Which US actor appeared in the films ‘Ironweed’, ‘The Pledge’ and ‘Easy Rider’?
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Ironweed_(film).txt Easy_Rider.txt Jack_Nicholson.txt
Ironweed (film) Easy Rider Jack Nicholson
Ironweed is a 1987 American drama film directed by Héctor Babenco. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by William Kennedy, who also wrote the screenplay. It stars Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, with Carroll Baker, Michael O'Keefe, Diane Venora, Fred Gwynne, Nathan Lane and Tom Waits in supporting roles.

The story concerns the relationship of a homeless couple: Francis, an alcoholic, and Helen, a terminally ill woman during the Great Depression. Major portions of the film were shot on location in Albany, New York, including Jay Street at Lark Street, Albany Rural Cemetery and the Miss Albany Diner on North Broadway.

The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Nicholson) and Best Actress in a Leading Role (Streep).

Plot synopsis

Francis Phelan (Jack Nicholson) is a washed-up baseball player who deserted his family back in the 1910s when he accidentally dropped his son and killed him. It is assumed in the film that he was drunk at the time until he later claims he was just tired and doesn't understand why no one will believe in his story. Since then, Phelan has been a bum, punishing himself. Wandering into his hometown of Albany on Halloween in 1938, Phelan seeks out his lover and drinking companion, Helen Archer (Meryl Streep). The two meet up in a mission managed by Reverend Chester (James Gammon), and later in Oscar Reo's (Fred Gwynne) gin mill.

Over the next few days, Phelan takes a few minor jobs to support Helen, while haunted by visions of his past. Francis comes back to his old family house and tries to make peace with his wife Annie Phelan (Carroll Baker), his son Billy (Michael O'Keefe) and Peg (Diane Venora). Meanwhile, a group of local vigilantes take it upon themselves to drive the homeless out of Albany. During the course of the day, a series of events change Francis' life forever.

Cast

* Jack Nicholson as Francis Phelan 
* Meryl Streep as Helen Archer
* Carroll Baker as Annie Phelan
* Michael O'Keefe as Billy Phelan
* Diane Venora as Margaret "Peg" Phelan
* Fred Gwynne as Oscar Reo
* Margaret Whitton as Katrina Dougherty
* Tom Waits as Rudy
* Nathan Lane as Harold Allen
* James Gammon as Reverend Chester
* Laura Esterman as Nora Lawlor
* Joe Grifasi as Jackson
* Hy Anzell as Rosskam
* Ted Levine as Pocono Pete
* Black-Eyed Susan as Clara
* Frank Whaley as young Francis Phelan

Reception

Critical response

The film received mostly positive reviews. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 65% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on twenty reviews.  At the time of its release it garnered enthusiasm because of the presence of stars Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.

Roger Ebert wrote, "Nicholson and Streep play drunks in Ironweed, and actors are said to like to play drunks, because it gives them an excuse for overacting. But there is not much visible 'acting' in this movie; the actors are too good for that." Ebert gave the film three stars out of four. 

Streep received raves from most critics; Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that "Meryl Streep, as ever, is uncanny. Miss Streep uses the role of Helen as an opportunity to deliver a stunning impersonation of a darty-eyed, fast-talking woman of the streets, an angry, obdurate woman with great memories and no future. There isn't much more to the film's Helen than this, and indeed the character may go no deeper, but she's a marvel all the same. Behind the runny, red-rimmed eyes, the nervous chatter and the haunted expression, Miss Streep is even more utterly changed than her costar, and she even sings well. The sequence in which Helen entertains the real and imagined patrons of a bar room with a rendition of 'He's Me Pal' is a standout." 

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat appreciated the film's spiritual message, writing, "Mixing realistic and surreal scenes, Argentinean director Héctor Babenco puts the accent on what he calls the spiritual dimensions of William Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel... If you ride with the emotional undertow of Ironweed, there's no way you'll ever look at street people in quite the same way". 

Awards

Won
* Los Angeles Film Critics Association: LAFCA Award, Best Actor, Jack Nicholson; 1987.
* New York Film Critics Circle Awards: NYFCC Award, Best Actor, Jack Nicholson, 1987.

Nominated
* Academy Award: Best Actor in a Leading Role, Jack Nicholson; Best Actress in a Leading Role, Meryl Streep; 1988.
* Golden Globe Award: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama, Jack Nicholson; 1988.
* 16th Moscow International Film Festival: Golden St. George, Hector Babenco; 1989. Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers (played by Fonda and Hopper) who travel through the American Southwest and South after selling a large score of cocaine. The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood phase of filmmaking during the early 1970s.  The film was added to the Library of Congress National Registry in 1998.

A landmark counterculture film,  and a "touchstone for a generation" that "captured the national imagination",  Easy Rider explores the societal landscape, issues, and tensions in the United States during the 1960s, such as the rise and fall of the hippie movement, drug use, and communal lifestyle.
In Easy Rider, real drugs were used in scenes showing the use of marijuana and other substances. 

Plot

The protagonists are two freewheeling guys: Wyatt (Fonda), nicknamed "Captain America", and Billy (Hopper). Fonda and Hopper have said that these characters' names refer to Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid. Wyatt dresses in American flag-adorned leather (with an Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge affixed to it), while Billy dresses in Native American-style buckskin pants and shirts and a bushman hat. The former is quite open to people they meet on their journey and accepting of help while the latter is more hostile and suspicious.

After smuggling cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, Wyatt and Billy sell their haul to "Connection", a man (played by Phil Spector) in a Rolls-Royce, and receive a large sum in return. With the money stuffed into a plastic tube hidden inside the Stars & Stripes-painted fuel tank of Wyatt's California-style chopper, they ride eastward aiming to reach New Orleans, Louisiana, in time for the Mardi Gras festival.

