Nicholson, Jack 1937–

views updated May 14 2018

Nicholson, Jack 1937–

PERSONAL

Original name, John Joseph Nicholson; born April 22 (some sources cite April 28), 1937, in Neptune, NJ; son of June Nicholson (a dancer and secretary); grandson of John "Jack" (a sign painter and window dresser) and Ethel May (a beautician and operator of a beauty shop) Nicholson; married Sandra Knight (an actress), June 17, 1962 (some sources cite 1961; divorced August 8, 1968 [some sources cite 1966]); children: (first marriage) Jennifer (a designer and actress); (with Rebecca Broussard, an actress) Lorraine, Raymond; some sources cite children with Susan Anspach (an actress). Education: Studied acting with Jeff Corey and with other drama teachers. Avocational Interests: Sports, especially basketball, golf, collecting art, reading.

Addresses: Agent—Bresler, Kelly and Associates, 11500 West Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064-1529.

Career: Actor, director, producer, and writer. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, messenger in cartoon department, 1957; Players Ring Theatre, member of troupe, 1957–58. Appeared in public service announcements. T.E.N. Productions, founder, 1985; affiliated with B.B.S. Productions. Military service: Some sources cite service in the U.S. Air National Guard.

Member: Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America, West.

Awards, Honors: New York Film Critics Circle Award, best supporting actor, 1969, Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award and National Society of Film Critics Award, both best supporting actor, Golden Laurel Award, male supporting performance, Academy Award nomination, best actor in a supporting role, Golden Globe Award nomination, best supporting actor, and Film Award nomination, best supporting actor, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, all 1970, all for Easy Rider; Academy Award nomination, best actor in a leading role, Golden Globe Award nomination, best motion picture actor—drama, and Golden Laurel Award second place, best dramatic performance, male, all 1971, for Five Easy Pieces; Golden Palm Award nomination, Cannes International Film Festival, 1971, for Drive, He Said; Golden Laurel Award nomination, star, male, 1971; Golden Globe Award nomination, best motion picture actor—drama, 1972, for Carnal Knowledge; Academy Award nomination, best actor in a leading role, and Golden Globe Award nomination, best motion picture actor—drama, both 1973, and Cannes International Film Festival Award, best actor, all for The Last Detail; Golden Globe Award, best motion picture actor—drama and Academy Award nomination, best actor in a leading role, both 1974, and Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award, best actor, all for Chinatown; New York Film Critics Circle Award, best actor, 1974, National Society of Film Critics Award, best actor, 1975, and Film Award, best actor, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, 1975, all for both The Last Detail and Chinatown; Fotogramas de Plata, best foreign movie performer, 1975; Academy Award, best actor in a leading role, Golden Globe Award, best motion picture actor—drama, National Society of Film Critics Award, National Board of Review Award, and New York Film Critics Circle Award, all best actor, all 1975, David Award, best foreign actor, David di Donatello awards, 1976, Film Award, best actor, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, c. 1976, and Sant Jordi Award, best foreign actor, 1977, all for One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest; National Board of Review Award, best supporting actor, Academy Award nomination, best actor in a supporting role, and Golden Globe Award nomination, best motion picture actor in a supporting role, all 1981, Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award and Boston Society of Film Critics Award, both best supporting actor, 1982, and Film Award, best supporting actor, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, c. 1982, all for Reds; Academy Award, best actor in a supporting role, Golden Globe Award, best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a motion picture, National Board of Review Award, New York Film Critics Circle Award, and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, all best supporting actor, all 1983, National Society of Film Critics Award, Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award, and Boston Society of Film Critics Award, all best supporting actor, 1984, all for Terms of Endearment; New York Film Critics Circle Award, best actor, 1985, Golden Globe Award, best performance by an actor in a motion picture—comedy/musical, National Society of Film Critics Award and Boston Society of Film Critics Award, both best actor, and Academy Award nomination, best actor in a leading role, all 1986, for Prizzi's Honor; New York Film Critics Circle Award, best actor, 1987, for The Witches of Eastwick, Ironweed, and Broadcast News; Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, best actor, 1987, for Ironweed and The Witches of Eastwick; Grammy Award (with Bobby McFerrin), best children's recording, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, 1987, for Elephant's Child; Academy Award nomination, best actor in a leading role, and Golden Globe Award nomination, best performance by an actor in a motion picture—drama, both 1988, for Ironweed; Saturn Award, best actor, Academy of Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy Films, 1988, for The Witches of Eastwick; named a Commander des Arts et Lettres, France, 1990; Golden Globe Award nomination, best performance by an actor in a motion picture—comedy/musical, 1990, Film Award nomination, best actor in a supporting role, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, 1990, and Saturn Award nomination, best actor, 1991, all for Batman; National Board of Review Award, best supporting actor, 1992, Southeastern Film Critics Association Award, best supporting actor, Academy Award nomination, best actor in a supporting role, Golden Globe Award nomination, best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a motion picture, and MTV Movie Award nominations, best male performance and best villain, all 1993, all for A Few Good Men; Golden Globe Award nomination, best performance by an actor in a motion picture—drama, 1993, for Hoffa; Lifetime Achievement Award, American Film Institute, 1994; Saturn Award nomination, best actor, 1995, for Wolf; Golden Satellite Award nomination, best performance by an actor in a motion picture—comedy or musical, International Press Academy, 1997, for Mars Attacks!; received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 1997; named one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, Empire magazine, 1997; National Board of Review Award, best actor, 1997, runner-up for Toronto Film Critics Association Award, best actor, c. 1997, Academy Award, best actor in a leading role, Golden Globe Award, best performance by an actor in a motion picture—comedy/musical, Screen Actors Guild Award, outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role, Golden Satellite Award, best performance by an actor in a motion picture—comedy or musical, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, best actor, American Comedy Award, funniest actor in a motion picture in a leading role, and Online Film Critics Society Award, best actor, all 1998, ALFS Award, actor of the year, London Critics Circle Film awards, and Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination, favorite actor—video, both 1999, all for As Good As It Gets; Jack Webb Award, Los Angeles Police Department, 1998; Cecil B. DeMille Award, Golden Globe awards, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, 1999; Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2001; Stanislavsky Prize, Moscow International Film Festival, 2001; Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award and Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association Award, both best actor, 2002, Golden Globe Award, best performance by an actor in a motion picture—drama, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award and Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award, both best actor, Academy Award nomination, best actor in a leading role, Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role, Golden Satellite Award nomination, best performance by an actor in a motion picture, drama, Film Award nomination, best performance by an actor in a leading role, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Phoenix Film Critics Society Award nomination, best actor in a leading role, Chicago Film Critics Association Award nomination and Online Film Critics Society Award nomination, both best actor, all 2003, all for About Schmidt; Teen Choice Award nomination, choice movie hissy fit, 2003, for Anger Management; Golden Globe Award nomination, best performance by an actor in a motion picture—musical or comedy, 2004, for Something's Gotta Give; Marquee Award, CineVegas International Film Festival, 2004; Die Goldene Kamera (Golden Camera Award [Germany]), best international actor, 2004; named one of the greatest movie stars of all time, Premiere magazine, 2005; Nicholson's performances in the films The Last Detail and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest were named two of the 100 greatest performances of all time, Premiere magazine, 2006; Nicholson's performances in the films The Shining and Batman were named to the 100 heroes and villains list, American Film Institute, 2006; Nicholson's performances in the films Chinatown and The Shining were named two of the 100 greatest movie characters of all time, Premiere magazine.

