Jack Nicholson Biography:
With his cheshire-cat grin, devil-may-care attitude and potent charisma, Jack Nicholson emerged as the most popular and celebrated actor of his generation. A classic anti-hero, he typified the new breed of Hollywood star -- rebellious, contentious and defiantly non-conformist. A supremely versatile talent, he uniquely defined the zeitgeist of the 1970s, a decade which his screen presence dominated virtually from start to finish, and remained an enduring counterculture icon for the duration of his long and renowned career. Born April 22, 1937 in Neptune, New Jersey, and raised by his mother and grandmother, Nicholson travelled to California at the age of 17, with the intent of returning east to attend college. It never happened -- he became so enamored of the west coast that he stayed, landing a job as an office boy in MGM's animation department. Nicholson soon began studying acting with the area group the Players Ring Theater, eventually appearing on television as well as on stage. While performing theatrically, Nicholson was spotted by "B"-movie mogul Roger Corman, who cast him in the lead role in the 1958 quickie The Cry Baby Killer. He continued playing troubled teens in Corman's 1960 efforts Too Soon to Love and The Wild Ride before appearing in the Irving Lerner adaptation of the novel Studs Lonigan. The picture failed miserably, and soon Nicholson was back in drive-in fare, next appearing in Little Shop of Horrors. He did not reappear on-screen prior to the 1962 Fox "B"-western The Broken Land. It was then back to the Corman camp for 1963's The Raven. For the follow-up, The Terror, he worked with a then-unknown Francis Ford Coppola and Monte Hellman. A year later, he enjoyed his second flirtation with mainstream Hollywood in the war comedy Ensign Pulver. Under Hellman, Nicholson next appeared in both Back Door to Hell and Flight to Fury, which though filmed back-to-back were released two years apart. Together, they also co-produced a pair of 1967 Corman westerns, Ride in the Whirlwind and The Shooting. A brief appearance in the exploitation tale Hell's Angels on Wheels followed before Nicholson wrote the acid-culture drama The Trip, which co-starred Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda. He also penned 1968's Head, a psychedelic saga starring the television pop group the Monkees which was directed by Bob Rafelson, and he wrote and co-starred in Psych-Out. After rejecting a role in Bonnie and Clyde, Nicholson was approached by Hopper and Fonda to star in their 1969 counterculture epic Easy Rider. As an ill-fated, alcoholic civil-rights lawyer, Nicholson immediately shot to stardom, earning a "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar nomination as the film quickly achieved landmark status. Nicholson then appeared briefly in the 1970 Barbra Streisand musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, followed by another classic -- Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces, in which he starred as a drifter alienated from his family and the world around him; his notorious diner scene remains among the definitive moments in American cinematic history. The film was much acclaimed, earning a "Best Picture" Oscar nomination; Nicholson also received a "Best Actor" bid, and was now firmly established among the Hollywood elite. He next wrote, produced, directed and starred in 1971's Drive, He Said, which met with little notice. However, the follow-up, Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge, was another hit. After accepting a supporting role in Henry Jaglom's 1972 effort A Safe Place, Nicholson reunited with Rafelson for The King of Marvin Gardens, followed in 1973 by the Hal Ashby hit The Last Detail, which won him "Best Actor" honors at the Cannes Film Festival as well as another Academy Award nomination. Nicholson earned yet one more Oscar nomination as detective Jake Gittes in Roman Polanski's brilliant 1974 neo-noir Chinatown, universally hailed among the decade's greatest motion pictures. The next year was even more triumphant: first Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger, and then delivered a memorable supporting turn in the Ken Russell musical Tommy. The Fortune, co-starring Warren Beatty and Stockard Channing, followed, before the year ended with Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; the winner of five Oscars, including "Best Picture" and, finally, "Best Actor." The film earned over 60 million and firmly established Nicholson as the screen's most popular star -- so popular, in fact, that he was able to turn down roles in projects including The Sting, The Godfather and Apocalypse Now without suffering any ill effects. Nicholson did agree to co-star in 1977's The Missouri Breaks for the opportunity to work with his hero, Marlon Brando; despite their combined drawing power, however, the film was not a hit. Nor was his next directorial effort, 1978's Goin' South. A maniacal turn in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror tale The Shining proved much more successful, and a year later he starred in Rafelson's remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice. An Oscar-nominated supporting role in Beatty's epic Reds followed. Even when a film fell far short of expectations -- as was certainly the case with 1982's The Border, for example -- Nicholson somehow remained impervious to damage. Audiences loved him regardless, as did critics and even his peers -- in 1983 he won a "Best Supporting Oscar" for his work in James L. Brooks' much-acclaimed comedy-drama Terms of Endearment, and two years later netted another "Best Actor" nomination for John Huston's superb black comedy Prizzi's Honor, a performance which also won him an unprecedented fifth award from the New York reviewers. The following year, Heartburn was less well-received, but in 1987 Nicholson starred as the Devil in the hit The Witches of Eastwick -- a role few denied he was born to play. The by-now-requisite Academy Award nomination followed for his performance in Hector Babenco's Depression-era tale Ironweed, his ninth to date -- a total matched only by Spencer Tracy. Nicholson did not resurface until 1989, starring as the Joker in a wildly over-the-top performance in Tim Burton's blockbuster Batman. The 1990s began with the long-awaited and often-delayed Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes, which Nicholson also directed. Three more films followed in 1992 -- Rafelson's poorly-received Man Trouble, the biopic Hoffa, and A Few Good Men, for which he earned another "Best Supporting Actor" nod. For Mike Nichols, he next starred in 1994's Wolf, followed a year later by Sean Penn's The Crossing Guard. In 1996, Nicholson appeared in Blood and Wine, Burton's Mars Attacks! and The Evening Star, reprising his Terms of Endearment role. In 1997, Nicholson enjoyed a sort of career renaissance with James L. Brooks' As Good As it Gets, an enormously successful film that netted a third Oscar (for "Best Actor) for Nicholson, as well as a Best Actress Oscar for his co-star Helen Hunt. Nicholson and Hunt also picked up Golden Globes for their performances, two of many awards lavished upon the film. Subsequently taking a four-year exile from film, Nicholson stepped back in front of the camera under the direction of actor-turned-director Sean Penn for the police drama The Pledge. A quiet character study concerning a veteran detective who promises to solve the murder of a young girl, the film earned moderately positive reviews though it found only a small following at the box office. Though many agreed that Nicholson's overall performance in The Pledge was subtly effective, it was the following year that the legendary actor would find himself back in the critic's good graces. As the eponymous character of About Schmidt, Nicholson recieved yet another Oscar nomination for his effectively restrained performance as a disillusioned father troubled by his daughter's impending nuptuals. The next year he appeared in a pair of box office hits. Anger Management found him playing an unorthodox therapist opposite Adam Sandler, while he played an aging lothario opposite Diane Keaton in Nancy Myers' Something's Gotta Give. After taking a three year break from any on-screen work, Nicholson returned in 2006 as a fearsome criminal in Martin Scorsese's undercover police drama The Departed, the first collaboration between these two towering figures in American film. Nicholson's personal life has been one befitting a man who has made his mark playing so many devilishly charming characters. He has fathered a number of children from his relationships with various women, including a daughter, Lorraine (born in 1990), and a son, Raymond (born1992) with Rebecca Broussard. It was Broussard's pregnancy with their first child that ended Nicholson's 17-year relationship with a woman who is known for her similarly enduring charisma, the actress Angelica Huston.
