Good actors deliver convincing performances. Great actors transcend and connect, evoking a wide range of emotions that linger long after the credits roll. Few actors have made more of an impact in their field than legend of legends, Jack Nicholson.
As a three-time Academy Award winner and the most nominated actor in film history, Nicholson has dominated the scene since the 1970s. But getting there was no easy feat. His ambition, drive, raw-talent, and dedication to the craft were keys to his incredible success. He also happened upon a time when Hollywood was undergoing a tremendous artistic revival.
A New Era of Film
The social upheaval and political unrest at home during the Vietnam War gave birth to the New Hollywood movement of the ’60s and ’70s, pushing the industry toward artist-driven films. This brief renaissance era introduced a new generation of filmmakers, actors, and writers who helped redefine cinema in new and exciting ways.
Their films emulated a new realism seen in similar movements in European and Asian cinema while establishing unconventional narratives, anti-establishment themes, and clever subversion of the status quo. The emerging works of directors Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, Brian De Palma, Sam Peckinpah, Sidney Lumet, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Robert Zemeckis (to name a few) provide a glimpse of the groundbreaking work on display in a time of fresh, emerging talents unprecedented in their numbers.
Born to Be Wild
Throughout the 1960s, Jack Nicholson worked tirelessly on stage, screen, and television across genres to little success. He then turned to screenwriting, which led to his working with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper on the Roger Corman-directed psychedelic nightmare hippie movie The Trip (1967). His big break, however, was yet to come.
The 1969 counterculture milestone Easy Rider was at the forefront of New Hollywood independent filmmaking. Its financial success ($60 million on a $400,000 budget) stunned major studios and gave rise to the commercial possibilities of artist-driven works outside the studio system.
Among its lasting impact, Easy Rider also introduced wider audiences to a young, charismatic actor seen previously in several low-budget Corman films. Nicholson’s supporting role as a boozy lawyer accompanying motorcyclists Hopper and Fonda across the vast American landscape helped launch his seemingly unstoppable career. Easy Rider also garnered his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Nicholson remained prolific throughout the ’80s and ’90s. Audiences marveled at his iconic performance as The Joker in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989), which saw a career resurgence among a new generation of moviegoers. It was a role he was born to play and one that would cement his status as one of our greatest living actors. This is further evidenced by an exceptional career of unforgettable films from the New Hollywood age to his retirement in 2010.
The 1970s
Five Easy Pieces (1970) set the stage for Nicholson’s career choices, embodying the type of challenging films he would embrace throughout his distinguished career. This quiet character study further established Nicholson in his first major leading role. In the film, he plays aimless drifter and blue-collar oil rig worker Bobby Dupeae who returns home to visit his dying father with his ditzy girlfriend (Karen Black) in tow. His character remains an enigma of hidden complexities and failures behind a façade of arrogance.
Already a bankable star, Nicholson elevated the subversive comedy-drama The Last Detail (1973) to new heights as an as an angry, insubordinate Navy sailor assigned to escort a young Seaman (Randy Quaid) to prison for theft. The film reflected the growing cynicism of the time against the U.S. Government and its military. It was written by Robert Towne who would later present Nicholson with a screenplay for a post-modern film noir classic the actor could not pass up.
In 1974, the Roman Polanski-directed Chinatown captivated audiences with its bleak atmosphere and multi-layered Oscar-winning screenplay. As private investigator Jake Gittes, Nicholson drew additional praise in this engrossing tale of political corruption in 1930s Los Angeles. Gittes is hired by a mysterious woman (Faye Dunaway) to investigate the death of her husband, a safety engineer at the Department of Water and Power. The case pulls him into a dangerous world of conspiracy and murder, where nefarious forces battle for control of L.A. public utilities.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) remains a landmark film that became Nicholson’s greatest achievement to date. The Ken Kesey novel on which it was based had already been adapted to the stage years before and went through years of development until everything fell into place. Nicholson was recommended through Hal Ashby who directed him in The Last Detail. In the film, Nicholson portrayed headstrong lowlife Randle McMurphy—a role that encapsulated his wildest qualities.
In prison for statutory rape, McMurphy feigns insanity for a transfer to an Oregon mental institution, where he assumes time will be easier. He unwittingly enters the crosshairs of the tyrannical Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) who is appalled by his rebellious nature and nonconformity. Their tense battle comprised a sprawling examination of the human condition; tragic, moving, and profound. It would win all five major Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Miloš Forman), Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Actress (Fletcher), and Best Screenplay.
The 1980s
Stanley Kubrick’s epic adaptation of the Stephen King best-seller The Shining (1980) easily ranks as one of the greatest horror films ever made. For Kubrick, Nicholson was his first and only choice for the lead role of Jack Torrance, schoolteacher, writer, and recovering alcoholic.
The well-known setup involves a winter caretaker position at the remote Overlook Hotel in the Rocky Mountains and its long-buried history of violence. We witness the destruction of the modern American family with wife Wendy (Shelly Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd) at the hands of the very monster who is supposed to protect them.
Nicholson’s hasty descent into madness reflects his isolated surroundings and personal demons. The hidden evilness within the Overlook Hotel is further amplified by the film’s grand cinematography and Nicholson’s gleefully insane performance. The Shining remains one of his most famous roles for good reason, he’s captivating from start to finish.
