Jack Nicholson

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Biography

Not to be confused with Nicholas Jackson (disambiguation)|Nicholas Jackson

John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. His twelve Oscar nominations make him the second most nominated actor of all time, behind only Meryl Streep, and tied with Katharine Hepburn.

Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for '' One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)|One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and for As Good as It Gets . He also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the 1983 film Terms of Endearment . He is tied with Walter Brennan for most acting wins by a male actor (three). Nicholson is well known for playing villainous roles such as Jack Torrance in The Shining (film)|The Shining , Frank Costello in The Departed '', and the Joker in 1989's Batman (1989 film)|Batman , among many other roles.

Nicholson is one of only two actors who have been nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade from the 1960s to 2000s; the other is Michael Caine . He has won seven Golden Globe Award s, and received a Kennedy Center Honors|Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. In 1994, he became one of the youngest actors to be awarded the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. Notable films in which he has starred include Easy Rider , Five Easy Pieces , Chinatown (1974 film)|Chinatown , '' One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)|One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , The Passenger (1975 film)|The Passenger , The Shining (film)|The Shining , Reds (film)|Reds , Terms of Endearment , Batman (1989 film)|Batman , A Few Good Men , As Good as It Gets , About Schmidt , The Departed and Anger Management .

Early life

Nicholson was born in St. Vincent's Hospital (Manhattan)|St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City, the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). June had married Italian American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) six months earlier in Elkton, Maryland , on October 16, 1936.Berliner, Eve. . Young Jack Nicholson: Auspicious Beginnings . Evesmag.com. 2001. Furcillo was already married. Although he reportedly offered to take care of the child, June's mother Ethel insisted that she bring up the baby, partly so that June could pursue her dancing career. Although Furcillo claimed to be Nicholson's father and to have committed bigamy by marrying June, biographer Patrick McGilligan asserted in ''Jack's Life'' that Latvian people|Latvian -born Eddie King (originally Edgar A. Kirschfeld), June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. Nicholson's mother was of Irish American|Irish , English American|English , and Pennsylvania Dutch descent, http://www.irishcentral.com/ent/In-their-own-words---top-Hollywood-Irish-discuss-their-heritage---PHOTOS-138645769.html? page=2 though he and his family reportedly self-identified as Irish.

Nicholson was brought up believing that his grandparents, John Joseph Nicholson (a department store window dresser in Manasquan, New Jersey ) and Ethel May (née Rhoads, a hairdresser, beautician and amateur artist in Manasquan), were his parents. Nicholson only discovered that his "parents" were actually his grandparents and his sister was in fact his mother in 1974, after a journalist for TIME magazine who was doing a feature on Nicholson informed him of the fact.Collins, Nancy. . Rolling Stone magazine, March 29, 1984 (Retrieved from scanned copy at Jack Nicholson.org, at the Internet Archive Wayback Machin) By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). Nicholson has stated he does not know who his biological father is, saying "Only Ethel and June knew and they never told anybody", and has chosen not to have a DNA test or to pursue the matter.

Nicholson grew up in Neptune City, New Jersey . He was raised in his mother's Roman Catholic religion. Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey . "When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more-this time two miles (3 km) farther south to old-money Spring Lake, Jersey's so called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor in a rambling duplex at 505 Mercer Avenue."Nicholson, Jack. , New Jersey Monthly , November 15, 2010. Accessed July 14, 2011. "I grew up on the Shore...in Neptune, Neptune City, Manasquan, and Spring Lake. Graduated from Manasquan . No offense to Atlantic City, but, where we grew up, we called it 'The Shore.'" "Nick", as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School , where he was voted "class clown" by the Class of 1954. He was in detention every day for a whole school year. A theatre and a drama award at the school are named in his honor. In 2004, Nicholson attended his 50-year high school reunion accompanied by his aunt Lorraine.

Career

Early work

When Nicholson first came to Hollywood, he worked as a gofer for animation legends William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio|MGM cartoon studio . Seeing his talent as an artist, they offered Nicholson a starting level position as an animation artist. However, citing his desire to become an actor, he declined.McGilligan, P. ''Jack's Life . W.W. Norton & Company, 1994.

He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer , in 1958, playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman . Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors , as masochistic dental patient Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven (1963 film)|The Raven , The Terror (1963 film)|The Terror , and '' The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (film)|The St. Valentine's Day Massacre . He worked frequently with director Monte Hellman as well on low-budget westerns, though two in particular, Ride in the Whirlwind and The Shooting , initially failed to find interest from any US film distributors but gained cult success on the art house circuit in France and were later sold to television.