"The Granny Gazonga Song!!" "Don't Cha Twerkin' Granny! " madflash features
"Girls Are Not to be Trusted!" "I Love Poosie!"
Jack Nicholson at 69 ‘I can still cause trouble’
Biography:Born April 22, 1937 - With his cheshire-cat grin, devil-may-care attitude and potent charisma, Jack Nicholson emerged as the most popular and celebrated actor of his generation. A classic anti-hero, he typified the new breed of Hollywood star -- rebellious, contentious and defiantly non-conformist. A supremely versatile talent, he uniquely defined the zeitgeist of the 1.
    
Leo DiCaprio with model Gisele
Here’s Jack: Nicholson stars as a mobster in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, opening Nationwide in the USA this month. His performances remain intense, but Nicholson has mellowed- a little. Beverly Hills: - A sign over the doorbell of jack Nicholson’s home asks visitors: Please, don’t ring before 10 am. Nicholson is a bit sheepish about the reason. “It ain’t cause I’m partying every night. I’ll tell you that,” he says, padding down his stairs of his split level ranch house as he trucks a blue Izod polo shirt into his khakis. “It just seems like a good time of day. And, to be honest, I need the sleep. I’m getting into my later years.” Jack Nicholson is not who you think. Sometimes, Nicholson says, he’s not who he thinks. “I don’t mind the wild stories about my personal life,” says Nicholson, 69, settling into a living room chair with the first of many cigarettes. “Nowadays, they’re a good distance from the truth. I’ll play along, because it’s a good story. Even I believe it sometimes. But I’m slowing down.” Yes, Nicholson remains, along with Hugh Hefner, Hollywood ’s most notorious bachelor. He is still fond of having a starlet on his arm at a premiere – and occasionally bringing her to his “pad”. He still adores swearing and cigarettes and beer. But Nicholson can be surprisingly domestic. He lives in the first home he ever bought, a four bedroom rambler he got with the dough he made from 1969’d Easy Rider. He struggles with parenting, particulary with not sounding like a hypocrite when he lectures his teenage children about avoiding alcohol, drugs and randon sex – the ingredients of Nicholson’s youth. He likes pudding for breakfast. And despite the swinging-single reputation, he can be, well, a homebody. He’s in more evenings than he’s out, usually by 8 if the Los Angeles Lakers aren’t playing. When he doesn’t have his nose in a thriller or a book by Maureen Dowd, he’s watching the shows he TiVos religiously; CSI, Without a Trace and Monk. “people would be astounded by how much I stay here,” he says, looking out on a backyard that once bordered that of his idol, Marlon Brando (he bought the late actors property).” At my age you begin to enjoy the solitude, the quiet. That’s OK if people think different. I love to keep them guessing, to see the surprise on their faces.” People also may be surprised by the latest turn as a gang boss in The Departed, which opens today. Nicholson unnerved Warner Bros. executives with this insistence on wholesale changes to his character, mainly that he have more guns, co-caine and sex. Lots more sex. “ I wanted him to be more corrupt than anything I’d seen on TV,” he says. “ I needed this to be different”. Perhaps that’s because the film embodies something personal for Nicholson. It’s his first movie in three years and the first he has done with Martin Scorsese, a friend of three decades. It’s first serious part since 9/11, when he decided he would do only comedies for a while. Most important, it’s an opportunity for Nicholson to show that he still has the chops for the rebel roles he cherishes. He doesn’t plan to let age or health problems slow him. Though he had surgery Tuesday to remove a stone in a salivary gland, Nicholson is to begin work this month on The Bucket List, a drama with Moran Freeman about two terminally ill men who flee the hospital for a final road trip. “ Hollywood isn’t all that interested in dramas of middle like and old age,” he says. “ and I understand that. Young people drive the medium He sits up in his chair and leans through the some, and suddenly he’s the jack from the movies. The one with the impish grin, coin-slot eyes and gravel rasp. The one who has one more Oscar trophies and nominations than any living actor. “But I’m still alive and kicking”, he says. “I can still cause trouble.”
