Birth name
John Joseph Nicholson
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Nickname
Mulholland Man
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Height
5' 9½" (1.77 m)
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Mini biography
Abandoned by his father in his childhood, he was raised believing his grandmother was his mother and his mother was his older sister. The truth was revealed to him years later when a Time magazine researcher uncovered the truth while preparing a story on the star. Jack had a 17 year relationship with actress Anjelica Huston which ended in 1990 after Rebecca Broussard was carrying his child.

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Spouse
Sandra Knight (17 June 1962 - 8 August 1968) (divorced) 1 child

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Trade mark
Shark's grin, sunglasses

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Trivia
Ranked #6 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]

American Film Institute Life Achievement Award [1994]

Used to be a messenger boy for MGM's cartoon department.

Children: Jennifer Nicholson (b. 1963) with Sandra Knight; Honey Hollman (b. 1981) with Danish supermodel, Winnie Hollman; Lorraine (b. 1990) and Raymond (b. 1992) with Rebecca Broussard.

Jack Nicholson was the 2001 John F. Kennedy Center Honors recipient.

Dedicated his Oscar for As Good as It Gets (1997) to J.T. Walsh, his co-star in A Few Good Men (1992) who had died shortly before the Academy Awards in 1998.

In 1994, in an apparent bout of rage, Nicholson smashed a man's car window in with a golf club. The incident puzzled most people.

Loves jokes at his expense so much that he showed up at every Academy Awards hosted by Billy Crystal, who in turn would incorporate Nicholson somehow in the telecast.

Lives on famed "Bad Boy Drive" a.k.a. Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills, California. It's nicknamed so because its residents are famed Hollywood bad boys Warren Beatty, Marlon Brando, and ' Jack Nicholson' .

Avid Los Angeles Lakers fan. He never misses a Lakers home game. Because of this, producers on his films must work the shooting schedule around the Lakers' schedule.

Was asked, along with Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty, to play the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972).

Dated Lara Flynn Boyle [1999-2001]

The Best Lady at his wedding to Sandra Knight was Millie Perkins. The Best Man was Harry Dean Stanton. After their divorce, Nicholson lived, for a time, at Stanton's place.

Never does televised interviews.

Flew to Cuba and met with Fidel Castro in June 1998. While there, Nicholson also met with leaders of the Cuban film industry, enjoyed local restaurants jazz clubs and visited a famous cigar factory. He left greatly impressed with the country and its Communist dictator, though the luxuries he was treated to on the island are off-limits to most Cuban citizens.

Is the most Acadamy Award nominated actor in film history.

Each one of the films for which he has won an Oscar has also won Best Actress in a Leading Role (Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975); Shirley MacLaine, Terms of Endearment (1983); Helen Hunt, As Good as It Gets (1997)).

Has a second home in Aspen, Colorado.

Graduate of Manasquan High School, Manasquan, New Jersey, where he was voted "Class Clown" by the Class of 1954.

Boyhood friend of Danny DeVito. Nicholson's relatives and DeVito's relatives ran a hair salon together.

Presented the Best Picture Oscar five times (in 1971, 1976, 1977, 1989, and 1992), more than any other actor or actress.

Collects Tamara de Lempicka paintings

He was voted the 17th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Batman creator Bob Kane personally recommended him for the role of the Joker in Batman (1989).

The illegitimate son of Donald Furcillo, the son of Italian immigrants, and June Nicholson, whose father, Jack, was Irish and mother, Ethel May, was of Dutch descent.

Turned down the role of Johnny Hooker in "The Sting" to play Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in "The Last Detail," which was written by his close friend Robert Towne, as he did not want to appear in a purely commercial picture just then. Robert Redford eventually played the part. Both Nicholson and Redford were nominated for Best Actor of 1973 at the Academy Awards, losing to Jack Lemmon in "Save the Tiger."

Turned down the lead role of Roy Neary in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind, even though he knew the movie would be a hit as he felt that the special effects would overwhelm any actor in the movie.

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Personal quotes
"The average celebrity meets, in one year, ten times the amount of people that the average person meets in his entire life."

"It was one of the few times when it was money well spent." [about the $5 million he earned for A Few Good Men (1992) ]

"When I read the part, I knew I'd win the Oscar for it." [regarding Terms of Endearment (1983)]

"You only lie to two people in your life: your girlfriend and the police."

"If you get an impulse in a scene, no matter how wrong it seems, follow the impulse. It might be something and if it ain't - take two!"

"A star on a movie set is like a time bomb. That bomb has got to be defused so people can approach it without fear."

[On the birth of his son after having had two daughters:] "I finally got it right."

"When I come up against a director who has a concept that I don't agree with, or maybe I just haven't thought of it or whatever, I'd be more prone to go with them than my own because I want to be out of control as an actor, I want them to have the control, otherwise it's going to become predictably my work, and that's not fun."

"I only take viagra when I am with more than one woman."

"I'm not a raver anymore, all good things must come to an end."

"I was particularly proud of my performance as the Joker. I considered it a piece of pop art."

"My motto is: more good times."

"A question you always ask in acting is, Where were you going if this scene didn't interrupt the movements of the character?"

"You're new here, aren't you?" Nicholson, who rarely is seen in public without his sunglasses, replied when asked by a photographer to take off his glasses for a photo.

"There's a period just before you start a movie when you start thinking, I don't know what in the world I'm going to do. It's free-floating anxiety. In my case, though, this is over by lunch the first day of shooting."

Every director implored me, 'Jack, can't you talk a little bit faster?' It was like a hot button for me and I would become hateful. So when Roman started to say it, I began and he said, 'Jack, this movie is 100-and-something pages long. To have a movie that is screenable, you'll have to talk a little faster'. [Roman Polanski directed him in 'Chinatown']

[On turning down the role played by Robert Redford in "The Sting" (1973)] "I liked the period, the whole project and I knew it would be commercial. But at the time I needed to put my energies into a movie that really needed them. I needed to take a risk."

[On being nominated for an Oscar for the third time for "The Last Detail" (1973)] "The first time I was up for an Oscar, I thought I would win it. But I didn't have as sharp a view as I do now. The second time...I expcted to lose, and deservedly lose, to George C. Scott. But even getting a nomination blows my mind. I'd love to win but now that I've had several good peformances that people at large have liked, it bcomes harder to exite them. And familiarity breeds contempt."