CREDITS

Film Appearances:

Jimmy Wallace (title role), Cry Baby Killer, Allied Artists, 1958.

Buddy, Too Young to Love (also known as Too Soon to Love), Rank, 1959.

Johnny Varron, The Wild Ride (also known as Velocity), The Filmgroup, 1960.

Weary Reilly, Studs Lonigan, United Artists, 1960.

Wilbur Force, The Little Shop of Horrors (also known as The Passionate People Eater), The Filmgroup, 1960.

Will Brocious, The Broken Land, Twentieth Century. Fox, 1961.

Roxford Bedlo, The Raven, American International Pictures, 1962.

Lieutenant Andre Duvalier, The Terror (also known as The Castle of Terror, The Haunting, and Lady of the Shadows), American International Pictures, 1963.

Burnett, Back Door to Hell, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1964.

Dolan, Ensign Pulver, Warner Bros., 1964.

Wes, Ride in the Whirlwind (also known as Ride the Whirlwind), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1965.

Jay Wickham, Flight to Fury, Feature Films, 1966.

Billy Spear, The Shooting, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1967.

Gino (hit man), The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1967.

Poet, Hells Angels on Wheels, U.S. Films, 1967.

(Uncredited; in archive footage) Actor in scenes from The Terror, Targets (also known as Before I Die), Paramount, 1968.

Himself, Head (also known as Changes, DASturb, and Untitled), Columbia, 1968.

Stoney, Psych-Out (also known as Revolt of the Flower People), Columbia, 1968.

George Hanson, Easy Rider (also known as The Loners), Columbia, 1969.

Bunny, Rebel Rousers, Four Star Excelsior, 1970.

Robert Eroica Dupea, Five Easy Pieces, Columbia, 1970.

Tad Pringle, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (musical), Paramount, 1970.

Himself, Chronicles: Van's Last Performance (documentary), 1971.

Jonathan Fuerst, Carnal Knowledge, Avco-Embassy, 1971.

Mitch, A Safe Place, Columbia, 1971.

David Staebler, The King of Marvin Gardens (also known as The Philosopher King), Columbia, 1972.

"Badass" Billy Buddusky, The Last Detail, Columbia, 1973.

J. J. "Jake" Gittes, Chinatown, Paramount, 1974.

Oscar Sullivan, The Fortune (also known as Spite and Malice), Columbia, 1974.

David Locke, Professione: reporter (also known as The Passenger, Profession: Reporter, and El reportero), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1975.

Randle Patrick "R. P." McMurphy, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, United Artists, 1975.

The specialist, Tommy (rock opera; also known as Tommy by "The Who," Tommy: The Movie, and The Who's "Tommy"), Columbia, 1975.

Brimmer, The Last Tycoon, Paramount, 1976.

Tom Logan, The Missouri Breaks, Warner Bros., 1976.

Henry Lloyd Moon, Goin' South, Paramount, 1978.

Jack Torrance, The Shining (also known as Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining"), Warner Bros., 1980.

Charlie Smith, The Border, Universal, 1981.

Eugene "Gene" O'Neill, Reds, Warner Bros., 1981.

Frank Chambers, The Postman Always Rings Twice (also known as Wenn der Postmann zweimal klingelt), Paramount, 1981.

(Uncredited) Star of The Postman Always Rings Twice, Notre Dame de la croisette, 1981.

Garrett Breedlove, Terms of Endearment (also known as Terms of Endearment xxx), Paramount, 1983.

(In archive footage) Jack Torrance, Terror in the Aisles (also known as Time for Terror), Universal, 1984.

Charlie Partanna, Prizzi's Honor, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1985.

Mark Louis Forman, Heartburn, Paramount, 1986.

Bill Rorich, Broadcast News, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1987.

Daryl Van Horne, The Witches of Eastwick, Warner Bros., 1987.

Francis Phelan, Ironweed, TriStar, 1987.

The Joker/Jack Napier, Batman, Warner Bros., 1989.

J. J. "Jake" Gittes, The Two Jakes, Paramount, 1991.

Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, A Few Good Men, Columbia, 1992.

Eugene Earl Axline (also known as Harry Bliss), Man Trouble, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1992.

James R. "Jimmy" Hoffa (title role), Hoffa, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1992.