The ‘lay down’ script
Trouble has treated John Joseph Nicholson well. He realized that it would when he was 32 and sitting in a theatre at the Cannes Film Festival, watching Easy Rider with a packed house. Suddenly, he was rebel chic. He had worked for 11 years on film crews and producing and acting in Roger Corman horror flicks such as The Raven and The Terror. By the time he got back to Los Angeles from Cannes , “the offers were coming,” Nicholson says. “I thought I was going to be a director or producer, and suddenly everything changed.” What hasn’t changed, Nicholson says, is his hunger for scripts that allow him to shake up his public persona. He says t here aren’t many. Over the past decade, he has done only about a movie a year. He gives few interviews, and none to television media. “The more that people know about you, the quicker they’ll be bored with you,” he says. “hell, you’ll get bored with you.” But he still jumps for what he calls “lay down” scripts, screenplays that read like a winning poker hand, “all you do is lay it down,” he says. “Any moron could play the part, and the movie would still be great.” He counts among the Easy Rider, One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest, Terms of endearment and Something’s Gotta Give. He claims that when he read the script to Endearment, he knew he’d win the best-supporting-actor Oscar for it. He did. The Departed, he says, wasn’t a lay-down script. He initially turned down the role of Irish Mob boss Frank Costello- brought to him by Leonardo Di Caprio -because it felt more like a cameo than a real part. “The character seemed a little regular.” He says, “ And I don’t want to play a regular anything . Nicholson has turned down many parts he felt were too regular, stereotypical or commercial. He declined the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather and the Robert Redford role in The Sting, instead playing Billy “Bad Ass” Buddusky in The Last Detail. “It’s not easy in this business, but you still have to treat it as an art,” he says. “You know that little voice in the back of your head? That’s your integrity.” Still he wanted to work with Scorsese, a man he’s gotten to know from visiting the sets of mean Streets and Goodfellas to see pals Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel. “ We kept saying we needed to do something together, so I figured I’d suggest a few Changes,” Nicholson says. “ I told myself I’d do the movie if Martin could handle the things I hurled his way.” Like a strap-on phallus. Nicholson made the tabloids and gossip blog sites when reports leaked that Nicholson wanted his character to wear an artificial member, hold orgies and frequent porn theaters. He still doesn’t understand the fuss. “Personally, I would have had more dildos,” he says, “ But Martin knows what he’s doing.” Departed producer Graham King knew he was in for a long day when he visited the set and found Nicholson and Scorsese scheming together in a trailer. “ I’m the one who had to go to the studio everyday and report back. I’m the one who had to say, ‘ Yeah, shooting is really going well. Oh, and Jack wants t wear a strap-on.” Nicholson figured his decision to wear a New York Yankees cap would cause a bigger stir, because the movie was set and shot in Boston . “Sometimes,” he says, “you’ve just got to see how far you can push people.” That includes co-stars. The movie, starring DiCaprio and Matt Damon as two cadets who infiltrate the Mob and state police, required that both actors have a sense of panic throughout the film. Nicholson decided to make sure DiCaprio was on edge. He asked a prop man to bring him a pistol to secretly pull on his co-star, Through startled by the improvisation, in which Nicholson accidentally drops the weapon and angrily fumbles for it, Scorsese kept the scene. “On set, he is that character in a way,” Scorsese says, “He doesn’t come out of that, which is really good, because it keeps us focused.” And braced for the unexpected. In another scene, Nicholson planned to startle DiCaprio by setting a table on fire with bourbon and a lighter – until he found out his glass was filled with Diet Coke. “When he signed on to do this movie, we knew he’d have to completely make his character his own,” DiCaprio says. “It’s written one way and…he’s going to do whatever the hell he wants – and rightfully so.” Few proplr have earned the right to push boundaries like Nicholson. He has won three Oscars (for Endearment, Cuckoo’s Nest and As Good as It Gets) and been nominated for nine others. Laurence Olivier has 10 acting nods. Among actors, only Meryl Street has more nominations with 13. “He’s at the top of the pantheon film critic and historian Leonard Maltin says. “He approaches each role with passion that few people can. And at this stage in his career he’s willing to take risks others wouldn’t. Look at Anger Management. He’s willing to do silly comedy with Adam Sandler. It wasn’t a great movie, but he’s not afraid to give it a go. He’s still daring. He’s the king of cool.” Nicholson shrugs off the praise. If anything, he says, he’s trying to be less of an icon and is increasingly avoiding the spotlight. “The rolling Stones and I go way back,” says Nicholson, who is a godfather to one of Mick Jagger’s sons. “Now, there was a time when I’d go into an arena and whip that crowd into a living frenzy before they ever came on stage. But I don’t do that anymore. I’m more likely to just see the show.” One of the proudest Oscar moments came in 2000 when he avoided the red carpet and slipped in a back entrance, and he claims that there isn’t one still photograph of him at the ceremony. “One of the nicknames I’m silently happiest about in ‘The Dodger,’ because I’ve learned how to slip away from the party and the photographers,” he says. I’m not as willing to be that glazed guy walking the red carpet. I’m learning that as you simplify, whether it’s your life or your acting, you get better. And I still want to get better.”
   Mick Jagger -Old Friend of Jack Nicholson-they go right back
No Outsmarting Teenagers
Take fatherhood, for instance, Nicholson says he vowed to be a blunt parent after discovering, at 37, that the woman he believed to be his mother was his grandmother and the women he thought were is sisters were his mother June and aunt Lorraine. Nicholson has four children, including Lorraine 16, and Raymond 14, by Rebecca Broussard, ( Grown children are Jennifer, 43 by ex-wife Sandra Knight, and Caleb, 36, by actress Susan Anspach). “I know I’m not going to become the first parent to outsmart a teenager,” he says. “God knows I’m not a moralizer. All I do is tell them, ‘Everything they say is bad for you is bad for you,’ And I speak from experience. If there’s one habit he says he can’t kick, it’s women. Nicholson hasn’t married since his divorce from Knight in 1968, and has kept paparazzi scrambling with a multitude of beauties, including Angelia Hudson and Lara Flynn Boyle. He says he’s “playing the field a little now, though not nearly as much as people like to think.” In fact, “I do get rejected”, he grins. “ I still owe Nicole Kidman as apology. I didn’t know she was engaged – or that she was standing with her fiancée.” He stands, stretches and puts out his last cigarette of the afternoon, chuckling a the memory of e ribald moment with Kidman and the-fiancee Keith Urban backstage at last year’s Oscars. He refuses to divulge the comment, though he seems to relish the grasp it drew from Kidman. “Let’s just say I’m getting older,” he says. “ But I haven’t lost my sense of whimsy.