During their trip Wyatt and Billy stop to repair one of the bikes at a farmstead, and have a meal with the farmer (Warren Finnerty) and his family. Wyatt seems to appreciate the simple, traditional lifestyle presented here.  Later Wyatt stops to pick up a hippyish hitch-hiker (Luke Askew) and he invites them to visit his commune, where they stay for the rest of the day. Life in the commune appears to be hard, with young hippies from the city struggling to grow their own crops in a dry climate with poor soil and little rainfall. (One of the children seen in the commune is played by Fonda's four-year-old daughter Bridget.) At one point, the bikers witness a prayer for blessing of the new crop, as put by a commune-member (Robert Walker Jr.): A chance "to make a stand", and to plant "simple food, for our simple taste". The commune is also hosting a traveling theater group that "sings for its supper" (performs for food). The notion of "free love" appears to be practiced, with two of the women, Lisa (Luana Anders) and Sarah (Sabrina Scharf), seemingly sharing the affections of the hitch-hiking commune-member before turning their attention to Wyatt and Billy. The hitch-hiker asks the two bikers to stay at the commune, saying, "the time is now", to which Wyatt replies "I'm hip about time...but I just gotta go."  As the bikers leave, the hitch-hiker (known only as "Stranger on highway" in the credits) gives Wyatt some LSD for him to share with "the right people".

Later, while naughtily riding along with a parade in a small town, the pair are arrested by the local authorities for "parading without a permit" and thrown in jail. There, they befriend American Civil Liberties Union lawyer and local drunk George Hanson (Jack Nicholson), who has spent the night in jail after overindulging in alcohol. George helps them get out of jail and decides to travel with Wyatt and Billy to New Orleans. As they camp that night, Wyatt and Billy introduce George to marijuana. As an alcoholic and a "square", George is reluctant to try the marijuana ("It leads to harder stuff", and "I don't want to get hooked"), but he quickly relents.

Stopping to eat at a smalltown Louisiana diner, the trio's appearance attracts the attention of the locals. The girls in the restaurant think they're exciting but the local men and a police officer begin making loud and denigrating comments and taunts. One of the men menacingly states, "I don't believe they'll make the parish line." The waitress does not take their order and Wyatt, Billy and George, feeling the hostility, decide to leave without any fuss. They make camp outside town. The events of the day cause George to comment: "This used to be a hell of a good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it." He observes that Americans talk a lot about the value of freedom but are actually afraid of anyone who truly exhibits it.

In the middle of the night a group of locals attack the sleeping trio, beating them with clubs. Billy screams and brandishes a knife and the attackers leave. Wyatt and Billy suffer minor injuries but George has been bludgeoned to death. Wyatt and Billy wrap George's body up in his sleeping bag, gather his belongings, and vow to return the items to his parents.

They continue to New Orleans and find a brothel George had told them about. Taking prostitutes Karen (Karen Black) and Mary (Toni Basil) with them, Wyatt and Billy decide to go outside and wander the parade-filled street of the Mardi Gras celebration. They end up in a cemetery, where all four ingest the LSD which the hitch-hiker had given to Wyatt. They experience a bad trip, cinematically presented by the use of quick cuts, fish-eye lenses, sound collages (including snippets of prayer) and over-exposed film.

Making camp afterward, Billy declares that their trek has been a success. Wyatt disagrees, declaring, "We blew it." The next morning, the two are continuing their trip eastward to Florida (where they hope to retire wealthy) when two rednecks in a pickup truck spot them and decide to "scare the hell out of them" with their shotgun. As they pull alongside Billy, one of the men lazily aims the shotgun at him and threatens and insults him by saying, "Want me to blow your brains out?" and "Why don't you get a haircut?" When Billy flips his middle finger up at them, the hillbilly fires the shotgun and Billy slews the bike into the roadside, seriously wounded in the side. As the truck then takes off past Wyatt down the road, Wyatt turns around and races back to put his jacket over his critically injured friend, who is already drenched in blood, before riding off for help. By this time, the pickup truck has turned around and closes on Wyatt. The hillbilly fires at Wyatt as he speeds by the pickup, hitting the bike's gas tank and causing it to erupt into a fiery explosion. Wyatt is killed and the bike soars into the air and crashes down further along the road. As the murderous rednecks drive away, the film ends with a shot of the flaming bike in the middle of the deserted road, as the camera ascends to the sky.

Cast

*Peter Fonda as Wyatt, "Captain America"
*Dennis Hopper as Billy
*Antonio Mendoza as Jesus
*Phil Spector as Connection
*Mac Mashourian as Bodyguard
*Warren Finnerty as Rancher
*Tita Colorado as Rancher's Wife
*Luke Askew as Stranger on Highway

Commune
*Luana Anders as Lisa
*Sabrina Scharf as Sarah
*Sandy Wyeth as Joanne
*Robert Walker, Jr. as Jack
*Robert Ball as Mime #1
*Carmen Phillips as Mime #2
*Ellie Walker as Mime #3
*Michael Pataki as Mime #4

Jail
*Jack Nicholson as George Hanson
*George Fowler, Jr. as Guard
*Keith Green as Sheriff

Café
*Hayward Robillard as Cat Man
*Arnold Hess, Jr. as Deputy
*Buddy Causey, Jr. as Customer #1
*Duffy Lafont as Customer #2
*Blasé M. Dawson as Customer #3
*Paul Guedry as Customer #4
*Suzie Ramagos as Girl #1
*Elida Ann Hebert as Girl #2
*Rose LeBlanc as Girl #3
*Mary Kaye Hebert as Girl #4
*Cynthia Grezaffi as Girl #5
*Colette Purpera as Girl #6

