Hollywood superstar Michael Douglas has backed part-time Bermuda resident Michael Bloomberg in his bid to become the next president of the United States.

Mr Douglas, 75, a Bermudian whose mother was born into a prominent family, announced his support for the former New York City mayor and billionaire businessman in a video. Mr Douglas said in the video of Mr Bloomberg, 77, who owns a home in Tucker’s Town and is a regular visitor: “has what it takes to win, to unite the country, to move past the endless fighting in order to get things done”.

He added: “Mike has built a business, run a city, taken on big challenges — like gun safety and climate change.”

Mr Douglas said Mr Bloomberg was “a doer, a uniter, a steady leader — a president America needs”.

The video was released last week. Mr Douglas said in an interview with People magazine that he had not been as excited about a presidential candidate since John F. Kennedy. He added: “I feel so blessed that in this particularly difficult time that we have one of the greatest candidates in the history of our elections.”

Mr Douglas said that Mr Bloomberg brings “a rare opportunity to coalesce and bring us back together, get rid of all this horrid, negative scare tactics that are going on, and the fact that he’s succeeded to the degree that he has is phenomenal”.

Mr Bloomberg officially announced his Democratic presidential bid last November.

Mr Douglas is the son of the late Diana Dill, a Bermudian who worked as an actor and model in the US, and movie legend Kirk Douglas.

He and Hollywood star wife Catherine Zeta-Jones lived on the island for several years, but put their Warwick mansion on the market almost four years ago with a pricetag of $10.6 million.

As a scion of the Dill family, Mr Douglas is also co-owner of the now closed Ariel Sands cottage colony in Devonshire.