The Oscar Track Record- How’s this for a track record?
Jack Nicholson earns an Oscar nomination, on average, for one of every five films he does.
Over his 48 year career, which includes 58 movies. Nicholson jas earned 12 Academy Award nominations and won for three of those performances. Here’s a look at his nominated performances:
About Schmidt (2002): Nicholson earns a best-actor nomination for his turn as an aging widower on a cross-country road trip.
As Good as It Gets: ( 1997): He Wins his second best-actor statuette as a misanthropic author struggling with love and his obsessive-compulsive behaviour.
A Few Good Men (1992): His Marine Col. Nathan R. Jessep earns him a supporting –actor nomination and the classic quote: “You can’t handle the truth!”
Ironweed (1987): He’s a schizophrenic drifter in this drama with Meryl Streep, which nabbed him a best-actor nomination.
Prizzi’s Honour (1985): Nicholson is a Mob hit man who falls in love with the woman he’s hired to kill. Another best-actor nomination. supporting actor fir his turn as Eugene O’Neil in this romance set during Russia ’s Communist revolution.
Reds: (1981): Nicholson is nominated for a best supporting actor for his turn as Eugene O’Neill in this romance set during Russia ’s Communist Revolution.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975): Nicholson wins his first Oscar, for best actor, as a convicted criminal who is sent to a mental ward and turns the place upside down.
China Town (1974): His J.J. Jake Gittes, a private detective who stumbles upon a murder, earns him a best-actor nod.
The Last Detail (1973): Nicholson is Billy “Bad Ass” Buddusky, a Navy man who plans to show a prisoner a good time before sending him to jail. He’s nominated for best actor.
Five Easy Pieces (1970): Nicholson’s performance as a rough-edged oil rigger who returns home to his dying father nabs him a best-actor nomination. Easy Rider (1969): Nicholson gets his first Oscar nomination. For supporting actor, as a drunken lawyer George Hanson.
Sun on Jack Nicholson
Jack the lad ... 'I only take Viagra when I'm with more than one woman'
Jack ...mob boss role
Role of fat ... Jumbo-sized actor Jack chomps bag of crisps on set in New York's Central Park
Latest Video Clips-Entertainment News" Madonna adoption challenged by father - Kelly Brook splashes out on new pad - Hoffman promotes new movie - Bolliwood bonanza comes to Britain - Meat Loaf hopes to win new fans - Robbie moons MTV Latin Awards
Go To: Video 1 Page
Birth name: John Joseph Nicholson Date of birth: April 22, 1937 Place of birth: New York, New York, USA Height: 5'9½' (177cm) Academy Awards: Academy Award for Best Actor (1975) for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment, Academy Award for Best Actor (1997) for As Good As It Gets Spouse(s) Sandra Knight (1962-1968)
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson (born April 22, 1937 in New York, New York) is a highly successful, iconic American method actor known for his often dark-themed portrayals of neurotic characters. He has been nominated for an Academy Award 12 times (winning 3 of them), more than any other male actor, and second only to Meryl Streep (who has 13 nominations and 2 wins) in total nominations. He is tied with Walter Brennan for most wins by a male actor, and second to Katharine Hepburn for most acting wins overall (Hepburn had 4). He has also won seven Golden Globe Awards and he received a Kennedy Center Honors in 2001.
 
"Sit Down On It!!"
Biography and personal life
Nicholson was born at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City to June Frances Nicholson (née June Nilson) and Donald Dominic Furcillo. June met Furcillo 6 months earlier in Elkton, Maryland, on October 16, 1936. Elkton was a town known for its "quickie" marriages. June was a showgirl, and Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) was a showman when they met. However, Furcillo was already married, and, although he 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. Furcillo's parents were Italian immigrants, while June Nicholson was of Irish descent on her father's side and English descent on her mother's.[1] Nicholson was brought up believing his grandparents John J. Nicholson (a department store window dresser in Asbury Park, New Jersey) and Ethel May Rhoads (a hairdresser and beautician and amateur artist in Neptune, New Jersey) were his parents. He attended high school at nearby Manasquan High School, where a drama award was later named in his honor. Nicholson only discovered that his parents were actually his grandparents and his sister was in fact his mother in 1974 after being informed by a Time Magazine journalist who was doing a feature on him [2] . By this time both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). Nicholson has stated he does not know who his father is, saying "Only Ethel and June knew and they never told anybody" [3] . Although Donald Furcillo claimed to be Nicholson's father and to have committed bigamy by marrying June, biographer Patrick McGilligan, who wrote Jack's Life (published in December 1995) asserted that Eddie King, June's manager, may be the father and other [4] sources have suggested that June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. Jack Nicholson has chosen not to have a DNA test or to pursue the matter. Nicholson as Wilbur Force in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).In his adult personal life, Nicholson has been notorious for his inability to "settle down". He has four children by three different women despite only being married once. Jennifer Nicholson with former wife Sandra Knight Caleb Goddard with Susan Anspach, his Five Easy Pieces co-star Lorraine Nicholson and Raymond Nicholson with Rebecca Broussard He has been romantically linked to numerous actresses and models for decades. Nicholson's longest relationship was for 17 years to actress Anjelica Huston, the daughter of the legendary director John Huston. However, the relationship ended when the news reported that Rebecca Broussard had become pregnant with his child. Although he was brought up as a Catholic, Nicholson told Vanity Fair in 1992 that he did not believe in God.[5] Although Nicholson is personally against abortion, he is pro-choice.
Early acting career
Nicholson started his career as an actor, writer, and producer, working for and with Roger Corman, among others. This included his screen debut in The Cry Baby Killer (1958), where he played a juvenile delinquent who panics after shooting two other teenagers, The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), in which he had a small role as a masochistic dental patient, and roles in two other Roger Corman films The Raven (1963) and The Terror (1963), co-starring then-wife Sandra Knight. As the 60's progressed, and with acting jobs still not easy to find, Nicholson began writing more often. The result of this included Thunder Island (1963), Flight to Fury (1964), and Ride in the Whirlwind (1965). These films enjoyed little if any success, but the young Nicholson was finally working more steadily. In the TV sitcom world, he also made appearances in two episodes of The Andy Griffith Show as Marvin Jenkins in 1966-1967.