(In archive footage) Himself, The Making of"… And God Spoke" (also known as … And God Spoke), LIVE Entertainment, 1994.

Will Randall, Wolf, Columbia, 1994.

Freddy Gale, The Crossing Guard, Miramax, 1995.

Garrett Breedlove, The Evening Star, Paramount, 1996.

President James Dale and Art Land, Mars Attacks!, Warner Bros., 1996.

Alex Gates, Blood & Wine, Twentieth Century-Fox/Fox Searchlight Pictures, 1997.

Melvin Udall, As Good as It Gets (also known as Old Friends), Sony Pictures Entertainment, 1997.

Himself, Junket Whore (documentary), 1998.

Jerry Black, The Pledge, Warner Bros., 2000.

Himself, Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (documentary), Warner Bros., 2001.

(In archive footage) Himself, The Kid Stays In the Picture (documentary), Focus Features/USA Films, 2002.

Warren Schmidt, About Schmidt, New Line Cinema, 2002.

Dr. Buddy Rydell, Anger Management, Columbia, 2003.

Harry Sanborn, Something's Gotta Give (also known as Untitled Nancy Meyers Project), Warner Bros., 2003.

Frank Costello, The Departed (also known as Infernal Affairs), Warner Bros., 2006.

The Bucket List, 2007.

Film Director:

(Uncredited) The Terror (also known as The Castle of Terror, The Haunting, and Lady of the Shadows), American International Pictures, 1963.

Drive, He Said, Columbia, 1970.

Goin' South, Paramount, 1978.

The Two Jakes, Paramount, 1991.

Film Producer:

Ride in the Whirlwind (also known as Ride the Whirlwind), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1965.

Flight to Fury, Feature Films, 1966.

The Shooting, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1967.

(With Bob Rafelson) Head (also known as Changes, DASturb, and Untitled), Columbia, 1968.

(With Steve Blauner) Drive, He Said, Columbia, 1970.

Blue Champagne, 1992.

Film Work; Other:

Film mentor, Eyeball Eddie (short film), Pupil Productions, 2000.

Television Appearances; Specials:

Himself, Making "The Shining" (short documentary), 1980.

Himself, Live Aid, multiple networks, 1985.

Narrator, Elephant's Child (animated), Showtime, 1987.

Michael Landon: Memories with Laughter and Love, NBC, 1991.

(In archive footage) Ca detourne (animated), [France], 1992.

(In archive footage) The specialist, The Who's "Tommy," the Amazing Journey, 1993.

An American Reunion: New Beginnings, Renewed Hope, 1993.

Narrator, "How the Camel Got His Hump" and "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin," Celebrate Storytelling with Danny Glover (animated), PBS, 1994.

(In archive footage) Himself, Hey, Hey We're the Monkees (documentary), The Disney Channel, 1997.

Narrator, Getting the Goods on "As Good As It Gets," 1997.

(In archive footage) Himself, Warner Bros., 75th Anniversary: No Guts, No Glory, TNT, 1998.

America's Millennium, CBS, 1999.

(In archive footage) Himself, Gimme Some Truth: The Making of the "Imagine" Album, Bravo, 2000.

(Uncredited; in archival footage) Himself in preproduction footage from Head, Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The Early Years (1955–1970), American Movie Classics, 2000.

Himself, America: A Tribute to Heroes, multiple networks, 2001.

David, Afterthoughts (short documentary), 2002.

(Uncredited) Himself, Playboy: Inside the Playboy Mansion, Arts and Entertainment, 2002.

Back in the U.S., ABC, 2002.

(In archive footage) Daryl Van Horne, Cher: The Farewell Tour, NBC, 2003.

AFI's 100 Years … 100 Heroes and Villains (also known as AFI's 100 Years, 100 Heroes and Villains: America's Greatest Screen Characters), CBS, 2003.

Himself, Mouthing Off: 51 Greatest Smartasses, Comedy Central, 2004.

Himself, Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast, multiple networks, 2005.

(Uncredited; in archive footage) Jack Torrance, Alberto Iglesias, el musico fiel, Canal+ Espana, 2006.

Appeared in other programs.

Television Appearances; Awards Presentations:

Presenter, The 44th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1972.

The 48th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1976.

Presenter, The 49th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1977.

Presenter, The 50th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1978.

The American Film Institute Salute to John Huston, CBS, 1983.

The 56th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1984.

The 58th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1986.

The 60th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1988.

Presenter, The 62nd Annual Academy Awards Presentation, ABC, 1990.

The 33rd Annual Grammy Awards, CBS, 1991.

Presenter, The 65th Annual Academy Awards Presentation (also known as The 65th Annual Academy Awards), ABC, 1993.

The American Film Institute Salute to Jack Nicholson (also known as The AFI Salute to Jack Nicholson), CBS, 1994.

(Uncredited) Presenter, The 67th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1995.

A Salute to Steven Spielberg (also known as The AFI Salute to Steven Spielberg, The American Film Institute Salute to Steven Spielberg, and The 23rd American Film Institute Life Achievement Award: A Salute to Steven Spielberg), NBC, 1995.

A Salute to Clint Eastwood (also known as The AFI Salute to Clint Eastwood, The American Film Institute Salute to Clint Eastwood, and The 24th American Film Institute Life Achievement Award: A Salute to Clint Eastwood), ABC, 1996.

(Uncredited) The 70th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1998.

Presenter, Fifth Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (also known as Screen Actors Guild Fifth Annual Awards), TNT, 1999.

Presenter, The 71st Annual Academy Awards Presentation, ABC, 1999.

The 56th Annual Golden Globe Awards, NBC, 1999.

A Salute to Dustin Hoffman (also known as The 27th American Film Institute Life Achievement Award: A Salute to Dustin Hoffman), ABC, 1999.

Presenter, The 72nd Annual Academy Awards Presentation (also known as The 72nd Annual Academy Awards), ABC, 2000.

