Turning eighty and still being Jack the Joker
„More good times! I have been to many places. I am like the bad penny. The minute that you are not learning I believe you are dead,“ are some of the famous quotes by the three Oscars winner, screen icon and the finest Hollywood actor Jack Nicholson. The handsome party animal reaches the ripe age of eighty on 22nd April.
Jack was born in New Jersey in 1937 to an unmarried woman June Nicholson who was eighteen at that time. Her parents agreed to raise Jack on their own and he actually did not know that this older sister was in reality his mother. His drunken father had done a bunk. Jack was almost forty when magazines revealed the secret. He probably inherited some kind of naughtiness - at school he broke the record, being in detention every day for a whole year.
Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest
At seventeen he ran to Hollywood, worked for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cartoon Studio and joined a theatre group. By the age of thirty - two he had a job but not a great one. He was making a living, everyone who knew him said he was good, but they also said he would not make it – simply because he had not made it so far. Luckily, the breakthrough was behind the corner. His big day came in 1969, he starred in road movie Easy Rider. The film was successful, it brought him his first Oscar nomination.
Bad Boy Drive
Jack bought a home in Mulholland Drive, where he still lives, smokes pot and loves gorgeous girls. As his fame grew so did his wild-man reputation. He wed only once, in 1962 and had a daughter, who is now fifty - four. The marriage lasted six years and Jack did not hesitate to love again, reportedly sleeping with two thousand women, having several more children. „If you think you are attractive, you are always attractive.
Jack Nicholson as Joker
Today, obviously, I have no problem finding girls, but the world has changed. We have lost our innocence and freedom. Now we think, will this be the death fuck? There is a fear of pleasure. Sex now has to be preceded by a medical examination. I can´t deal with those sort of negatives as a form of foreplay. Before you take a girl to bed these days you have to have a medical discussion about the plague. So I don't bother so much,“ explained Jack to The Independent Newspaper.
Jumpy Jack to Destroy All
In 1974 came Roman Polanski with a neo-noir film Chinatown, where Jack plays a private eye Jake Gittes. His outstanding performance was widely acclaimed, soon he received his first Oscar for One Flew Over the Cuckoo´s Nest in 1975. He got the role of an eerie caretaker in 1978, shooting a horror film The Shining took almost two years. The film launched in 1980 and reactions were kind of mixed.
Jack Nicholson in Chinatown
One of the negative reviewers was Jim Harwood from the magazine Variety:“ Stanley Kubrick has teamed with jumpy Jack Nicholson to destroy all that was so terrifying about Stephen King´s bestseller.“ In the time when horror films were stuffed with crazy killers, sharks and extra-terrestrial monsters Kubrick said that the true fright is being with your family.
Daredevil is Back
Other films with this outstanding actor appeared, iconic roles in popular Batman, As Good as It Gets or Casey Affleck´s director debut I´m still here. That was in 2010, since then Jack has not appeared in a film. Rumours say he has troubles to memorise the texts for new roles. Gossipers were probably wrong, he is currently working on a remake of Toni Erdmann, a film about a relationship between a father and his daughter. His fans hope Jack will be as brilliant as ever and honestly, I am sure of that. Happy birthday Jack!
