Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson is an iconic American actor known for his devilishly comic portrayals of unhinged characters. Nicholson was born in 1937, the product of a bigamist marriage. His mother raised him in Neptune, New Jersey and told her young son that his grandparents were really his parents and that she was his sister. It wasn't until Nicholson was approaching 40 years old that he discovered the truth--that the woman he thought was his sister really was his mother.

Nicholson brought energy and intensity to his performances through method acting. His premiere film role was The Cry Baby Killer, which hit theaters in 1958. He also played a dental patient in the musical Little Shop of Horrors. His real break came in 1969 when he won an Oscar for a big performance in the road movie, Easy Rider. The next year, he received another Oscar nomination for his work on Five Easy Pieces.

Nicholson went on to star in a number of now classic roles. He thrilled audiences in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975, scared the daylights out of people in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, and rehashed his own strange childhood twists and turns in Roman Polanski's movie Chinatown.

Nicholson's career has spanned generations. In 1989, he played the Joker in the film version of the comic book Batman. Three years later, he starred as Colonel Jessep in the military legal drama, A Few Good Men. He has won three Academy Awards and countless other honors throughout his career.