Jack Nicholson

• Category: Actors
• Fecha: Mar 6,2009

John Joseph “Jack” Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, internationally renowned for his often dark-themed portrayals of neurotic characters.

Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award 12 times, and has won three: two for Best Actor and one for Best Supporting Actor. He is tied with Walter Brennan for most acting wins by a male actor (three), and second to Katharine Hepburn for most acting wins overall (four). He is also one of only two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting (either lead or supporting) in every decade since the 1960s; the other is Michael Caine. He has won seven Golden Globe Awards, and received a 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. Notable films that he starred in include, in chronological order, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Passenger, The Shining, Terms of Endearment, Batman, A Few Good Men, As Good as It Gets, About Schmidt, Something’s Gotta Give, and The Departed.

Nicholson was born in Neptune City, New Jersey, the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson).^[2][3][4] June had married Italian American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) six months earlier in Elkton, Maryland, on October 16, 1936.^[5] Elkton was a town known for its “quickie” marriages. Furcillo however, was already married, and, although he offered to take care of the child, June’s mother Ethel insisted that she bring up the baby, partly so that June could pursue her dancing career. Although Donald Furcillo claimed to be Nicholson’s father and to have committed bigamy by marrying June, biographer Patrick McGilligan, who wrote Jack’s Life (published in December 1995) asserted that Latvian-born Eddie King (originally Edgar A. Kirschfeld),^[1] June’s manager, may be the father and other^[3] sources have suggested that June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. Nicholson has chosen not to have a DNA test or to pursue the matter. Nicholson’s mother was of Irish, English, and Dutch descent^[6] though he and his family self-identified as Irish.^[7][8]

Nicholson was brought up believing that his grandparents, John Joseph Nicholson (a department store window dresser in Manasquan, New Jersey) and Ethel May Rhoads (a hairdresser, beautician and amateur artist in Manasquan, New Jersey), were his parents. Nicholson only discovered that his “parents” were actually his grandparents and his sister was in fact his mother in 1974, after being informed by a Time Magazine journalist who was doing a feature on him.^[9] By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). Nicholson has stated he does not know who his father is, saying “Only Ethel and June knew and they never told anybody.”^[9]

Nicholson was raised in his mother’s Catholic religion.^[6] 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. A theatre and a drama award at the school are named in his honor.^[10] In 2004, Nicholson attended his 50 year high school reunion accompanied by his aunt Lorraine.^[1]