The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts, CBS, 2001.

A Tribute to Barbra Streisand (also known as 29th American Film Institute Life Achievement Award: A Salute to Barbra Streisand), Fox, 2001.

The 75th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 2003.

The 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards, NBC, 2003.

(Uncredited) Gandalf in opening segment, The 76th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 2004.

Presenter, The 61st Annual Golden Globe Awards, NBC, 2004.

AFI Lifetime Achievement Award: A Tribute to Meryl Streep (also known as AFI Tribute to Meryl Streep), USA Network, 2004.

The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts, CBS, 2004.

Presenter, The 78th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 2006.

Television Appearances; Episodic:

Tony Morgan, Hawaiian Eye, ABC, 1959.

Martin, "Operation Fortuna," Mr. Lucky, CBS, 1960.

"Anniversary Party," Mr. Lucky, CBS, 1960.

"The Mink Coat," The Barbara Stanwyck Show, NBC, 1960.

Bob Doolin, "The Equalizer," Bronco, ABC, 1961.

Tom Washburn, "That Washburn Girl," Tales of Wells Fargo, NBC, 1961.

"Round Up," Sea Hunt, syndicated, 1961.

Tony Morgan, "Total Eclipse," Hawaiian Eye, ABC, 1962.

(Uncredited) Crew member, "The Lost Bomb," Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, ABC, 1966.

Jaime Angel, "Out of a Concrete Tower," Dr. Kildare, NBC, 1966.

Jaime Angel, "A Patient Lost," Dr. Kildare, NBC, 1966.

Jaime Angel, "The Taste of Crow," Dr. Kildare, NBC, 1966.

Jamie Angel, "What Happened to All the Sunshine and Roses?," Dr. Kildare, NBC, 1966.

Mr. Garland, "Opie Finds a Baby," The Andy Griffith Show (also known as Andy of Mayberry), CBS, 1966.

"The Encroachment," Dr. Kildare, NBC, 1966.

Marvin Jenkins, "Aunt Bee, the Juror," The Andy Griffith Show (also known as Andy of Mayberry), CBS, 1967.

Tom Murdoch, "A Son for a Son," The Guns of Will Sonnett, ABC, 1967.

Himself, "Jack Nicholson fait de la photo," Cinema cinemas, [France], 1990.

(Uncredited) Himself, Saturday Night Live (also known as NBC's "Saturday Night," Saturday Night, Saturday Night Live '80, SNL, and SNL 25), NBC, 1997.

Himself, "Cannes Festival 2002," Leute heute, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF, Germany), 2002.

(In archive footage) Himself, Celebrities Uncensored, E! Entertainment Television, 2003.

Himself, Tinseltown TV(also known as Tinseltown.TV), International Channel, 2003.

Himself, "Jack Nicholson," Biography (also known as A & E Biography: Jack Nicholson), Arts and Entertainment, 2004.

(In archive footage) Himself, 101 Biggest Celebrity Oops (also known as E's "101"), E! Entertainment Television, 2004.

Himself, "Jack Nicholson," The E! True Hollywood Story (also known as THS), E! Entertainment Television, 2005.

(In archive footage) Himself, Corazon de …, Television Espanola (TVE, Spain), 2005.

(Uncredited; in archive footage) 80s, Televisio de Cata-lunya (TV3, Spain), 2005.

Himself, The Oprah Winfrey Show (also known as Oprah), syndicated, 2006.

Appeared in other programs, including Cheyenne, ABC; and Divorce Court, syndicated; and appeared in an interview on E! Entertainment Television.

Stage Appearances:

The World of Nick Adams (staged reading), Kodak Theatre, Hollywood, CA, 2002.

Appeared in Tea and Sympathy, Hollywood, CA.

RECORDINGS

Videos:

Playboy: Playmate Pajama Party, Playboy Entertainment Group/Uni Distribution, 1999.

My Buddy Jack (also known as Spotlight on Jack Nicholson), Columbia, 2003.

Skull Session: The Making of "Anger Management' (also known as The Making of "Anger Management"), Columbia, 2003.

Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight—The Gathering Storm, Warner Home Video, 2005.

Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight—The Legend Reborn, Warner Home Video, 2005.

Audiobooks; with Music by Bobby McFerrin:

How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin/How the Camel Got His Hump, Rabbit Ears Music, 1985.

Elephant's Child, Critique Records, 1987.

WRITINGS

Screenplays:

(With Don Devlin) Thunder Island, Associated Producers, 1963.

Ride in the Whirlwind (also known as Ride the Whirlwind), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1965.

Flight to Fury, Feature Films, 1966.

The Shooting, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1967.

The Trip, American International Pictures, 1967.

(With Bob Rafelson) Head (also known as Changes, DASturb, and Untitled), Columbia, 1968.

(With Jeremy Larner) Drive, He Said (adapted from the novel by Larner), Columbia, 1970.

Goin' South, Paramount, 1978.

(With Adam Sandler) Anger Management, Columbia, 2003.

Film Music; Songs:

"Ditty Diego," Head (also known as Changes, DASturb, and Untitled), Columbia, 1968.

Nonfiction; with Others:

(Author of foreword) Scott Osler and Steve Springer, Winnin' Times: The Magical Journey of the Los Angeles Lakers, Macmillan, 1986.

(Author of introduction) Eric Morris and Joan Hotchkis, No Acting Please, Ermor Enterprises, 1995.

(Author of introduction) Tommy Baratta and Marylou Baratta, Cooking for Jack, Pocket Books, 1997.

OTHER SOURCES

Books:

Bingham, Dennis, Acting Male: Masculinities in the Films of James Stewart, Jack Nicholson, and Clint Eastwood, Rutgers University Press, 1994.

Brode, Douglas, The Films of Jack Nicholson, Citadel, 1996.

Campbell, Nancy and Jackie Shirley, Jack Nicholson, Smithmark Publishing, 1994.