Terms of Endearment (1983) was the first of four collaborations with director James L. Brooks, which gained Nicholson his second Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as sleazy bachelor and retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove. While the story mainly focuses on the mother/daughter relationship between Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger, Nicholson shines as an unexpected grifter who brings romance and excitement into lonely wdow MacLaine’s life…for a moment.
By the time George Miller’s adaptation of John Updike’s novel The Witches of Eastwick (1984) novel hit the big screen in 1987, Nicholson was at the height of his pre-Batman star power. His wild performance as Daryl Van Horne, mysterious newcomer to an idyllic Rhode Island town, is equal only to the talent of his formidable cast, including Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer who portray the “witches” whose plan to conjure up the ideal man backfires.
The summer of ’89 was an event for the ages. Warner Brothers released a gothic big-budget re-imagining of the famed Caped crusader, heavily influenced by the Frank Miller and Alan Moore comics of the 1980s. Batman (1989) was a massive hit that elevated the careers of director Tim Burton, composer Danny Elfman, and all involved.
It also revamped the entire comic book genre in ways that continues today. As the psychotic Joker, Nicholson gleefully embraced the role he seemed destined to play, leading to a new generation of fans with Batman movie posters in their rooms. He would also team up with Burton again, playing two comedic roles in the madcap big budget b-movie satire Mars Attacks! (1996).
The 1990s
A long-overdue sequel to Chinatown titled The Two Jakes was directed by Nicholson in addition to starring in it in 1990, but thankfully was not a sign of things to come for the new decade as the uneven film flopped at the box office.
But A Few Good Men (1992) remains a spellbinding military courtroom drama courtesy of director Rob Reiner, writer Aaron Sorkin, and excellent cast at the top of their game. Nicholson’s mesmerizing performance as the domineering Colonel Jessup remains a masterclass of acting. Tom
Cruise plays a self-centered Navy JAG officer defending two Marines for the murder of one of their own. The case seems clear cut until Cruise’s superior (Demi Moore) insists otherwise, leading to their discovery of a conspiracy that goes straight to the top.
The bombastic Jessup easily stands out as the film’s main highlight. No one else could have so convincingly demonstrated the pettiness, arrogance, and indignation of a man believing his actions to be justified. Endlessly quoted, the thunderous courtroom finale between Cruise and Nicholson ranks among the most gripping courtroom scenes in recent memory, and for good reason.
In As Goods as It Gets (1997), Nicholson won his third Best Actor Academy Award for his role as a misanthropic romance novelist who lives a solitary life in the big city. The hugely successful romantic comedy-drama was his third collaboration with writer/director James L. Brooks. Melvin Udall suffers from a dozen unspecified disorders, unable to connect with a single person around him.
His obsessive-compulsive behavior, bigoted comments, and general unpleasantness repels all who cross his path. He soon finds unlikely solace and eventual redemption in a waitress named Carol (Helen Hunt), the only person who can stand him. Nicholson’s performance makes Udall both engaging, relatable, and human. Helen Hunt holds her own and won Best Actress for her role opposite Nicholson in this truly engaging and entertaining modern classic.
The 2000s
In About Schmidt (2002), retired insurance actuary Warren Schmidt had high hopes for his future. From youth, he felt destined for greatness and dreamed of starting a Fortune 500 company. Reality, however, is not what he imagined. His crisis worsens when adjusting to retirement life and the lingering fears that come with it. So begins the heartwarming, tragic, and often hilarious odyssey of one man’s search for meaning in his twilight years.
About Schmidt was a critical and financial success, nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Actor. In accepting the Best Actor Golden Globe for a Motion Picture Drama, Nicholson said, “I don’t know whether to be happy or ashamed, because I thought we made comedy.” In some ways it was and so much more.
The Departed (2007) remains Nicholson’s only collaboration with director Martin Scorsese and one of the finest crime films of its kind. His over-the-top performance as the real-life South Boston mob boss Frank Costello resonates because he appears to be having so much fun with it. Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon star as opposite police officers of the same coin. Damon has been groomed by Costello as an insider while DiCaprio has been groomed by a Special Investigations Unit to infiltrate Costello’s gang.
Deceit, murder, and vigilante justice round out this relentless, epic crime thriller. Famous for the visceral landmark mobster films Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995), Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker both won well-deserved Oscars for Best Picture, Director, and Film Editing. Nicholson’s Costello is a depraved lunatic who terrorizes his community and leaves misery in his wake. No one else could have made him such a blast to watch.
A Hard Swan Song to Swallow
Jack Nicholson’s lifetime of work has immortalized him as one of the greatest actors of all time. Since retirement, his fearless screen presence is sorely missed. There is no doubt, however, that he gave the best he could in nearly every role he took on. His significant contribution to films that challenged, moved, and entertained generations of audiences lives on.
This year, he celebrates his 87th birthday. He hasn’t been seen out in public or courtside at a Lakers game in some time. His children have stated that Nicholson prefers to remain close to home with family. In response, generations of grateful movie lovers send their best wishes to this titan of cinema.
During his AFI Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech in 1994, an emotional Nicholson said, “I love this work. It’s dangerous, you give your life to it. The truth is, I’m proud of all my collaborations. The work that this is about has set my life free.” He closed by saying, “All these things about age or time and everything is… you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
And he was right.