Rise to fame

With his acting career heading nowhere, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the LSD-fueled screenplay for the 1967 film, The Trip (1967 film)|The Trip (directed by Corman), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper . Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson , the movie Head (film)|Head , which starred The Monkees . In addition, he also arranged the movie's soundtrack. However, after a spot opened up in Fonda and Hopper's Easy Rider , it led to his first big acting break. Nicholson played hard-drinking lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The part of Hanson was a lucky break for Nicholson—the role had in fact been written for actor Rip Torn , who was a close friend of screen writer Terry Southern , but Torn withdrew from the project after a bitter argument with the film's director Dennis Hopper , during which the two men almost came to blows.Hill, Lee. A Grand Guy: The Life and Art of Terry Southern . Bloomsbury, 2001. In interview, Nicholson later acknowledged the importance of being cast in Easy Rider : "All I could see in the early films, before Easy Rider, was this desperate young actor trying to vault out of the screen and create a movie career." http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/film-cinema/easy-rider-the-jack-nicholson-interview-1296590.html

A Best Actor nomination came the following year for his persona-defining role in Five Easy Pieces (1970). Also that year, he appeared in the movie adaptation of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (film)|On A Clear Day You Can See Forever , although most of his performance was left on the cutting room floor . Jack was the first choice to play the role of Damien Karras|Father Damien Karras in The Exorcist (film)|The Exorcist , but the role was turned over to Jason Miller (playwright)|Jason Miller .

Other Nicholson roles included Hal Ashby 's The Last Detail (1973), for which he was awarded Prix d'interprétation masculine|Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival , and the classic Roman Polanski noir thriller, Chinatown (1974 film)|Chinatown (1974). Nicholson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for both films. Nicholson was friends with the director long before the death of Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate , at the hands of the Manson Family , and supported him in the days following the deaths. After Tate's death, Nicholson began sleeping with a hammer under his pillow, and took breaks from work to attend the Manson trial. It was at Nicholson's home where the rape case for which Polanski was arrested occurred. Nicholson would go on to star in The Who 's Tommy (film)|Tommy (1975), directed by Ken Russell , and Michelangelo Antonioni 's The Passenger (1975 film)|The Passenger (1975).

Nicholson earned his first Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor Oscar for portraying Randle Patrick McMurphy|Randle P. McMurphy in the movie adaptation of Ken Kesey 's novel '' One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)|One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , directed by Miloš Forman in 1975. His Oscar was matched when Louise Fletcher received the Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress Award for her portrayal of Nurse Ratched . After this, he began to take more unusual roles. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon (film)|The Last Tycoon '', opposite Robert De Niro . He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn 's western The Missouri Breaks , specifically to work with Marlon Brando . He followed this by making his second directorial effort with the western comedy '' Goin' South . His first movie as a director was a 1971 quirky release called Drive, He Said .

Although he garnered no Academy Award for Stanley Kubrick 's adaptation of Stephen King 's The Shining (film)|The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. His second Oscar, the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor , came for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (1983), directed by James L. Brooks . Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981 film)|The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Reds (film)|Reds (1981), '' Prizzi's Honor (1985), The Witches of Eastwick (film)|The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Broadcast News (film)|Broadcast News (1987), and Ironweed (film)|Ironweed (1987). Three Oscar nominations also followed ( Reds , Prizzi's Honor , and Ironweed ).

Nicholson introduced several acts at Live Aid at the JFK Stadium in July 1985. He turned down the role of John Book in Witness (1985 film)|Witness .Film Comment June 1985. The 1989 Batman (1989 film)|Batman movie, wherein Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, Joker (comics)|The Joker , was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned Nicholson about $60& nbsp;million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessep in A Few Good Men (1992), a movie about a murder in a United States Marine Corps|U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Academy nomination. This film contained the court scene in which Nicholson famously explodes, "You can't handle the truth!", in one of the Aaron Sorkin -penned monologue s to become part of popular culture.
In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks! , pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (1992) and Hoffa (1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination.
Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Melvin Udall, a mean-spirited, compulsive obsessive neurotic author in As Good as It Gets (1997), again directed by Brooks. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt as a Manhattan waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant in which she worked. In 2001, Nicholson was the first actor to receive the Stanislavsky Award at the Moscow International Film Festival for "conquering the heights of acting and faithfulness".

2002–present

In About Schmidt (2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor. In Anger Management (film)|Anger Management (2003), he plays an aggressive therapist assigned to help overly pacifist Adam Sandler . In 2003, Nicholson also starred in '' Something's Gotta Give (film)|Something's Gotta Give , as an aging playboy who falls for the mother ( Diane Keaton ) of his young girlfriend.

