Jack Nicholson
April 22, 1937 — Neptune City, New Jersey
Jack Nicholson is an American actor and filmmaker whose five-decade career earned him three Academy Awards, making him one of the most acclaimed actors of the 20th century, celebrated for playing charismatic rebels who resist the rules society tries to impose on them.
A Secret That Changed Everything
Born April 22, 1937 in Neptune City, New Jersey, John Joseph Nicholson grew up believing his grandmother was his mother and that his actual mother was his older sister. It wasn't until 1974, when Time magazine was researching a cover story on Nicholson, that a researcher discovered the truth: June Nicholson, who he thought was his sister, was in fact his mother, and Ethel May, who he thought was his mother, was his grandmother. Both women were already dead by the time he found out. Nicholson grew up working class, dropped out of school, and moved to Los Angeles in 1954 where he worked in the mailroom at MGM before an acting class changed his trajectory.
The Ascent
His breakthrough came in 1969 with Easy Rider, a counterculture road film in which he played a Southern lawyer in a small but scene-stealing role that earned him his first Oscar nomination. What followed was one of the most remarkable runs in Hollywood history: Five Easy Pieces (1970), Chinatown (1974), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), The Shining (1980), Terms of Endearment (1983), Batman (1989), and As Good as It Gets (1997). He won Oscars for Best Actor twice — for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and As Good as It Gets — and a Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment. His career parallels that of George Clooney in intriguing ways: both exuded charm and intelligence, and both resisted the gravitational pull of pure franchise stardom in favour of complex, character-driven work.
Did You Know?
Jack Nicholson didn't discover until he was 37 years old that the woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother. He found out through a Time magazine researcher in 1974 — both his mother and grandmother, the only women who knew the truth, had passed away by that point.
Icon and Recluse
Nicholson's grinning intensity — never more deranged than in The Shining's "Here's Johnny!" — became one of cinema's most imitated mannerisms. He holds the record, along with Walter Brennan, for the most Oscar wins by a male actor. His last major film role was in The Departed (2006), after which he largely stepped back from public life. He is known as a devoted Los Angeles Lakers courtside regular, a position he has held since 1970. With six Golden Globe Awards and 12 Oscar nominations to his name, Nicholson remains one of the defining actors of the New Hollywood era, widely regarded as one of the greatest to ever do the job.