American actor Michael Douglas will not travel to Zurich to collect his Golden Icon prize from the city’s Film Festival because he is being treated for cancer.

The festival said on Friday that Douglas had agreed to come before his diagnosis. His friend and fellow actor Danny DeVito will collect the prize in his place.

Douglas and DeVito shared a room as students and have been close friends since, the festival said in a statement. They have also worked together, for example in The War of the Roses, starring Douglas and directed by DeVito.

The Oscar-winning Douglas, who comes from an acting dynasty and is married to Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, has been diagnosed with a throat tumour and is receiving treatment. “I am very optimistic,” the 65-year-old told People Magazine.

The Golden Icon award honours a personality whose acting abilities have left a lasting impression upon the cinema landscape. Douglas’s films include Romancing the Stone, Wall Street, Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct. Previous winners include Sylvester Stallone and Morgan Freeman.

Last year the festival was at a centre of a media storm after Franco-Polish director Roman Polanski, who was due to receive a tribute award, was arrested at Zurich airport in connection with a child rape case in the United States from 1977. Switzerland later decided not to extradite him.

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