Jack Nicholson is arguably one of the greatest actors Hollywood has ever seen. Nicholson's style of acting just oozed off the big screen. Nicholson's presence on screen was something you can only see on film. There's no way to describe it other than watching him. Men all over the world wanted to be him and women all over the world wanted to be with him. This is the life and career of the great Jack Nicholson.
Jack Nicholson was born on April 22, 1937 in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was born to a showgirl named June Nicholson. She was 17 when she gave birth to Jack and was unsure who Jack's father was. June told Jack that she was his sister and wasn't revealed to Jack that she was his mother until after her death. He joined the military in 1957 and served America for 5 years.
After the military, Nicholson became interested in acting. Nicholson learned how to act from the Players Ring Theater. Shortly after, Nicholson started booking roles such as The Little Shop of Horrors in 1960. His career didn't take off until 1969 when he was cast in Easy Rider beside Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. After that film, Nicholson's career started to skyrocket. He then starred in the 1970 film Five Easy Pieces alongside Karen Black. Nicholson started to develop his on screen identity in this film.
The 1970s were dominated by great performances by Nicholson. Starting in 1973 with The Last Detail, Nicholson was nominated for multiple awards for his performance. In 1974, Nicholson starred in the Roman Polanski film Chinatown as Detective J.J. Gittes. Nicholson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Arguably his best performance came the next year as Randle McMurphy in the classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. This earned Nicholson's first Academy Award win for Best Actor. Nicholson's identity on screen quickly became the cool guy that breaks the rules.
That quickly changed in 1980 when he starred as Jack Torrance in the classic film The Shining directed by the legendary Stanley Kubrick. Nicholson;s performance in that film was unlike any other film he did previously. Nicholson showed his dangerous side. Although it was considered one of his best performances, Nicholson was not nominated for many major awards. His career continued to shine through the 1980s, even earning another Oscar in 1983 for Terms of Endearment. His most popular role came in 1989 when he starred as the Joker in Batman. Nicholson was proud of his performance and received the largest salary for a film ever. This was because Nicholson took a percentage of the box office earnings. This resulted in a salary in the range of $60 million and $90 million.
His career continued to shine in the 90s as he earned his last Oscar in 1997 for As Good as It Gets. Nicholson's career started to slow down in the 2000s. He still had a great film in The Departed in 2006. Nicholson sporadically acted until in his full time retirement in 2010.
Nicholson is one of the most charismatic and coolest actors Hollywood has ever seen. Off screen Nicholson was the same way. Nicholson became a ladies man having many relationships and never settling down. His style is something only he can pull off, often wearing sunglasses indoors. Nicholson once said "With my sunglasses on, I'm Jack Nicholson. Without them, I'm fat and 60." The cool thing about Nicholson was that on screen and off screen, he was the same person. That's especially rare in the acting world. Nicholson will go down as the coolest actor Hollywood has ever seen.
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