Crane, Robert David, Jack Nicholson, Face to Face, M. Evans & Co., 1975.

Dowling, David, Jack Nicholson, Stein & Day, 1984.

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 3: Actors and Actresses, St. James Press, 2000.

McGilligan, Patrick, Jack's Life: A Biography of Jack Nicholson, W. W. Norton & Company, 1995.

Parker, John, Wild: The Biography of Jack Nicholson, John Blake, 2005.

Shepard, Donald, Jack Nicholson: An Unauthorized Biography, St. Martin's Press, 1991.

Siegel, Barbara and Scott Siegel, Jack Nicholson: The Unauthorized Biography, Avon, 1991.

Sylvester, David, Jack Nicholson, Scribner, 1982.

Thompson, Peter, Jack Nicholson: The Life and Times of an Actor on the Edge, Birch Lane Press, 1997.

Periodicals:

American Film, January/February, 1984.

Biography, August, 1998, pp. 16-17.

Cosmopolitan, September, 1994, p. 236.

Empire, October, 1997, p. 188; September, 2004.

Entertainment Weekly, October 9, 1998, p. 20; January 3, 2003, pp. 18-25; November 4, 2005, pp. 11-12.

Films Illustrated, October, 1971.

Interview, April, 2003, pp. 148-53.

Los Angeles Times, June 8, 2004.

Newsweek, December 16, 2002, pp. 60-64.

New York Times, July 13, 1986.

New York Times Magazine, September 10, 1989, pp. S28-S30.

People Weekly, December 16, 2002, p. 97.

Premiere, September, 1990, pp. 58-68.

Prevue, November, 1990, p. 38.

Radio Times, August 20, 1994, pp. 28-29.

Rolling Stone, March 29, 1984; November 5, 1987, pp. 236-39; March 19, 1998, pp. 36-40.

Swank, July, 1982, pp. 32-34, 72, 74.

Time, August 12, 1974.

Tropopkin, March, 1994.

US, July, 1994.

Vanity Fair, April, 1994, pp. 118-25.

Nicholson, Jack

views updated May 18 2018

NICHOLSON, Jack



Nationality: American. Born: Neptune, New Jersey, 22 April 1937. Education: Attended Manasquan High School in Neptune; studied acting in Los Angeles with Jeff Corey, 1957. Family: Married Sandra Knight, 1961 (divorced 1966), child: Jennifer; two children with actress Rebecca Broussard. Career: 1957—office boy in MGM cartoon department; some television appearances; 1957–58—stage work with Players Ring Theater; 1958—film debut in The Cry Baby Killer; 1963—first screenwriting credit for Thunder Island; 1971—directed first film, Drive, He Said. Awards: Best Supporting Actor, New York Film Critics, for Easy Rider, 1969; Best Actor, British Academy, for Chinatown and The Last Detail, 1974; Best Actor, Cannes Festival, for The Last Detail, 1974; Best Actor, New York Film Critics, for Chinatown and The Last Detail, 1974; Best Actor, Academy Award, Best Actor, New York Film Critics, Golden Globe Award, and Best Actor, British Academy, for One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1976; Best Supporting Actor, Academy Award, for Terms of Endearment, 1983; Golden Globe Award, for Terms of Endearment, 1984; Golden Globe Award, for Prizzi's Honor, 1986; Best Actor Awards, New York Film Critics and Los Angeles Film Critics, 1987; American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, 1994; Best Actor, Academy Award, American Comedy Award, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, Golden Globe Award, for As Good as It Gets, 1998; Cecil B. DeMille Award, for outstanding contribution to the field of etertainment, 1999. Agent: Sandy Bressler and Associates, 15760 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 1730, Encino, CA 91436, U.S.A.

Films as Actor:

1958

The Cry Baby Killer (Addis) (as Jimmy)

1959

Too Soon to Love (Rush) (as Buddy)

1960

The Wild Ride (Corman) (as Johnny Varron); Studs Lonigan (Lerner) (as Weary Reilly); Little Shop of Horrors (Corman) (as Wilbur Force)

1961

The Broken Land (Bushelman) (as Will Broicous)

1962

The Raven (Corman) (as Roxford Bedlo)

1963

The Terror (Corman) (as Andre Duvalier)

1964

Ensign Pulver (Logan) (as crew member); Back Door to Hell (Hellman) (as Burnett)

1966

The Shooting (Hellman) (as Billy Spear, + co-pr)

1967

Hell's Angels on Wheels (Rush) (as Poet)

1968

Psych-Out (Rush) (as Stoney)

1969

Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper) (as George Hanson)

1970

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (Minnelli) (as Tad Pringle); Five Easy Pieces (Rafelson) (as Robert Eroica Dupea)

1971

Carnal Knowledge (Nichols) (as Jonathan); A Safe Place (Jaglom) (as Mitch)

1972

The King of Marvin Gardens (Rafelson) (as David Staebler)

1973

The Last Detail (Ashby) (as Billy Buddusky)

1974

Chinatown (Polanski) (as J. J. Gittes); The Fortune (Nichols) (as Oscar Sullivan)

1975

Professione: Reporter (The Passenger) (Antonioni) (as David Locke); Tommy (Russell) (as Doctor); One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Forman) (as Randall P. McMurphy)

1976

The Missouri Breaks (Arthur Penn) (as Tom Logan); The Last Tycoon (Kazan) (as Brimmer)

1980

The Shining (Kubrick) (as Jack Torrance)

1981

The Border (Richardson) (as Charlie Smith); The Postman Always Rings Twice (Rafelson) (as Frank Chambers); Reds (Beatty) (as Eugene O'Neill)

1983

Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks) (as Garrett Breedlove)

1985

Prizzi's Honor (Huston) (as Charlie Fontana)

1986

Heartburn (Nichols) (as Mark)