House of Blue Lights
*Toni Basil as Mary
*Karen Black as Karen
*Lea Marmer as Madame
*Cathé Cozzi as Dancing Girl
*Thea Salerno as Hooker #1
*Anne McClain as Hooker #2
*Beatriz Monteil as Hooker #3
*Marcia Bowman as Hooker #4

Pickup Truck
*David C. Billodeau
*Johnny David

Production

Hopper and Fonda's first collaboration was in The Trip (1967), written by Jack Nicholson, which had similar themes and characters as Easy Rider. Peter Fonda had become "an icon of the counterculture" in The Wild Angels (1966), where he established "a persona he would develop further in The Trip and Easy Rider." The Trip also popularized LSD, while Easy Rider went on to "celebrate 60s counterculture" but does so "stripped of its innocence." Author Katie Mills wrote that The Trip is a way point along the "metamorphosis of the rebel road story from a Beat relic into its hippie reincarnation as Easy Rider", and connected Peter Fonda's characters in those two films, along with his character in The Wild Angels, deviating from the "formulaic biker" persona and critiquing "commodity-oriented filmmakers appropriating avant-garde film techniques." It was also a step in the transition from independent film into Hollywood's mainstream, and while The Trip was criticized as a faux, popularized underground film made by Hollywood insiders, Easy Rider "interrogates" the attitude that underground film must "remain strictly segregated from Hollywood." Mills also wrote that the famous acid trip scene in Easy Rider "clearly derives from their first tentative explorations as filmmakers in The Trip."

When seeing a still of himself and Bruce Dern in The Wild Angels, Peter Fonda had the idea of a modern Western, involving two bikers travelling around the country and eventually getting shot by hillbillies. He called Dennis Hopper, and the two decided to turn that into a movie, The Loners, with Hopper directing, Fonda producing, and both starring and writing. They brought in screenwriter Terry Southern, who came up with the title Easy Rider. The film was mostly shot without a screenplay, with ad-libbed lines, and production started with only the outline and the names of the protagonists. Keeping the Western theme, Wyatt was named after Wyatt Earp and Billy after Billy the Kid. However, Southern disputes that Hopper wrote much of the script. In a 2016 interview he said "You know if Den Hopper improvises a dozen lines and six of them survive the cutting room floor he'll put in for screenplay credit. Now it would be almost impossible to exaggerate his contribution to the film—but, by George, he manages to do it every time."  According to Southern, Fonda was under contract to produce a motorcycle film with A.I.P., which Fonda had agreed to allow Hopper to direct. According to Southern, Fonda and Hopper didn't seek screenplay credit until after the first screenings of the film, which required Southern's agreement due to writers guild policies. Southern says he agreed out of a sense of camaraderie, and that Hopper later took credit for the entire script.

Hopper was also said to be difficult on set. During test shooting on location in New Orleans, Hopper fought with the production's ad hoc crew for control.  At one point he entered into a physical confrontation with photographer Barry Feinstein, who was one of the camera operators for the shoot. After this turmoil, Hopper and Fonda decided to assemble a proper crew for the rest of the film.

Allegedly, the characters of Wyatt and Billy were respectively based on Roger McGuinn and David Crosby of The Byrds.  According to Terry Southern's biographer, Lee Hill, the part of George Hanson had been written for Southern's friend, actor Rip Torn. When Torn met with Hopper and Fonda at a New York restaurant in early 1968 to discuss the role, Hopper began ranting about the "rednecks" he had encountered on his scouting trip to the South. Torn, a Texan, took exception to some of Hopper's remarks, and the two almost came to blows, as a result of which Torn withdrew from the project. Torn was replaced by Jack Nicholson, whom Hopper had recently appeared with in Head (along with another Easy Rider co-star, Toni Basil).  In 1994, Jay Leno interviewed Hopper about Easy Rider on The Tonight Show, and during the interview, Hopper alleged that Torn had pulled a knife on him during the altercation, prompting Torn to sue Hopper successfully for defamation.

The hippie commune was recreated from pictures and shot at a site overlooking Malibu Canyon, since the New Buffalo commune in Arroyo Hondo near Taos, New Mexico, did not permit shooting there.

A short clip near the beginning of the film shows Wyatt and Billy on Route 66 in Flagstaff, Arizona, passing a large figure of a lumberjack. That lumberjack statue—once situated in front of the Lumberjack Cafe—remains in Flagstaff, but now stands inside the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome on the campus of Northern Arizona University.  A second, very similar statue was also moved from the Lumberjack Cafe to the exterior of the Skydome. 

Most of the film is shot outside with natural lighting.  Hopper said all the outdoor shooting was an intentional choice on his part, because "God is a great gaffer." The production used two five-ton trucks, one for the equipment and one for the motorcycles, with the cast and crew in a motor home. One of the locations was Monument Valley.

The restaurant scenes with Fonda, Hopper, and Nicholson were shot in Morganza, Louisiana. The men and girls in that scene were all Morganza locals. In order to inspire more vitriolic commentary from the local men, Hopper told them the characters of Billy, Wyatt, and George had raped and killed a girl outside of town. The scene in which Billy and Wyatt were shot was filmed on Louisiana Highway 105 North, just outside Krotz Springs, and the two other men in the scene—Johnny David and D.C. Billodeau—were Krotz Springs locals.

