was in India, Helen was elected to represent California's Fourteenth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Douglas was released from the military in 1945 and continued to work in film until 1949. In 1950 his wife ran for a California senate seat but was defeated, amidst accusations of her Communist sympathy, by Richard Nixon.
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In real life, former big time film star Douglas was finding movie roles mighty scarce by the early 1950s, thanks to McCarthism. Douglas was married to Congresswoman Helen Gahagan, the woman whom Richard Nixon took great pride in denouncing as a "pink lady," friendly to communism. Some of the Washington mob soon went after Douglas himself, suggesting that because he was Jewish and had changed his name for professional reasons, he was ... politically suspect. Hollywood Offbeat was the first step Douglas took in reviving his career, and it was more than a little ironic that one of the recurring themes of the show was his character's ongoing attempt to salvage his reputation.
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Douglas was married briefly to Rosalind Hightower and they had a son: Gregory Hesselberg (1920). In 1931 Douglas married actress-turned-politician Helen Gahagan. As a three-term Congresswoman, she was Richard Nixon's opponent for the United States Senate seat from California in 1950.
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