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 1967's The Trip, which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. 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. A Best Actor nomination came the following year for his persona-defining role in Five Easy Pieces (1970), which includes his famous chicken salad dialogue about getting what you want. Also that year, he appeared in the movie adaptation of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever as Daisy Gamble (Barbra Streisand)'s stepbrother.
More of his earlier and notable film roles include Hal Ashby's The Last Detail (1973) and the classic Roman Polanski noir thriller, Chinatown (1974). Nicholson was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role for both films. Nicholson also starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), considered by many to be one of Jack's most memorable and lesser known roles
An American icon
Nicholson earned his first Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying Randall P. McMurphy in Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, directed by Miloš Forman in 1975. His Academy Award for Best Actor was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress given to Louise Fletcher for her portrayal of Nurse Ratched. Although he didn't garner any Oscar attention for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of Nicholson's most significant roles. Many critics consider this to be one of his finest performances[citation needed]. His next Oscar, the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, came for his role of Garrett Breedlove, retired astronaut, in Terms of Endearment (1983). Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 80's, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Reds (1981), Prizzi's Honor (1985), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), and Ironweed (1987). Three Academy Award nominations also followed (Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed). The 1989 Batman movie, where Nicholson played The Joker, was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned Nicholson about $60 million.
For his role as hotheaded Col. Nathan R. Jessep in A Few Good Men (1992), a movie about a murder in a US Marine Corps unit, he received yet another nomination by the Academy. This film contains Nicholson's "You can't handle the truth!" scene, which has since become widely known and imitated. 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). Nicholson would go on to win his next Best Actor Oscar for his role as Melvin Udall, a neurotic author with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), in the romance As Good as It Gets (1997). Nicholson's Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress honor for Helen Hunt as a Manhattan waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner.
Recent years
In About Schmidt (2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska actuary who questions his own life and the death of his wife shortly afterward. The deeply emotional, slow film stands in sharp contrast to many of his previous roles. In the comedy Anger Management, he plays an aggressive therapist assigned to help overly pacifist Adam Sandler. In 2003, Nicholson starred in 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 a Boston Irish Mob boss presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs.
Current & future projects
In November 2006, Nicholson is scheduled to start filming his next project, Rob Reiner's The Bucket List. The film will star him and Morgan Freeman as dying men who must fulfill their list of goals. The film is tentatively scheduled to be released in 2007.
Martin Scorsese
The most renowned filmmaker of his era, Martin Scorsese virtually defined the state of modern American cinema during the 1970s and '80s. A consummate storyteller and visual stylist who lived and breathed movies, he won fame translating his passion and energy into a brand of filmmaking that crackled with kinetic excitement. Working well outside of the mainstream, Scorsese nevertheless emerged in the 1970s as a towering figure throughout the industry, achieving the kind of fame and universal recognition typically reserved for more commercially successful talents. A tireless supporter of film preservation, Scorsese has worked to bridge the gap between cinema's history and future like no other director. Channeling the lessons of his inspirations -- primarily classic Hollywood, the French New Wave, and the New York underground movement of the early '60s -- into an extraordinarily personal and singular vision, he has remained perennially positioned at the vanguard of the medium, always pushing the envelope of the film experience with an intensity and courage unmatched by any of his contemporaries.
Young Jack Nicholson: Auspicious Beginnings
By Eve Berliner
Birth - Father - The Contessa - The Haunting -
I. Birth
The conception took place in an ocean town along windswept New Jersey shores, an accident of fate between lovers, Neptune, the god of the sea, peering down on the passionate occurrence on that sultry July noon of 1936.And thus, Jack Nicholson came into his spectacular existence. His birth remains an enigma. There is, in fact, no Certificate of Birth, only a Certificate of a Delayed Report of Birth, filed on May 24, 1954, when Jack was 17 years of age. Issued by the New Jersey State Department of Health, State Registrar of Vital Statistics, the document reports that John Joseph Nicholson, Jr. was born on April 22, 1937 to Ethel M. and John Joseph Nicholson in the Township and City of Neptune, County of Monmouth. Name of Hospital or Institution where the birth occurred: None. Location of Birth: 1410 Sixth Avenue. The signature of the affiant is Ethel M. Nicholson, age 56 -- Relationship to Child: Mother -- whose own address at the time of birth is reported as 1410 Sixth Avenue, Neptune, New Jersey. The document attests that her infant son, John Joseph Nicholson, Jr., was born at home. In point of fact, John Joseph Nicholson, Jr. was born at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City and since no record of this event is to be found in New York City birth archives, it is likely that he was born, his father was to speculate, under a cousin's name. For the record, Jack Nicholson does not exist. She was at a scintillating peak that spring of 1936 with her beautiful Irish fire, June Nicholson, at 17 years of age, a showgirl with the renowned Earl Carroll Dancers, and imbued with a dark, mesmerizing older man. And as the steaming locomotive pulled out of Pennsylvania Station, travelling south to Washington, D.C., on across to Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and ending up in Dallas, Texas, June changing trains six times, the stream of love letters begin and the love affair unfolds: Mr. Don Furcillo, Heck Avenue, Ocean Grove, May 13, 1936: "Don, have just a moment but want you to know I'm thinking of you. Love Dink." Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. "Left New York at 12:00 p.m. Reached Washington at 7 a.m. Miss you terribly, will write later...Love, Dinky" And on the elegant, silken stationery of the Melrose Hotel, Oak Lawn and Cedar Springs, Dallas, Texas, May 14, 1936. Thursday morning: "Donnie Dear....The people we are working for are just grand. They are paying all our expenses until we open which is May 27th and I mean they are treating us really fine....The club where we are working is one of the swankiest here in Dallas. "So all in all there's only one thing missing and that's you. I miss you so much Snooky Puss.... "How is mother, Don? Please go up and see her and make her feel good for my sake once in awhile as she loves to see you. Do this for me and also keep your eye on Lorraine." French Casino, Dallas, Texas: "Dear Don: Who is she anyway? Do I know her? Could you at least make an excuse and take time out to drop me a line once in awhile? "Have you been over to see Mother? Write and tell me exactly how she is.... I didn't want to miss a day dropping you a line so that you will have to answer. Lots of love for you. June." Melrose Hotel, May 12, 1936: "My Dearest Snookypuss: I was thinking of you all day and just imagining what we would have been doing if I were home.... "We have been rehearsing very hard as the opening is drawing near....It is very sweet of you to keep my mother happy as by her letters I judge that she would like me home." Melrose Hotel, May 26: "Well tomorrow night is the big night and Dallas is going to see the biggest, best, classiest stuff it has ever seen....and when that show opens we're going to give them excitement that they'll never forget. "Everybody is just all in working day and night....We have a dress rehearsal tonight which means we'll be up all night and no sleep so thought I had better get this off while I'm still alive. "As always, Dink." Don Furcillo, with his carved Neapolitan face, powerful eyes, Italian nobility in his blood, and it showed in his bearing, his dark magnetism. June spotted him dancing at the Whitesville Fire Company with several other women and she was smitten. At age 27, Don Furcillo, a young entrepreneur and amateur vaudevillian himself, was married to but separated from Anne Born, a minister's daughter, as they awaited an annulment of their marriage -- for some years to come -- from the Catholic Church. It was just after his return from Florida, the separation now for almost a year, that Don fell madly for June. Don assumed naturally that she was a young woman in her twenties, her career well established -- the Earl Carroll Vanities acclaimed worldwide. June had also been on the road with Moe Morton and His Revue, and even played straight lady to the comic slapstick of Pinky Lee. Western Union! Collect from Ft. Wayne, Indiana to Don Furcillo. "Need thirty dollars immediately to get home. Don't mention anything to Mud. Will explain when I get home. You are the only one I can turn to. Wire on Western Union, Hotel Baltes, Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Love, Dink" Receipt for Telegraphic Money Order, June 27, 1936. "Received from Don Furcillo Thirty-Five Dollars to be paid to June Nilson at Ft. Wayne, Indiana." [Nilson, June's stage name] - Signed: "The Western Union Telegram Company." June was coming home. A strike had erupted at the hotel. The booking was cancelled. It was to be a summer of love in the afternoon -- away from the watchful eye of her mother -- and red hot weekends dancing at the Monterrey Hotel in Asbury Park, her solo tap act a showstopper! And as fate would have it, something extraordinary occurred. The twosome became a foursome, a wonderful foursome of two brothers and two sisters -- Don and June and Vic and Lorraine -- Lorraine, June's pouty, befreckled kid sister, age 14, and Don's striking younger brother Victor, who would die so tragically, so young, but whose own close relationship with Lorraine was to endure for some years to come. The summer of '36: The photographs tell the tale. June and Don hugging on Bradley Beach, mugging for the camera. Lorraine and Vic. Two pairs of lovebirds playing affectionately on the beach. The Nicholson women -- Lorraine, Mud (short for Mudder which was short for Mother [Mrs. Nicholson] ( a comic invention of June's) and June, sitting on the sideboard of an imposing automobile of the era. The Nicholson women entwined in Mud's arms on the sands of Bradley Beach. By October, the devastating news could no longer be denied. June was three months pregnant! The marriage was largely a symbolic union, if not ultimately a legal one. Don was by law a married man, subject to the laws of bigamy. June was underage and utilized a false name on the document. The Certificate of Marriage, its parchment frayed, yellowed with the passing of time, a delicate floral pattern faintly visible, bears testimony to the union. "This is to Certify that on the 16th day of October in the year of our Lord 1936, Mr. Donald Furcillo of Ocean Grove, New Jersey and Miss June Nilson of Neptune, New Jersey were by me united in Marriage at 102 Delaware Avenue, Elkton, Maryland, according to the ordinance of God and the laws of the State of Maryland." Mary Schaeffer and John Crawford, Witnesses. Rev. Walter Schaeffer officiating. Elkton, Maryland, like Las Vegas, Nevada, was a town notorious for its quickie marriages. Don paid ten dollars at the local courthouse to a gentleman who put him in touch with the Rev. Schaeffer to whom Don, explaining the circumstances surrounding the nuptials, paid twenty dollars to keep it out of the newspapers. The marriage was performed and effectively buried by Rev. Schaeffer, who saw fit not to file the certificate in Elkton marriage archives (unbeknownst to Don, who feared prosecution for bigamy until the statute of limitations ran out years later). And If technically Jack Nicholson is a bastard, it was not so in the hearts of his mother and father. For Mrs. Nicholson, the news of June's pregnancy was a devastation, the overwhelming shame of illegitimacy, the years of hard work and sacrifice dreaming for her daughter, the years of lessons, her own dreams for herself submerged as she fought for her children. Three days following the marriage, October 19, 1936, on the stationery of the Lord Baltimore Hotel: "Donny dear, just a short note this morning to let you know I'm thinking of you every minute and that I still love you.... "I am through here Wednesday night and we'll leave immediately after the last show for home...Don't think anything wrong...I shall be thinking of you and missing you terribly. Loads of love, June." Second communique of the day, State Theatre, Baltimore, Maryland, October 19, 1936: "Donny dear...I hope you still love me and don't feel bitter about things and nothing can ever change my feelings towards you. I shall always love you because it is something that I didn't realize at first, something that has grown to be a part of me. "But