While shooting the cemetery scene, Hopper tried to convince Fonda to talk to the statue of the Madonna as though it were Fonda's mother (who had committed suicide when he was 10 years old) and ask her why she left him. Although Fonda was reluctant, he eventually complied. Later, Fonda used the inclusion of this scene as leverage to persuade Roger McGuinn to allow the use of his cover of Bob Dylan's "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)".

Despite being filmed in the first half of 1968, roughly between Mardi Gras and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, with production starting on February 22  the film did not have a U.S. premiere until July 1969, after having won an award at the Cannes film festival in May. The delay was partially due to a protracted editing process. Inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of Hopper's proposed cuts was 220 minutes long, including extensive use of the "flash-forward" narrative device, wherein scenes from later in the movie are inserted into the current scene. But only one flash-forward survives in the final edit: when Wyatt in the New Orleans brothel has a premonition of the final scene. At the request of Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, Henry Jaglom was brought in to edit the film into its current form, while Schneider purchased Hopper a trip to Taos so he would not interfere with the recut. Upon seeing the final cut, Hopper was originally displeased, saying that his movie was "turned into a TV show", but he eventually accepted, claiming that Jaglom had crafted the film the way Hopper had originally intended. Despite the large part he played in shaping the film, Jaglom only received credit as an "Editorial Consultant".

There are various reports about the exact running time of original rough cut of the movie; four hours, four and a half hours, or five hours. All deleted footage is believed to be lost. Some of the scenes which were in the original cut but got deleted are:  the original opening showing Wyatt and Billy performing in a Los Angeles stunt show (their real jobs), the two of them being ripped off by the promoter, getting in a biker fight, picking up women at a drive-in, cruising to and escaping from Mexico to score the cocaine they sell, an elaborate police and helicopter chase that took place at the beginning after the dope deal with police chasing Wyatt and Billy over mountains and across the Mexican border, the road trip out of L.A. edited to the full length of Steppenwolf's Born to Be Wild with billboards along the way offering wry commentary, Wyatt and Billy being pulled over by a cop while driving their motorcycles across a highway, the two of them encountering the black motorcycle gang, ten additional minutes for the volatile café scene in Louisiana where George deftly keeps the peace, Wyatt and Billy checking into a hotel before going over to Madam Tinkertoy's, an extended and much longer Madam Tinkertoy sequence, and extended versions of all the campfire scenes including the enigmatic finale in which Wyatt says "We blew it, Billy".

Easy Riders style — the jump cuts, time shifts, flash forwards, flashbacks, jerky hand-held cameras, fractured narrative and improvised acting — can be seen as a cinematic translation of the psychedelic experience. Peter Biskind, author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls wrote: "LSD did create a frame of mind that fractured experience and that LSD experience had an effect on films like Easy Rider". 

Motorcycles

The motorcycles for the film, based on hardtail frames and panhead engines, were designed and built by two African-American   chopper builders — Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy — following ideas of Peter Fonda, and handled by Tex Hall and Dan Haggerty during shooting.

In total, four former police bikes were used in the film. The 1949, 1950 and 1952 Harley-Davidson Hydra-Glide bikes were purchased at an auction for $500, equivalent to about $ in . Each bike had a backup to make sure that shooting could continue in case one of the old machines failed or got wrecked accidentally. One "Captain America" was demolished in the final scene, while the other three were stolen and probably taken apart before their significance as movie props became known. The demolished bike was rebuilt by Dan Haggerty and shown in a museum. He sold it at an auction in 2001. It now resides at the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa. Many replicas have been built since the film's release.

Hopper and Fonda hosted a wrap party for the movie and then realized they had not yet shot the final campfire scene.  Thus, it was shot after the bikes had already been stolen, which is why they are not visible in the background as in the other campfire scenes.

Reception

The film holds an 86% "Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10.

Awards and honors

Hopper received the First Film Award (Prix de la première œuvre) at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.  At the 42nd Academy Awards, Jack Nicholson was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and the film was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

The film appears at number 88 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Years, 100 Movies. In 1998, Easy Rider was added to the United States National Film Registry, having been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Significance

A box office smash with a $60-million intake, of which $41.7 million was domestic gross,  it became the third highest-grossing film of 1969. Along with Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate, Easy Rider helped kick-start the New Hollywood phase during the late 1960s and early 1970s.  The major studios realized that money could be made from low-budget films made by avant-garde directors. Heavily influenced by the French New Wave, the films of the so-called "post-classical Hollywood" came to represent a counterculture generation increasingly disillusioned with its government as well as the government's effects on the world at large, and the Establishment in general. Although Jack Nicholson appears only as a supporting actor and in the last half of the film, the standout performance signaled his arrival as a movie star, along with his subsequent film Five Easy Pieces in which he had the lead role. Vice President Spiro Agnew criticized Easy Rider, along with the band Jefferson Airplane, as examples of the permissiveness of the 1960s counterculture. 

The film's success, and the new era of Hollywood that it helped usher in, gave Hopper the chance to direct again with complete artistic control.  The result was 1971's The Last Movie, which was a notable box office and critical failure, effectively ending Hopper's career as a director for well over a decade.

Roger Ebert added Easy Rider to his "Great Movies" list in 2004. 

Music

The movie's "groundbreaking"  soundtrack featured The Band, The Byrds, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Steppenwolf. Editor Donn Cambern used various music from his own record collection to make watching hours of bike footage more interesting during editing. Most of Cambern's music was used, with licensing costs of $1 million, more than the film's budget. The extensive use of pop and rock music for a film's soundtrack was unusual at the time, especially since the film lacks a classical score. When the band Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young viewed a rough cut of the film, they assured Hopper that they could not do any better than he already had.

