50 Fun Facts About Jack Nicholson

In which state was Jack Nicholson born and raised?

He grew up in Neptune City and was voted 'Class Clown' by Manasquan High School's Class of 1954 after a year of daily detention.

In 1974, Time researchers told Nicholson his supposed sister was actually his what?

June was 19 and unmarried, so her parents raised him as their own; he called the discovery dramatic 'but not traumatizing'.

Which two animation directors offered the teenage Nicholson an animator's job?

He was working as an office boy at the MGM cartoon studio and told them he wanted to act.

Nicholson considers May 5, 1955 lucky because 5 was the shirt number of which boyhood idol?

He remains a Yankees fan and a Lakers courtside fixture.

Nicholson made his film debut in the title role of which 1958 Roger Corman teen drama?

He worked with Corman for a decade, including as the masochistic dental patient in The Little Shop of Horrors.

In which branch did Nicholson serve as a firefighter, a move he called an effort to 'dodge the draft'?

He was called up for months of active duty during the 1961 Berlin Crisis.

Nicholson co-wrote which 1968 film vehicle for The Monkees?

He also arranged its soundtrack; his script for The Trip had starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper.

For which actor was the Easy Rider role of lawyer George Hanson originally written?

Torn quit after an argument with Dennis Hopper; the $400,000 film grossed $60 million and earned Nicholson his first Oscar nomination.

Kubrick cast Nicholson as which historical figure in a film that was never completed?

Nicholson called his own failure to make a Napoleon film 'perhaps the greatest frustration of his career'.

What was the name of Nicholson's oil-rig worker in Five Easy Pieces (1970)?

Co-star Karen Black said the famous restaurant scene was partly improvised and out of character for Bobby.

Nicholson's agent turned down which 1972 film when John Boorman refused to meet his price?

The same year, most of his performance in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever ended up on the cutting-room floor.

On Carnal Knowledge (1971), Nicholson began a lifelong friendship with which musician co-star?

Garfunkel stayed in a room Nicholson jokingly called 'the Arthur Garfunkel Suite'.

For which 1973 Hal Ashby film did Nicholson win Best Actor at Cannes?

He plays a Navy man escorting a prisoner, in a scene often censored, slapping his gun on a bar and yelling that he is the Shore Patrol.

What is the name of the private detective Nicholson plays in Chinatown (1974)?

Roger Ebert said that 'as Jake Gittes, he stepped into Bogart's shoes'.

After the Manson murder of Sharon Tate, Nicholson began sleeping with what under his pillow?

He also took breaks from work to attend the Manson trial.

Which future co-star was at Nicholson's house in 1977 when Polanski photographed Samantha Geimer?

Nicholson was out of town filming; Huston had dropped by to collect belongings after they had broken up.

What is the name of Nicholson's character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?

Milos Forman let him improvise most of the group-therapy scenes; the film won five Oscars including his first for Best Actor.

Which future star, raised in the same area as Nicholson, played a patient in Cuckoo's Nest?

They discovered afterwards they had grown up in the same area and knew many of the same people.

In The Passenger (1975), Nicholson's journalist assumes the identity of a dead man who turns out to be what?

Nicholson thought so highly of the film that he bought the world rights.

Nicholson took an unsympathetic role in The Missouri Breaks (1976) specifically to work with which actor?

As a teenage theatre usher he had watched On the Waterfront about 40 times; Brando later lived next door on Mulholland Drive.

Which famous line in The Shining did Nicholson improvise?

He also improvised the scene where he explodes at his wife for interrupting his writing, and slept short hours to stay agitated.

Who wanted more of an "everyman" than Nicholson as Jack Torrance in The Shining, and lost the argument to Kubrick?

Kubrick called Nicholson's acting 'on a par with the greatest stars of the past, like Spencer Tracy and Jimmy Cagney'.

Nicholson won his second Oscar playing retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in which film?

He and Shirley MacLaine played their scenes many different ways; a biographer described 'Jack floating like a butterfly'.

Which playwright did Nicholson play in Warren Beatty's Reds (1981)?