1987

Broadcast News (James L. Brooks) (as Bill Rorich); Ironweed (Babenco) (as Francis Phelan); The Witches of Eastwick (Miller) (as Daryl Van Horne)

1989

Batman (Burton) (as the Joker/Jack Napier)

1992

Hoffa (DeVito) (title role); Man Trouble (Rafelson) (as Harry Bliss); A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner) (as Col. Nathan R. Jessep)

1994

Wolf (Nichols) (as Will Randall)

1995

The Crossing Guard (Sean Penn) (as Freddy Gale)

1996

The Evening Star (as Garrett Breedlove); Mars Attacks! (Tim Burton) (as President James Dale)

1997

As Good As It Gets (Brooks) (as Melvin Udall); Blood and Wine (Rafelson) (as Alex)

Films as Scriptwriter:

1963

Thunder Island (Leewood)

1966

Ride the Whirlwind (Hellman) (+ pr, ro as Wes); Flight to Fury (Hellman) (+ ro as Jay Wickham)

1967

The Trip (Corman)

1968

Head (Rafelson) (co-sc, + co-pr, ro as himself)

Films as Director:

1970

Drive, He Said (+ co-pr, co-sc)

1978

Goin' South (+ ro as Henry Moon)

1990

The Two Jakes (+ ro as J. J. Gittes)

Publications


By NICHOLSON: articles—

"Jack Nicholson on the New York Film Festival," interview with V. Wade, in Inter/View (New York), December 1972.

"Jack Nicholson and Angelica Huston," interview with R. Kent, in Inter/View (New York), April 1974.

"Profession: Actor," interview with J. R. Taylor, in Sight and Sound (London), Summer 1974.

Interview with B. Walker, in Film Comment (New York), May/June 1985.

Interview with D. Caulfield and P. H. Broeske, in Stills (London), October 1985.

"Jake Jake: Jack Nicholson and Harvey Keitel," interview with Julian Schnabel, in Interview (New York), August 1990.

"Wolf, Man, Jack," interview with Nancy Collins, in Vanity Fair (New York), April 1994.

On NICHOLSON: books—

Crane, Robert David, and Christopher Fryer, Jack Nicholson—Face to Face, New York, 1975.

Dickens, Norman, Jack Nicholson: The Search for a Superstar, New York, 1975.

Braithwaite, Bruce, The Films of Jack Nicholson, Farncombe, Surrey, 1977.

Sandre, Didier, Jack Nicholson, Paris, 1981.

Downing, David, Jack Nicholson: A Biography, London, 1983.

Cagin, Seth, and Philip Dray, Hollywood Films of the Seventies: Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll and Politics, New York, 1984.

McGee, Mark Thomas, Fast and Furious: The Story of American International Pictures, Jefferson, North Carolina, 1984.

Brode, Douglas, The Films of Jack Nicholson, London, 1987; rev. ed., 1994.

Parker, John, The Joker's Wild: The Biography of Jack Nicholson, London, 1991.

Shepherd, Donald, Jack Nicholson: An Unauthorized Biography, New York, 1991.

Bingham, Dennis, Acting Male: Masculinities in the Films of James Stewart, Jack Nicholson, and Clint Eastwood, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1994.

McGilligan, Patrick, Jack's Life: A Biography of Jack Nicholson, New York, 1994.

Baratta, Tommy, with Marylou Baratta, Cooking for Jack: Delicious Low-Fat Italian Recipes from the Star's Kitchen, introduction by Jack Nicholson, New York, 1996.

Thompson, Peter, Jack Nicholson: The Life and Times of an Actor on the Edge, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1997.

Shiach, Don, Jack Nicholson: The Complete Film Guide, McMinnville, Oregon, 1999.


On NICHOLSON: articles—

Cieutat, Michel, "Jack Nicholson, ou la vocation de l'abandon," in Positif (Paris), May 1973.

Eyles, Allen, "Jack Nicholson," in Focus on Film (London), Summer 1974.

Haskell, Molly, "Gould vs. Redford vs. Nicholson: The Absurdist as Box Office Draw," in The Movie Star, edited by Elisabeth Weis, New York, 1981.

Wolf, Jamie, "It's All Right, Jack," in American Film (Washington, D.C.), January-February 1984.

Grimes, T., "BBS: Auspicious Beginnings, Open Endings," in Movie (London), Winter 1986.

Greenberg, J., "Forget It Jack, It's The Two Jakes," in American Film (New York), February 1990.

Schruers, Fred, "The Two Jacks," in Premiere (New York), September 1990.

Current Biography 1995, New York, 1995.

"Who's the Best Actor in Hollywood?" in Movieline (Escondido), October 1996.

Atkinson, M., "Jack Nicholson in The Passenger," in Movieline (Escondido), July 1997.


* * *

It is surprising that an actor of such obvious charisma as Jack Nicholson remained mired for so long in low-budget films made about and for the fringes of American society. During his early years, he appeared in a steady stream of quickies for Roger Corman and others. His masochistic dental patient in Corman's classic two-day wonder Little Shop of Horrors remains a high point, although it did little to advance Nicholson's career at the time. Only when the counterculture became a less peripheral force toward the end of the 1960s did Nicholson begin to exert widespread appeal.

Nicholson's background (a broken home) and intense personality suited him for roles as an alienated, rebellious biker and as a horror film hero always on brink of slipping into psychosis. Significantly, his break came in Easy Rider, where he plays an alcoholic lawyer only too ready to hit the road and leave behind a meaningless settled life. Nicholson's tour-de-force performance in the role, which he took over at the last minute when the already cast Rip Torn himself hit the road, earned him a supporting Oscar nomination. Like Richard Rush's Hell's Angels on Wheels, in which he appeared two years before, Easy Rider presented bikers as the image of nonconformity. The difference was that the ideas of freedom from responsibility and a dedication to self-enjoyment now found a wider audience which Nicholson was at last able to tap.