Bob Dylan was asked to contribute music, but was reluctant to use his own recording of "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)", so a version performed by Byrds frontman Roger McGuinn was used instead. Also, instead of writing an entirely new song for the film, Dylan simply wrote out the first verse of "Ballad of Easy Rider" and told the filmmakers, "Give this to McGuinn, he’ll know what to do with it."  McGuinn completed the song and performed it in the film.

Home media

The film was released by The Criterion Collection in November 2010 as part of the box set America Lost and Found: The BBS Story. It included two audio commentaries, one featuring actor-director-writer Dennis Hopper, the other with Hopper, actor-writer Peter Fonda, and production manager Paul Lewis; two documentaries about the making and history of the film, Born to Be Wild (1995) and Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage (1999); television excerpts showing Hopper and Fonda at the Cannes Film Festival; and a new video interview with BBS co-founder Stephen Blauner.

Sequel

In 2012, a sequel to the movie was released titled Easy Rider: The Ride Back, directed by Dustin Rikert.  The film is about the family of Wyatt "Captain America" Williams from the 1940s to the present day. John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, having performed for nearly 60 years. He is known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance and dark portrayals of excitable and psychopathic characters. In many of his films, he has played the "eternal outsider, the sardonic drifter", and someone who rebels against the social structure.

Nicholson's 12 Academy Award nominations make him the most nominated male actor in the Academy's history. Nicholson has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, one for the drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and the other for the romantic comedy As Good as It Gets (1997). He also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the comedy-drama Terms of Endearment (1983). Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards.

Nicholson is one of only two actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s; the other is Michael Caine. He has won six Golden Globe Awards, and received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. In 1994, he became one of the youngest actors to be awarded the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award.

Other films in which he has starred include the road movie Easy Rider (1969), the drama Five Easy Pieces (1970), the comedy-drama film The Last Detail (1973), the neo-noir mystery film Chinatown (1974), the drama The Passenger (1975), and the epic film Reds (1981).

He played Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's horror film The Shining (1980), the Joker in Batman (1989), and Frank Costello in Martin Scorsese's neo-noir crime drama The Departed (2006). Other films include the legal drama A Few Good Men (1992), the Sean Penn-directed mystery film The Pledge (2001), and the comedy-drama About Schmidt (2002).

Early life

Nicholson was born on April 22, 1937, in Neptune City, New Jersey,   the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (November 5, 1918 – July 31, 1963) (stage name June Nilson).   Nicholson's mother was of Irish, English, and Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent. She married Italian American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, not knowing that he was already married.   Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King (originally Edgar A. Kirschfeld),  June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. As June was only 18 years old, unmarried and uncertain of the father's identity when Nicholson was born, her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister.[http://www.biography.com/people/jack-nicholson-9423081 Jack Nicholson Biography], Biography.com

In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his "sister," June, was actually his mother, and his other "sister," Lorraine, was really his aunt.  By this time, both his previously assumed mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing...I was pretty well psychologically formed."

Nicholson grew up in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was raised in his mother's Roman Catholic religion.   Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey. "When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more—this time two miles (3 km) farther south to old-money Spring Lake, Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor in a rambling duplex at 505 Mercer Avenue."  "Nick", as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted "class clown" by the Class of 1954. He was in detention every day for a whole school year. A theatre and a drama award at the school are named in his honor. In 2004, Nicholson attended his 50-year high school reunion accompanied by his aunt Lorraine. He served a tour of duty in the Air National Guard.

Career

Early work

Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was 17, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animation legends William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. They offered him a starting level job as an animation artist, but he declined, citing his desire to become an actor.

He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas.Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia, HarperCollins (2012) pp. 1079-1080 He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors, as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven, The Terror where he plays a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget westerns, though two in particular, Ride in the Whirlwind and The Shooting, initially failed to find interest from any US film distributors but gained cult success on the art-house circuit in France and were later sold to television. Nicholson also appeared in two episodes of The Andy Griffith Show.

1960s

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 screenplay for the 1967 counterculture film The Trip (directed by Corman), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. After first reading the script, Fonda told Nicholson he was totally impressed by the writing and felt it could become a great film. However, he was disappointed with how the film turned out, and blamed the editing which turned it into a "predictable" film, and said so publicly. "I was livid," he recalls.Linderman, Lawrence. "Playboy Interview with Peter Fonda", Playboy magazine, September 1970 Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, the movie Head, which starred The Monkees. In addition, he also arranged the movie's soundtrack.

After a spot opened up in Fonda and Hopper's Easy Rider (1969), it led to his first big acting break. Nicholson played hard-drinking lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make and became a blockbuster grossing $40 million. Biographer John Parker states that Nicholson's interpretation of his role placed him in the company of earlier "anti-hero" actors, such as James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, while promoting him into an "overnight number-one hero of the counter-culture movement."Parker, John. Michael Douglas: Acting on Instinct, Hachette Book Group (2011) e-book

The part was a lucky break for Nicholson—the role had in fact been written for actor Rip Torn, who withdrew from the project after an argument with the film's director and co-star Dennis Hopper.  In interview, Nicholson later acknowledged the importance of being cast in Easy Rider: "All I could see in the early films, before Easy Rider, was this desperate young actor trying to vault out of the screen and create a movie career." 

Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM and other issues.