then there is one obligation I have to fulfill and that is to my mother, Donny, and when that is done then I shall have my life to live. "Please try to understand my point darling and help me, want me to get ahead for her sake...so until tomorrow, all my love to you, June" And so the Nicholson family myth was perpetrated. Mrs. Nicholson would claim the baby as her own and husband John's. The child was never to know June was its mother. The relationship between Don and June would be severed. June would be quietly dispatched to a cousin's house in New York for the period of gestation and subsequent birth. And thus, a conspiracy of silence was launched that was not to end until Jack Nicholson was 37 years of age, the year 1974, when Jack, working on the set of The Fortune with his friend Mike Nichols, is summoned to the telephone by a newspaper reporter from The Asbury Park Press, his hometown paper, and the incomprehensible bombshell is dropped that his beloved June is not his sister but his mother, and Ethel Nicholson, is not his mother but his grandmother -- June long gone by this time, having perished at age 44 in 1963, a victim of cancer; Mud gone too, having passed away in January of 1970, just missing Jack's meteoric rise to fame four months hence. They had taken the secret to their graves. And the late John Joseph Nicholson, the shadowy figure little Jackie would somehow always address as Jack and never Dad, was in truth his grandfather; his father was a stranger named Don Furcillo Rose. And so it was to come as a stunning revelation, Jack reeling, still reeling from the deceit, the pain of it, and something broke apart in his heart, Jack grappling still grappling with the shock to this hard day. To be continued -stay tuned |
|
|
|
Jack Nicholson 1969-Easy Rider
Jack Nicholson Biography:
With his cheshire-cat grin, devil-may-care attitude and potent charisma, Jack Nicholson emerged as the most popular and celebrated actor of his generation. A classic anti-hero, he typified the new breed of Hollywood star -- rebellious, contentious and defiantly non-conformist. A supremely versatile talent, he uniquely defined the zeitgeist of the 1970s, a decade which his screen presence dominated virtually from start to finish, and remained an enduring counterculture icon for the duration of his long and renowned career. Born April 22, 1937 in Neptune, New Jersey, and raised by his mother and grandmother, Nicholson travelled to California at the age of 17, with the intent of returning east to attend college. It never happened -- he became so enamored of the west coast that he stayed, landing a job as an office boy in MGM's animation department. Nicholson soon began studying acting with the area group the Players Ring Theater, eventually appearing on television as well as on stage. While performing theatrically, Nicholson was spotted by "B"-movie mogul Roger Corman, who cast him in the lead role in the 1958 quickie The Cry Baby Killer. He continued playing troubled teens in Corman's 1960 efforts Too Soon to Love and The Wild Ride before appearing in the Irving Lerner adaptation of the novel Studs Lonigan. The picture failed miserably, and soon Nicholson was back in drive-in fare, next appearing in Little Shop of Horrors. He did not reappear on-screen prior to the 1962 Fox "B"-western The Broken Land. It was then back to the Corman camp for 1963's The Raven. For the follow-up, The Terror, he worked with a then-unknown Francis Ford Coppola and Monte Hellman. A year later, he enjoyed his second flirtation with mainstream Hollywood in the war comedy Ensign Pulver. Under Hellman, Nicholson next appeared in both Back Door to Hell and Flight to Fury, which though filmed back-to-back were released two years apart. Together, they also co-produced a pair of 1967 Corman westerns, Ride in the Whirlwind and The Shooting. A brief appearance in the exploitation tale Hell's Angels on Wheels followed before Nicholson wrote the acid-culture drama The Trip, which co-starred Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda. He also penned 1968's Head, a psychedelic saga starring the television pop group the Monkees which was directed by Bob Rafelson, and he wrote and co-starred in Psych-Out. After rejecting a role in Bonnie and Clyde, Nicholson was approached by Hopper and Fonda to star in their 1969 counterculture epic Easy Rider. As an ill-fated, alcoholic civil-rights lawyer, Nicholson immediately shot to stardom, earning a "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar nomination as the film quickly achieved landmark status. ...
Jack Nicholson in the early days
June Nicholson-Jacks mother
Jacks Father-Don Furcillo Rose
Jacks Father-Don Furcillo Rose-1996
Grandma Furcillo's Deathbed Letter to Father Marcellino:
"Jack Nicholson my Grandson," she writes. "Donald R.
Furcillo my son the father. "Written on the stationary of
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church (bottom upside-down).
Jack and the Ladies: June (far left), Mud,
Jackie and Lorraine (upper right).
Jack Nicholson's Birth Certificate
Jack Nicholson's parent's Marriage Certificate
Jack's Confirmation (Jack far right)
Note blow-up of June Nilson and Lucy Stearns
June danced under the stage name of Nilson,
appeared on her Marriage Certicate to Don Furcillo.
June playing ukelele with little Jackie's picture
pastered in corner by Grandma.
II. Father
There was only the acknowledgment in that first stunned conversation in 1974 when the ringing of the telephone slashed the silence of 37 years, l:00 or 2:00 a.m., Don aroused from deep sleep, and a familiar voice, as if from the depths of his dream, intoned, "I understand you're family." "Yes, I am your father," uttered Don. And then on the day of Shorty Smith's funeral, June l985, passing surreally near the Asbury Park Carousel, Don unknown to Jack, seized with sudden paralysis, unable to approach, to speak, Jack who loved Shorty very much, walking slowly through the ghosts of his childhood with Annie Marshall, his secretary, and Anjelica Huston, his love, his father appearing before him, an apparition on the boardwalk, passing imperceptibly in the sunlight. And again, the second telephone call, misconstrued, 1983: Jack: "Did you leave a message for me to call you?" "No, I didn't call you," stammered Don as he pulled himself awake. "I didn't leave a message." And a groping goodbye. These the only contacts between father and son in a lifetime, the rest lost to the web of silence. Don Furcillo Rose departed this earth in the summer of 1997 having spent a lifetime yearning for the son that eluded him. The final siege of cancer was a terrible one and in the end, in his morphine delirium, to ease his passage, his beautiful wife, Dorothy and daughter, Donna, told him that Jack had come to see him. "He kissed your forehead," Dorothy whispered tenderly. "Yes," he said. "What did you say to him?" a hospice nurse asked. "I said, 'What the hell took you so long?'" They were his final words.