In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the "dark side" as Frank Costello, a sadistic Boston, Massachusetts|Boston Irish Mob boss presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese 's Oscar-winning The Departed , a remake of Andrew Lau 's Infernal Affairs .

In November 2006, Nicholson began filming his next project, Rob Reiner 's The Bucket List , a role for which he shaved his head. The film starred Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as dying men who fulfill their list of goals. The film was released on December 25, 2007 (limited), and January 11, 2008 (wide). In researching the role, Nicholson visited a Los Angeles hospital to see how cancer patients coped with their illnesses. His last film role to date saw him reunite with Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets director James L. Brooks for a small supporting role as Paul Rudd 's father in How Do You Know .

Personal life

Family and relationships

Nicholson has been romantically linked to numerous actresses and models, including Michelle Phillips , Bebe Buell , and Lara Flynn Boyle . Nicholson's longest relationship was for 16 years with actress Anjelica Huston , daughter of film director John Huston , from 1973 to 1989. However, the relationship ended when the media reported that Rebecca Broussard had become pregnant with Nicholson's child. Nicholson and Broussard had two children together, Lorraine Nicholson|Lorraine (born 1990) and Raymond Nicholson (born 1992). Nicholson's other children are Jennifer (born 1963 with Sandra Knight) and Honey Hollman (b. 1981 with Winnie Hollman). Actress Susan Anspach contends that her son, Caleb Goddard (born 1970), was fathered by Nicholson, though he is not convinced he is the father. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/BPorg/jack/magz/84rs6.jpg

Celebrity friendships

Nicholson lived next door to Marlon Brando for a number of years on Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills . Warren Beatty also lived nearby, earning the road the nickname "Bad Boy Drive". After Brando's death in 2004, Nicholson purchased his neighbor's bungalow for $6.1& nbsp;million, with the purpose of having it demolished. Nicholson stated that it was done out of respect to Brando's legacy, as it had become too expensive to renovate the "derelict" building which was plagued by mold.

Nicholson shared a friendship with author-journalist Hunter S. Thompson , described in Thompson's autobiography " Kingdom of Fear (book)|Kingdom of Fear " where, according to Thompson, they would exchange "bizarre" presents which resulted in a perceived assassination attempt against the actor. Thompson appeared outside Nicholson's home on the night of Nicholson's birthday, having set off a high-powered spotlight and gunfire, playing a tape of animal cries through an amplifier to awaken him. Thompson then left a freshly-cut elk's heart on Nicholson's door as a joke before leaving when it appeared that nobody would exit the house.Following the death of Thompson in 2005, Nicholson and fellow actors Johnny Depp , John Cusack , and Sean Penn attended the private memorial service in Colorado.

Hobbies

Nicholson is a fan of the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Lakers . His attendance at Lakers games is legendary, as he is a season ticket holder since 1970 and has held courtside season tickets for the past 25 years at both The Forum (Inglewood, California)|The Forum and the Staples Center , missing very few games. In a few instances, Nicholson has engaged in arguments with game officials and opposing players, and has even walked onto the court.. BBC News. May 11, 2003. His ardent refusal to miss a Lakers home game means that studios are rumored to have to schedule filming around the Lakers home schedule. Rotten Tomatoes.com. July 25, 2005. although he disputed this claim in an interview with BBC radio in 2008.

Nicholson is a collector of 20th century and contemporary art, including the work of Scottish artist Jack Vettriano .

Honors

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced on May 28, 2008, that Nicholson would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame , located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts . The induction ceremony took place on December 15, 2008, where he was inducted alongside 11 other legendary Californians.
In 2010, Nicholson was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame .

In 2011, Nicholson received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Brown University at its two hundred and forty-third commencement. At the ceremony Ruth Simmons , Brown University's president, called him, "the most skilled actor of our lifetime." BlogDailyHerald. June 3, 2011.

Academy Awards history

With twelve nominations (eight for Best Actor and four for Best Supporting Actor), Jack Nicholson is the most nominated male actor in Academy Award s history. Only Nicholson and Michael Caine have been nominated for an acting (lead or supporting) Academy Award in five different decades: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (decade). With three Oscar wins, he also ties with Walter Brennan for the second highest-number of Oscar wins in acting categories (all of Brennan's wins, however, were for Best Supporting Actor).