In subsequent films, Nicholson has made his drifter character more resonant. In Five Easy Pieces his Bobby Dupea is a man caught between the claims of different cultures. At the end, he sets out like Huck Finn for the frontier. But the character will undoubtedly find only another dead end in Alaska, only another correlative of his own incapacities. For demythologizing the character he had so vividly etched the year before in Easy Rider, Nicholson earned his first Oscar nomination as best actor. He has since taken his screen persona in the direction of continuing popular appeal, determined not to find himself for the second time on the outside of mainstream cinema.

In Mike Nichols's Carnal Knowledge he played a successful, Ivy League-educated lawyer whose youthful joy in sex, poisoned by male chauvinism, becomes a pitiful impotence. For Hal Ashby's The Last Detail he portrayed a dim-witted military policeman who instinctively grasps the injustices of his world but is only able to stage an ineffective (if heartwarming) protest against them. In Polanski's Chinatown Nicholson is a jaded detective whose "matrimonial work" is nevertheless an attempt to preserve innocence and indict the guilty (he fails at both). As McMurphy in Forman's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest he offers a variation on his character of the unrepressed outsider, who doubles as a healer of psychic wounds (a performance that won him an Oscar). In both The Missouri Breaks (opposite Brando) and Reds (as Eugene O'Neill, receiving another Oscar nomination), he is again an outsider battling or protesting against an unjust system. In Kubrick's The Shining, he returned to a character much like those he had played for Corman—the potential psychopath who goes over the brink into madness—but pulled out all the stops in a creatively daring performance.

His role in Terms of Endearment further softened the rebel character he had created for the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. As a womanizing, alcoholic former astronaut, he is a comic and not a tragic figure, a man who does his own thing, hurts no one, and can be melodramatically transformed into a sensitive human being. The part won him another supporting actor Oscar. His cameo reprise of the role in Brooks's even more melodramatic sequel, Evening Star, is a nostalgic gesture toward the bad boy charm that characterized much of his early work in mainstream film. This is an element of his screen persona exploited most successfully by James L. Brooks, who specializes in sentimentalizing quirkiness. Nicholson among contemporary actors could make convincing the inner changes demanded Brooks by in As Good as it Gets, where his misanthropic loner, trapped by compulsive behaviors, reaches out to love a young woman, befriend his gay neighbor, and even form an attachment to a hitherto pesky dog. His dedicated semper fi colonel in A Few Good Men, in contrast, restrains his anger at and frustration with confining regulations until prompted into self-revelation by relentless cross-examination.

In recent years, Nicholson has been taking his career in another direction, now conceiving himself more as a character actor. He is absurdly horrific, yet charming and sexy, as the devil in The Witches of Eastwick. The same engaging duality is evident in Batman where, like all the villains in that series, his Joker is a good man twisted toward evil by an unfortunate metamorphosis. In Wolf, a similar transformation is caused by a midlife crisis that is both professional and sexual. In Rafelson's Blood and Wine, an homage to James M. Cain, Nicholson's frustrated, unsuccessful businessman is unable to make a new life for himself; his elaborate caper ends in bloody disaster for nearly everyone. The antihero of his earlier career, it seems, can now only be recreated—as the nostalgic performances in The Two Jakes (a flawed sequel to Chinatown) and Ironweed make clear. His impersonation of the union leader in Hoffa, however, is a mature tour de force, a demonstration of how rebellious dissatisfaction can be directed toward a good end, but then betrayed and squandered. Similarly, Nicholson plays a tragic figure in Sean Penn's underrated Crossing Guard, a man, undone by grief, who lets his life be ruined by the death of his young daughter; the performance is intense and affecting, a key to the film's devastating anatomy of love, hate, and deliverance. Nicholson's recent work shows that even in advanced middle age he continues to be one of the most talented and bankable stars in the American film industry.

—R. Barton Palmer

Nicholson, Jack

views updated Jun 27 2018

NICHOLSON, Jack

(b. 22 April 1937 in Neptune, New Jersey), actor, director, and screenwriter often described as the most charismatic and talented actor of his generation, winner of two Academy Awards for best actor and one for best supporting actor; recipient of several Academy Award nominations and other prestigious international prizes for his performances.

Nicholson's family background was recently defined as "a mystery with as many false clues as Chinatown," the 1974 Roman Polanski film in which Nicholson starred. Nicholson, the son of June Nicholson, an unwed, teenaged mother, was raised by his grandparents, Ethel May, a beauty parlor owner, and John Nicholson, a sign painter. He had one half-sister. When Nicholson was very young, his grandfather left the family. Nicholson attended high school in Neptune, New Jersey. At the age of seventeen, he traveled to California. Despite his plans to return East to attend college, he landed a job as an office boy in MGM's animation department. In 1957, while in Los Angeles, Nicholson studied acting with Jeff Corey, one of the foremost acting instructors in Hollywood at that time; Nicholson also worked as an actor with the Players Ring Theatre.

Nicholson's debut as an actor happened on the fringes of the American film industry, where he was confined for the whole decade of the 1960s. He played alienated bikers or psychotic characters in horror films, a genre to which he later returned as an established star with Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980) and more grotesquely with George Miller's The Witches of Eastwick (1987) and Mike Nichols's Wolf (1994). Only when the values of the counterculture became more widely disseminated in American society was Nicholson able to achieve celebrity status. He was in his thirties when he finally became a star, a relatively late age for an actor endowed with his magnetism.

Nicholson's first film appearance is connected to the legendary producer and director of low-budget films, Roger Corman, who cast him in the title role of Cry Baby Killer (1958). After appearing in Irving Lerner's Studs Lonigan(1960), an unsuccessful adaptation of James T. Farrell's radical immigrant saga, Nicholson continued to star in Corman's features for the next few years. He played a masochistic dental patient in Little Shop of Horrors (1960), followed by the role of Peter Lorre's troubled son in The Raven (1963), and finally costarred in The Terror (1963) with Boris Karloff. Nicholson subsequently acted in three features by Monte Hellman, another cult figure on the periphery of American cinema. He also wrote the script for Corman's hallucinogenic classic, The Trip (1968), and cowrote the cult movie, The Head. On 17 June 1962 Nicholson married Sandra Knight; the couple had one daughter before divorcing on 8 August 1968.