He identifies as Irish and compared himself to O'Neill: 'I am a writer, I am Irish, I have had problems with my family.'

Which director said Prizzi's Honor 'is composed largely of first takes' with Nicholson?

Huston had acted opposite him as the villain of Chinatown a decade earlier.

Nicholson's share of the gross for playing the Joker in Batman (1989) was estimated at how much?

He called the performance 'a piece of pop art' and it was widely thought to overshadow Michael Keaton's Batman.

What was the name and rank of Nicholson's character in A Few Good Men (1992)?

Rob Reiner said his full-out rehearsals told the other actors 'I better get on my game here because this guy's coming to play!'

For which two 1992 films did Nicholson receive Golden Raspberry nominations for Worst Actor?

Hoffa simultaneously earned him a Golden Globe nomination; critic David Thomson called the film 'terribly neglected'.

In Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! (1996), Nicholson played which two roles?

President James Dale and Art Land; the film flopped.

What is the name of the obsessive-compulsive novelist Nicholson played in As Good as It Gets?

His third Oscar was matched by Helen Hunt's Best Actress win; the film grossed $314 million.

How many Oscar nominations does Nicholson hold, the most of any male actor?

Eight for Best Actor and four supporting; only Katharine Hepburn, with four wins, has more than his three.

Besides Nicholson, who is the only actor Oscar-nominated for films from every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s?

Nicholson last did it for About Schmidt in 2002.

In About Schmidt (2002), Nicholson played a retired actuary from which state?

The quietly restrained performance won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama.

Nicholson's Boston mob boss Frank Costello in The Departed was based on which real gangster?

The Scorsese film was a remake of the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs and won Best Picture.

Which 2010 James L. Brooks film was Nicholson's last, bringing his filmography to 80 films?

It was a financial and critical failure; he later said he was simply less driven 'to be out there anymore'.

How many times has Nicholson presented the Best Picture Oscar, most recently in 2013?

He is an active voting member of the Academy.

Nicholson declined a cameo in which 2019 sequel to The Shining?

Director Mike Flanagan said he passed with best wishes; he had also been approached for Ready Player One.

On the SNL 50 special in February 2025, Nicholson introduced which performer's tribute song?

The pair had made Anger Management together in 2003.

How many times has Nicholson been married?

To Sandra Knight, his co-star in The Terror, from 1962 to 1968; he has fathered six children by five women.

Nicholson's longest relationship, from 1973 to 1990, was with which actress?

It ended amid Rebecca Broussard's first pregnancy by him.

In 1994 Nicholson attacked a stranger's Mercedes at a red light with what?

Charges were dropped after an apology and a reported $500,000 settlement.

What did Nicholson do with his late neighbour Brando's Mulholland Drive bungalow after buying it in 2004?

He said the mould-ridden 'derelict' building was too costly to renovate and he acted out of respect for Brando's legacy.

Nicholson, Brando and Warren Beatty all living on the same Beverly Hills road earned it what nickname?

Nicholson also helped buy back producer Robert Evans's home after a drug bust cost him it.

Nicholson has held courtside season tickets to which NBA team since 1970?

He was nearly ejected from a 2003 playoff game for yelling at a referee, and gave a rare interview after Kobe Bryant's death.

Which artist said in 1995 that Nicholson has 'one of the best collections out here'?

His collection includes Matisse, Tamara de Lempicka, Warhol and Jack Vettriano.

Which world leader did Nicholson call a 'genius' after meeting him in 1998?

In 2001 he met Putin at the Moscow film festival and offered him a job as a producer.

What kind of creature was named Ornodolomedes nicholsoni in his honour in 2018?

The Australian species was named for his 'brilliantly portraying diverse personalities'.

Which Ivy League school gave Jack Nicholson an honorary doctorate in 2011?

He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame the year before.

Nicholson has said he is pro-choice but personally against abortion for what reason?

'It would be hypocritical to take any other position. I'd be dead. I wouldn't exist,' he said.

Which 1978 Western was the second of the three films Nicholson directed?

He first stepped behind the camera for Drive, He Said in 1971 and last for the Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes in 1990.