At the 79th Academy Awards , Nicholson had fully shaved his hair for his role in The Bucket List . Those ceremonies represented the seventh time he has presented the Academy Award for Best Picture (1972, 1977, 1978, 1990, 1993, 2006, and 2007). Nicholson is an active and voting member of the Academy. During the last decade he has attended almost every ceremony, whether nominated or not, sitting in the front row.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958	sortname>The	Jimmy Wallace
1960	Too Soon to Love	Buddy
1960	sortname>The	Johnny Varron
1960	sortname>The	Wilbur Force
1960	Studs Lonigan	Weary Reilly
1962	sortname>The	Will Brocious
1963	sortname>The	Andre Duvalier	Also (Uncredited) Director
1963	sortname>The	Rexford Bedlo
1964	Flight to Fury	Jay Wickham	Also Writer
1964	Ensign Pulver	Dolan
1964	Back Door to Hell	Burnett
1965	Ride in the Whirlwind	Wes	Also Producer, Television Film
1966	sortname>The	Billy Spear	Also Producer, Television Film
1967	sortname>The	Gino, Hit Man	Uncredited
1967	Hells Angels on Wheels	Poet
1967	The Trip		Writer
1968	Psych-Out	Stoney
1968	Head	Himself	Also Producer/ Writer
1969	Easy Rider	George Hanson	ubl> Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
1970	On A Clear Day You Can See Forever	Tad Pringle
1970	sortname>The	Bunny
1970	Five Easy Pieces	Robert Eroica Dupea	ubl>Fotogramas de Plata for Best Foreign Movie Performer
1971	Carnal Knowledge	Jonathan Fuerst	Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actor Nominated— Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1971	sortname>A	Mitch
1971	Drive, He Said		Also Producer/ Writer/ Director—Nominated for Palme d'Or
1972	sortname>The	David Staebler
1973	sortname>The	Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky	ubl> BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role also for Chinatown (1974 film)
1974	Chinatown	J.J. 'Jake' Gittes	ubl> BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role also for The Last Detail
1975	sortname>The	Oscar Sullivan aka Oscar Dix
1975	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	Randle McMurphy	ubl> Academy Award for Best Actor
1975	sortname>The	David Locke
1975	Tommy	The Specialist
1976	sortname>The	Tom Logan
1976	sortname>The	Brimmer
1978	'' Goin' South	Henry Lloyd Moon	Also Director
1980	sortname>The	Jack Torrance
1981	sortname>The	Frank Chambers
1981	Ragtime	Pirate at beach	Uncredited
1981	Reds	Eugene O'Neill	ubl> BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1982	sortname>The	Charlie Smith
1983	Terms of Endearment	Garrett Breedlove	ubl> Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1984	Terror in the Aisles		Archival Footage Only
1985	'' Prizzi's Honor	Charley Partanna	ubl> Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor
1986	Heartburn	Mark Forman
1987	The Witches of Eastwick	Daryl Van Horne	ubl> Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor also for Ironweed (film)
1987	Broadcast News	Bill Rorich	also for Ironweed (film)>Ironweed and The Witches of Eastwick (film)
1987	Ironweed	Francis Phelan	ubl> Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor also for The Witches of Eastwick (film)
1989	Batman (1989 film)>Batman	Jack Napier / The Joker	ubl>Nominated— American Comedy Awards
1990	The Two Jakes	J.J. 'Jake' Gittes	Also (Uncredited) Producer/ Director
1992	Man Trouble	Eugene Earl Axline, aka Harry Bliss	Razzie Award for Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor
1992	sortname>A	Col. Nathan R. Jessep	ubl> Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
1992	Hoffa	James R. 'Jimmy' Hoffa	Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Nominated— Golden Raspberry Award>Razzie Award for Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor
1994	Wolf	Will Randall	Nominated— Saturn Award for Best Actor
1995	sortname>The	Freddy Gale
1996	Blood and Wine	Alex Gates
1996	sortname>The	Garrett Breedlove
1996	Mars Attacks!	President James Dale / Art Land	Nominated— Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1997	As Good as It Gets	Melvin Udall	ubl> Academy Award for Best Actor
2001	sortname>The	Jerry Black
2002	About Schmidt	Warren R. Schmidt	ubl> Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor tied with Daniel Day-Lewis for Gangs of New York
2003	Anger Management	Dr. Buddy Rydell	Nominated— Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Hissy Fit
2003	Something's Gotta Give	Harry Sanborn	Nominated— Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2006	sortname>The	Francis 'Frank' Costello	ubl> Austin Film Critics Association
2007	sortname>The	Edward Cole
2010	How Do You Know	Charles Madison

: Additionally, in 1999, Nicholson was presented with the Golden Globe Award|Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award lifetime achievement award.

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