The films of the 1960s did little to enhance Nicholson's reputation, which underwent a major upsurge when, after turning down a role in Bonnie and Clyde, he replaced Rip Torn to play the character of George Hanson, a southern lawyer, in another countercultural cinematic manifesto, Easy Rider (1969). The incredible success of this road movie, enhanced by Nicholson's captivating, Academy Award–nominated performance as a drop-out lawyer, made Nicholson an icon of nonconformity for the Beatles-generation audiences who flocked to see this landmark feature of the New Hollywood. After the disappointing experience of Vincente Minnelli's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970), in which his role was almost completely edited out, Nicholson starred in Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces (1970), the film that assured his stardom. In this ideal epilogue to Easy Rider and the whole 1960s decade, Nicholson played the role of the former musician, Bobby Eroica Dupea, an older dropout than the other characters portrayed in Easy Rider, alienated from his own family and society as a whole. Dupea's journey northward to Alaska ends not in self-discovery but in a metaphorical death, making him yet another contemporary American male character marked by lack of identity and impotence. Nicholson revisited such depictions in many of his later films, from Mike Nichols's Carnal Knowledge (1971) to Michelangelo Antonioni's complex Professione Reporter (The Passenger, 1975). Costarring Karen Black and Susan Anspach (with whom Nicholson had a relationship and allegedly a son, born in 1970), Five Easy Pieces earned Nicholson his second Academy Award nomination, and his diner scene is a classic in film history.

By the end of the 1960s, which he began in relative obscurity, Nicholson had become an embodiment of the decade's dissatisfaction with the status quo. However, the challenges that Nicholson's characters bring to social conventions prove unsuccessful because of a typically American individualism and a consequent unwillingness to form attachments. In this light Dupea's final journey to Alaska in Five Easy Pieces should be read as an inversion of the myth of the road, a reestablishment of the American fascination with the frontier, to which Nicholson had contributed the year before, with Easy Rider. Although Dupea invokes Huck Finn, "lighting out for the territory," he is no adolescent, and his final journey is intended as an illustration of his own failures.

Nicholson's best performances of the 1970s were built on his maverick persona established at the end of the 1960s, climaxing with his first Academy Award as the asylum patient Randall McMurphy in Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). Like the private eye Jake Gittes in Polanski's stylish Chinatown (1974) or the sailor Billy Budduskey in Hal Ashby's The Last Detail (1973), ex-marine McMurphy is able to grasp the social injustices of his world but unable to confront them effectively.

In the early 1970s Nicholson started a seventeen-year relationship with Anjelica Huston, with whom he starred in John Huston's successful Mafia comedy, Prizzi's Honor (1985). The relationship ended in 1990 when Nicholson had a daughter with actress Rebecca Broussard. Broussard and Nicholson also had a son in 1992.

Even when his films were critical and commercial disasters and disappointed expectations, as in the case of Arthur Penn's The Missouri Breaks (1976), Nicholson's encounter with his role model Marlon Brando, Nicholson always remained immune to damage. Over the decades he has continued to exert his charisma on different generations of moviegoers, in spite of his turning down roles in important films such as The Godfather (1972), The Sting (1973), and Apocalypse Now (1979). Through the decades his cinematic persona has undergone a considerable change from the one he created during the 1960s and used so successfully during the early 1970s. Terms of Endearment (1983) and As Good As It Gets (1997), both directed by James L. Brooks, epitomize this shift. The two films, which gave Nicholson his second and third Academy Awards, portray a disreputable, middle-aged hero who is a significant departure from Nicholson's psychotic characters and alienated rebels. Both Garrett Breedlove (Terms of Endearment) and Melvin Udall (As Good as it Gets) are comic figures, devoid of the pathos of Nicholson's early characters. They are outsiders at the beginning of the filmic narrative, yet by the conclusion of both movies, they have been transformed into sensitive and more functional human beings.

Much like his characters, Jack Nicholson has successfully moved from the margins to the very center of the American film industry. Patrick McGilligan's biography of Nicholson speaks of the transition he has undergone, from the hero of the rebellious 1960s to the embodiment of social upward mobility and the rags-to-riches myth: "Jack Nicholson, one of the most accomplished actors and greatest motion picture stars of our time, is a success story as American as that of the log-splitter who became President."

Nicholson has been the subject of several biographies, including Robert David Crane and Christopher Fryer, Jack NicholsonFace to Face (1975); David Downing, Jack Nicholson: A Biography (1984); two film biographies, Didier Sandre, Jack Nicholson (1981) and John Parker, The Joker's Wild: The Biography of Jack Nicholson (1991); Donald Shepherd, Jack Nicholson: An Unauthorized Biography (1991); and Patrick McGilligan, Jack's Life: A Biography of Jack Nicholson (1996). Critical studies include NormanDickens, Jack Nicholson: The Search for a Superstar (1975); Bruce Braith-waite, The Films of Jack Nicholson (1977); Douglas Brode, The Films of Jack Nicholson (1990); and Mikita Brottman, ed., Jack Nicholson: Movie Top Ten (2000).

Luca Prono

Nicholson, Jack

views updated May 21 2018

Nicholson, Jack (1937– ) US film actor. Charismatic and versatile, Nicholson won an Oscar-nomination for his supporting role in Easy Rider (1969). Other nominations followed for Five Easy Pieces (1970) and Chinatown (1974). He won a best actor Oscar for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and a best supporting actor award for Terms of Endearment (1983). His directorial credits include The Two Jakes (1990).