1970s

Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces alongside Karen Black in 1970 in what became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Nicholson played Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, and Black was his waitress girlfriend. During an interview about the film, Black noted that Nicholson's character in the film was very subdued, and was very different than Nicholson's real-life personality. She says that the now famous restaurant scene was partly improvised by Nicholson, and was out of character for Bobby, who wouldn't have cared enough to argue with a waitress.  "I think that Jack really has very little in common with Bobby. I think Bobby has given up looking for love. But Jack hasn't, he's very interested in love, in finding out things. Jack is a very curious, alive human being. Always ready for a new idea."Crane, Robert. Jack Nicholson: The Early Years, Univ. Press of Kentucky (2012) Nicholson himself said as much, telling an interviewer, "I like listening to everybody. This to me is the elixir of life."D'Agostino, Ryan. Esquire the Meaning of Life: Wisdom, Humor, and Damn Good Advice from 64 Extraordinary Lives, Sterling Publishing (2009) pp. 97-99

Black later admitted that she had a crush on Nicholson from the time they met, although they only dated briefly. "He was very beautiful. He just looked right at you...I liked him a lot...He really sort of wanted to date me but I didn't think of him that way because I was going with Peter Kastner...Then I went to do Easy Rider, but didn't see him because we didn't have any scenes together... At the premiere, I saw him out in the lobby afterward and I started crying...He didn't understand that, but what it was was  that I really loved him a lot, and I didn't know it until I saw him again, because it all welled up."

Within a month after the film's release that September, the movie became a blockbuster, making Nicholson a leading man and the "new American antihero," according to McDougal. Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. He said, "I was much sought after. Your name becomes a brand image like a product. You become Campbell's soup, with thirty-one different varieties of roles you can play." He told his new agent, Sandy Bresler, to find him unusual roles so he could stretch his acting skill: "I like to play people that haven't existed yet, a 'cusp character,'" he said:

Also in 1970 he appeared in the movie adaptation of On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, although most of his performance was left on the cutting room floor. His agent turned down a starring role alongside Marlon Brando in Deliverance when the film's producer and director, John Boorman refused to pay what Nicholson's agent wanted.

Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge in 1971, a comedy-drama directed by Mike Nichols, which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret and Candice Bergen. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. As director, Mike Nichols was limited in the actors who he felt could handle the role, saying, "There is James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart and Henry Fonda. After that, who is there but Jack Nicholson?" During the filming Nicholson struck up what became a lifelong friendship with costar Garfunkel. When he visited Los Angeles, Garfunkel would stay at Nicholson's home in a room Nicholson jokingly called "the Arthur Garfunkel Suite."

Other Nicholson roles included Hal Ashby's The Last Detail (1973), with Randy Quaid, for which Nicholson won for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. Television journalist David Gilmour writes that one of his favorite Nicholson scenes from all his films was in this one, when Nicholson slaps his gun on the bar yelling he was the Shore Patrol.   Critic Roger Ebert called it a very good movie, but credited Nicholson's acting as the main reason: "He creates a character so complete and so complex that we stop thinking about the movie and just watch to see what he'll do next." 

In 1974 he starred in Roman Polanski's noir thriller, Chinatown, and was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Jake Gittes, a private detective. The film co-starred Faye Dunaway and John Huston, and included a cameo role with Polanski. Roger Ebert described Nicholson's portrayal as sharp-edged, menacing, and aggressive, a character who knew "how to go over the top," as he did in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It is that edge that kept Chinatown from becoming a typical genre crime film.  Ebert also notes the importance of the role for Nicholson's career, seeing it as a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. "As Jake Gittes he stepped into Bogart's shoes," says Ebert. "As a man attractive to audiences because he suggests both comfort and danger...From Gittes forward, Nicholson created the persona of a man who had seen it all and was still capable of being wickedly amused." 

Nicholson had been friends with the director Roman Polanski long before the murder of Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate, at the hands of the Manson Family, and supported him in the days following the deaths.  After Tate's death, Nicholson began sleeping with a hammer under his pillow, and took breaks from work to attend the Manson trial.

In 1977, three years after Chinatown, Polanski was arrested at Nicholson's home for the sexual assault of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer, who was modeling for Polanski during a magazine photo shoot around the pool. At the time of the incident, Nicholson was out of town making a film, but  his steady girlfriend, actress Anjelica Huston, had dropped by unannounced to pick up some items. She heard Polanski in the other room say, "We'll be right out." Polanski then came out with Geimer and he introduced her to Huston, and they chatted about Nicholson's two large dogs which were sitting nearby. Huston recalled Geimer was wearing platform heels and appeared quite tall. After a few minutes of talking, Polanski had packed up his camera gear and Huston saw them drive off in his car. Huston told police the next day, after Polanski was arrested, that she "had witnessed nothing untoward" and never saw them together in the other room.Huston, Anjelica. Watch Me, Simon and Schuster (2014) e-book

Geimer learned afterwards that Huston herself wasn't supposed to be at Nicholson's house that day since they had recently broken up, but stopped over to pick up some belongings. Geimer described Nicholson's house as "definitely" a guy's house, with lots of wood and shelves crowded with photos and mementos. 

One of Nicholson's greatest successes came in 1975 with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The movie was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel and was directed by Miloš Forman and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. (Playing one of the patients was Danny DeVito in his first significant role. Nicholson learned afterwards that DeVito grew up in the same area of New Jersey and they knew many of the same people. ) The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor.

The role seemed perfect for Nicholson, with biographer Ken Burke noting that his "smartass demeanor balances his genuine concern for the treatment of his fellow patients with his independent spirit too free to exist in a repressive social structure."Burke, Ken. Ed. The Guide to United States Popular Culture, Bowling Green State Univ. Press (2001) p. 578  Forman allowed Nicholson to improvise throughout the film, including most of the group therapy sequences. Reviewer Marie Brenner notes that his bravura performance "transcends the screen" and continually inspires the other actors by lightening their mental illnesses with his comic dialogue. She describes his performance:

Also in 1975, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. Nicholson plays the role of a journalist, David Locke, who during an assignment in North Africa decides to quit being a journalist and simply disappear by taking on a new hidden identity. Unfortunately, the dead person whose identity he takes on turns out to have been a weapons smuggler on the run. Antonioni's unusual plot included convincing dialogue and fine acting, states film critic Seymour Chatman.Chatman, Seymour; Duncan, Paul. Michelangelo Antonioni: The Investigation, Taschen (2004) p. 134 It was shot in Algeria, Spain, Germany and England.