Don Furcillo Rose, the father Jack had never known, a vaudevillian dreamer, a player upon the stage, a colorful figure in his own right, his eyesight stolen away by misdiagnosed glaucoma, his wife Dorothy, his eyes -- imposing still at 80 years of age. Sitting on the porch of his tiny Victorian home in Ocean Grove, New Jersey several years before his death -- the very house to which Jack was brought by Lorraine when he was 2 or 3 years of age to see Don's mother -- he spoke of his son. "I was stunned. It was the middle of the night. 'Hello, I understand you're family.' I don't understand what you're talking about! Yes, I'm your father. Whether anyone likes it or not, that's it! "He was extremely pleasant. No one could be nicer. Very, very nice. Extremely nice. Asked if he could do anything for me. 'Can I do anything for you?' I responded. 'If you need anything you let me know.' "It was the one time in my life I was lost for words. Finally, we broke off the conversation. 'I don't understand why you don't know these things, why they didn't tell you.' He said something like he didn't want to get too close to anyone. It breaks him up. He wouldn't want to get too close to me. Wouldn't want to go through that again. "And then we were lost for conversation, lost for words. Asked if I needed anything. Anything I can do for you? he said. "I should have said I'd like to explain a few things but with a call, it's such a shock to you. There was no bitterness. I was taken aback. I had nothing to explain to him in the middle of the night. You don't know what to say. Am I family? "I got the impression that he didn't want to go back. It was a torment to him, finding out about his mother. It really broke him up. He didn't want to get too close to me."
The reminiscences of each other ran so deep -- in the characteristic expressions of face, the brooding, deep hazel eyes, the dynamic electricity of the smile, the flaring of the nostrils, the receding path of the hairline, the build, the brow, the lines around the mouth and nose -- and in certain subtle madnesses of countenance known to grace the Nicholson visage that would appear surreptitiously on his father's face. So that one who knew both men could see them eerily reflected in each other, a resemblance that strongly intensifies as age takes its undaunting hold on Jack. Only the prominent Neapolitan proboscis on his father's face, his mediterranean nose, sharply differentiated the two. Don Furcillo Rose, an owner of thoroughbreds, an old song and dance man, a lover of women ("I never said I was an angel"), an astute businessman with a chain of lucrative beauty salons up and down the New Jersey coast, his partners in the horse business, J.J. Machu, the millionaire head of the Breeze Corporation, and Joe Codone, owner of The Montclair Times; Box 142, Monmouth Park, New Jersey Don's personal perch upon the world for 50 years -- Don who loved to ski, a championship golfer, for 20 years author of On the Fairways, a lively golf column for the Asbury Park Press, Jack an avid and powerful skier himself who has been known to spend obsessive hours on the driving range slamming golf balls into oblivion. So much they could have shared. He loved her to the end of his days. "June was wonderful. One of the nicest girls with the biggest heart. She helped a lot of people out. June would do anything for anyone. If you knew June you'd like her. If you didn't like June, you didn't like yourself. "June was fast, terrific brain, funny. And June was a fantastic dancer. Heart as big as a whale. I know one thing. She was good to everyone. Looked after the family, always a family girl. "I've seen girls but she would share with everyone. June was always sentimental, good-hearted. That's what I found in her, very good-hearted."
The storm of pregnancy hit their young lives with the fury of the Atlantic seas. "I told June we had to do something. She was 3-1/2 months pregnant and beginning to show in a two-piece suit. We got to tell your mother about it. We went to the mother. "What's wrong?" she said. "June's pregnant. We're gonna get married." "'How are you going to get married? she screamed. 'You're already married!' She was beside herself. She was mad. Really blew her stack. 'How could you do this to me?' She couldn't understand it. Threatened to put me in jail. 'They could put you away for life. She's a minor!' 'Stay away from her or I'll have you arrested!' "I didn't realize it but June was jailbait really. I know one thing. I went through a time when I was afraid of a knock on the door. Some guy going to arrest me for being a bigamist. I didn't come home. After that I got out and went to Lavalette. [NJ] I had to get away from that. It frightened me that the police could come and arrest me. It was frightening to me." As for the marriage, "The marriage was the more honorable thing. Something we did for ourselves. Just the idea of doing the right thing, not to be a heel, making her feel relieved. People don't realize she was just a kid. "We never told her mother about it. We wanted to do it and that's that. So you would have it, I told her, just in case, for years to come. June was crying at the time."
As long as he kept quiet, that was the credo, the devil's bargain, and Don bore it in silence, watching from afar the sparkling little boy on Bradley Beach, a photograph slipped to him of Jack at his Holy Communion, there in the audience at his graduation. "That's my son," he would tell Dorothy, taking the long drive up to Manasquan High School to gaze at the young man cavorting with his friends. "That's my son." "I've watched from the vestibules of Jack's life. And when he became a star, I knew I would never be able to get to him. He would always think I'm after something. * * * He always loved Jack. That was the sadness of it, the brutality, the love affair with June aborted, the son lost, Jack the final victim of the conspiracy. "I sent money in tough times. I was paying two people -- Anne Borne, and a few dollars toward June," Don recalling how he would drop his friend Archie D'Angelo at the Nicholson door with an envelope for June, ["Application for Domestic Money Order in the amount of $17.00 to June Nilson sent by Donald Furcillo , 142 Heck Avenue, Ocean Grove," a surviving memento of a monetary gift.] And old pal Fred Traverso was to deliver fifty bucks to June on several occasions -- whenever their paths would cross -- for later reimbursement by Don. That was their deal. It is also to be noted that in the early days of their desperation, there were indeed thoughts of abortion, June plunging herself into hot baths, mustard baths, and finally imploring Don to get her pills that would induce miscarriage. "I certainly wasn't going to go for an abortion. I couldn't do it. I pretended I was trying to help her and gave her headache pills that couldn't do a thing. "Wasn't for me, she would have had it aborted, I tell you. "What really hurt was I know I did the right thing. She was pregnant. I knew what to do. "Last time I saw June I was driving a Packard convertible. 'Can I do anything for you people?" I remember asking. 'No' they replied. 'I'm not going to cause trouble,' I thought to myself. "You need me, you know how to locate me. She never did. Lost track of her after that. Wanted someone to come up to me with a message from June. No one ever did. They worked it out." "Afterward, I ran away more or less. I stayed away from here for fifty years.
|
|
