The veteran actor was handed the Britannia Award for Worldwide Contribution to Filmed Entertainment at the 2009 BAFTA/LA Britannia Awards in Los Angeles.
Douglas was touched to receive the honour from Schwarzenegger, as he has fond memories of working with the star on 1979 movie The Villain.
In a post on his personal MySpace page, Douglas writes, "Sometimes I think that if you live long enough you get all the awards. But last night was something special. I received the BAFTA/LA award for Worldwide Contribution to Filmed Entertainment. What was special about it was that Governor Schwarzenegger drove down from Sacramento to present it to me. That was very thoughtful.
"I worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first movie, The Villain. At that time, neither of us could imagine that he would become such an important movie star and then governor of California. He was a great guy back then, and he has never changed."