The film received good reviews and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of cinema's great directors. He says he wanted the film to have more of a "spy feeling [and] be more political." Nicholson began shooting the film from an unfinished script, notes Judith Crist,  yet upon its completion he thought so highly of the film that he bought the world rights and recorded a reminiscence of working with Antonioni. Critic and screenwriter Penelope Gilliatt provides an overview of Nicholson's role:

He continued to take more unusual roles. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon, opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando. Nicholson was especially inspired by Brando's acting ability, recalling that in his youth, as an assistant manager at a theater, he watched On the Waterfront about forty times.  "I'm part of the first generation that idolized Marlon Brando," he said. 

Nicholson has observed that while both De Niro and Brando were noted for their skill as method actors, he himself has seldom been described as a method actor, a fact which he sees as an accomplishment: "I'm still fooling them," he told Sean Penn during a phone conversation. "I consider it an accomplishment because there's probably no one who understands Method acting better academically than I do—or actually uses it more in his work. But it's funny, nobody really sees that. It's perception versus reality, I guess."

1980s

Although he garnered no Academy Award for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. He was Kubrick's first choice to play the lead role, although the book's author, Stephen King, wanted the part played by more of an "everyman." However, Kubrick as director won the argument, and described Nicholson's acting quality as being "on a par with the greatest stars of the past, like Spencer Tracy and Jimmy Cagney."LoBrutto, Vincent. Stanley Kubrick: A Biography, Da Capo Press (1997) p. 420

On the set, Nicholson always appeared in character, and if Kubrick felt confident that he knew his lines well enough, he encouraged him to improvise and go beyond the script. For example, Nicholson improvised his now famous "Here's Johnny!" line, along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly). There were also extensive takes of scenes, due to Kubrick's perfectionism. Nicholson's shot a scene with the ghostly bartender thirty-six times.  Nicholson states that "Stanley's demanding. He'll do a scene fifty times and you have to be good to do that."Ciment, Michel. Kubrick: The Definitive Edition, Faber and Faber, Inc. (1980; 1999)

In 1982 he starred as in immigration enforcement agent in The Border, directed by Tony Richardson. It co-starred Warren Oates who played a corrupt border official.  Richardson wanted Nicholson to play his role less expressively than he had in his earlier roles. "Less is more," he told him, and wanted him to wear reflecting sunglasses to portray what patrolmen wore. Richardson recalled that Nicholson worked hard on the set:

Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (1983), directed by James L. Brooks. It starred Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. McGilligan claims it was one of Nicholson's most complex and unforgettable characters. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Their scenes together gave the film its "buoyant edge," states McGilligan, and describes Nicholson's acting as "Jack floating like a butterfly."

Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Reds (1981), where Nicholson portrays the writer Eugene O'Neill with a quiet intensity, Prizzi's Honor (1985), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Broadcast News (1987), and Ironweed (1987). Three Oscar nominations also followed (Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed).    John Huston, who directed Prizzi's Honor, said of Nicholson's acting, "He just illuminates the book. He impressed me in one scene after another; the movie is composed largely of first takes with him." 

In the 1989 Batman movie, Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, The Joker. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million.  Nicholson said that he was "particularly proud" of his performance as the Joker: "I considered it a piece of pop art," he said.

1990s

For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (1992), a movie about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.   One review describes his performance as "spellbinding," adding that he portrayed "the essence of the quintessential military mind-set."  Critic David Thomson notes that Nicholson's character "blazed and roared."

The film's director, Rob Reiner, recalls how Nicholson's level of acting experience affected the other actors during rehearsals: "I had the luck of having Jack Nicholson there. He knows what he's doing, and he comes to play, every time out, full-out performance! And what it says to a lot of the other actors is, 'Oooooh, I better get on my game here because this guy's coming to play! So I can't hold back; I've got to come up to him.' He sets the tone."Kagan, Jeremy. Directors Close Up, Scarecrow Press (2006) p. 148

In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off.

Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (1992) and Hoffa (1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination.   While David Thomson states that the film was terribly neglected, since Nicholson portrayed one of his best screen characters, someone who is "snarly, dumb, smart, noble, rascally—all the parts of 'Jack'"

Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his second film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny," mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. "I'm a studio Method actor," he said. "So I was prone to give some kind of clinical presentation of the disorder."Schruers, Fred. "Rolling Stone Interview with Jack Nicholson," Rolling Stone, March 19, 1998 pp. 38-40 His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.

Nicholson admits he initially didn't like playing the role of a middle-aged man alongside much younger Hunt, seeing it as a movie cliché. "But Helen disarmed that at the first meeting," he says, "and I stopped thinking about it." They got along well during the filming, with Hunt saying that he "treated me like a queen," and they connected immediately: "It wasn't even what we said," she adds. "It was just some frequency we both could tune into that was very, very compatible."Bona, Damien. Inside Oscar 2, Random House (2002) e-book

Critic Jack Mathews of Newsday described Nicholson as being "in rare form," adding that "it's one of those performances that make you aware how much fun the actor is having." Author and screenwriter Andrew Horton describes their on-screen relationship as being like "fire and ice, oil and water— seemingly complete opposites."  Nonetheless, Hunt was Nicholson's perfect counterpart, and delivered "a simply stunning performance," writes critic Louise Keller. Co-star Greg Kinnear's role was also seen as showing his full range of acting in an "exquisitely heartfelt performance." 

In 2001, Nicholson was the first actor to receive the Stanislavsky Award at the 23rd Moscow International Film Festival for "conquering the heights of acting and faithfulness". 

2000s–present

In About Schmidt (2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska, actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor. In Anger Management (2003), he played an aggressive therapist assigned to help an overly pacifist man (Adam Sandler). In 2003, Nicholson also 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 Frank Costello, a sadistic Boston Irish Mob boss, based on Whitey Bulger who was still on the run at that time, presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. The role earned Nicholson worldwide critical praise along with various award wins and nominations including a Golden Globe nomination for supporting actor.

In 2007 Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in Rob Reiner's The Bucket List.  Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. In researching the role, Nicholson visited a Los Angeles hospital to see how cancer patients coped with their illnesses.

His last film role to date saw him reunite with Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets director James L. Brooks, for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in the 2010 film  How Do You Know.  It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting, but in a May 2016 Vanity Fair article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that he was now being much more selective about film roles. 

On February 15, 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. 
After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali on June 3, 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali. 

Personal life

Relationships

Nicholson's only marriage was to Sandra Knight from June 17, 1962 to August 8, 1968; they had been separated for two years prior to the divorce. They had one daughter together, Jennifer (born September 16, 1963). Actress Susan Anspach contends that her son, Caleb Goddard (born September 26, 1970), was fathered by Nicholson, though he is not convinced he is the father.   Between April 1973 and January 1990, Nicholson had an on-again, off-again relationship with actress Anjelica Huston that included periods of overlap with other women, including Danish model Winnie Hollman, by whom he fathered a daughter, Honey Hollman (born 1981).[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/celebritynews/11340882/The-women-Jack-Nicholson-loved-and-lost-In-pictures.html?frame
3162479 "The women Jack Nicholson loved and lost: In pictures"], The Telegraph, U.K., Jan. 13, 2015

From 1989 to 1994, Nicholson had a relationship with actress Rebecca Broussard. They had two children together: daughter Lorraine (born April 16, 1990) and son Raymond (born February 20, 1992).  For over a year from 1999 to 2000, Nicholson dated actress Lara Flynn Boyle; they later reunited before splitting permanently in 2004. 

Nicholson states that children added to the quality of his life: "Children give your life a resonance that it can't have without them...As a father I'm there all the time. I give unconditional love. And I have a lot of skills in terms of getting them to express themselves."

Vandalism charge

In a criminal lawsuit filed on February 8, 1994, Robert Blank stated that Nicholson, then 56, approached Blank's Mercedes-Benz while he was stopped at a red light in North Hollywood. After accusing the other man of cutting him off in traffic, Nicholson used a golf club to bash the roof and windshield of Blank's car. A witness confirmed Blank's account of the incident, and misdemeanor charges of assault and vandalism were filed against Nicholson. Charges were dropped after Nicholson apologized to Blank and the two reached an undisclosed settlement, which included a reported $500,000 check from Nicholson. 

Celebrity friendships

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

Nicholson's friendship with author-journalist Hunter S. Thompson is described in Thompson's autobiography Kingdom of Fear.  Following Thompson's death in 2005, Nicholson and fellow actors Johnny Depp, John Cusack, and Sean Penn attended the private memorial service in Colorado. 

Nicholson was also a close friend of Robert Evans, the producer of Chinatown, and after Evans lost Woodland, his home, as the result of a 1980s drug bust, Nicholson and other friends of the producer purchased Woodland to give it back to Evans. 

Hobbies

Nicholson is a fan of the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Lakers. He has been a Laker season ticket holder since 1970 and has held courtside season tickets for the past 25 years next to the opponent's benches both at The Forum and Staples Center, missing very few games. In a few instances, Nicholson has engaged in arguments with game officials and opposing players, and even walked onto the court.  He was almost ejected from a Lakers playoff game in May 2003 after he yelled at the game's referee. 

Nicholson is a collector of 20th century and contemporary art, including the work of Henri Matisse, Tamara de Lempicka,  Andy Warhol, and Jack Vettriano.  In 1995, artist Ed Ruscha was quoted saying that "Jack Nicholson has one of the best collections out here". 

Political views

Although Nicholson is personally against abortion, he is pro-choice. He has said "I'm pro-choice but against abortion because I'm an illegitimate child myself and it would be hypocritical to take any other position. I'd be dead. I wouldn't exist." He has also said that he has "nothing but total admiration, gratitude and respect for the strength of the women who made the decision they made in my individual case." 

Honors

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

In 2010, Nicholson was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. 

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

Awards and nominations

With 12 Academy Award nominations (eight for Best Actor and four for Best Supporting Actor), Nicholson is the most nominated male actor in Academy Awards history. Only Nicholson (1960s-2000s), Michael Caine (1960s-2000s), Paul Newman (1950s-1960s, 1980s-2000s), and Laurence Olivier (1930s-1970s) have been nominated for an acting (lead or supporting) Academy Award in five different decades.

With three Oscar wins, he also ties with Walter Brennan, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ingrid Bergman, and Meryl Streep for the second-most Oscar wins in acting categories. Only Katharine Hepburn, with four Oscars, has won more.

In 2013, Nicholson co-presented the Academy Award for Best Picture with first lady Michelle Obama. This ceremony marked the eighth time he has presented the Academy Award for Best Picture (1972, 1977, 1978, 1990, 1993, 2006, 2007, and 2013). Nicholson is an active and voting member of the Academy.

Filmography

Notes
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