April 22, 1937 (age 80 years)
His last full-length part was almost 10 years ago -- The Bucket List.
His last part of any sort was 8 years ago -- as about the only good thing in a very bad movie by his pal James Brooks: "How Will I Know?" Brooks had made Terms of Endearment and As Good As It Gets with Jack. Oscars both times. But not this time(and Jack looked alarmingly overweight in body and face -- a movie star no more.)
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We're getting him back next year in a remake of Toni Erdmann(yay). And Michael Caine and Clint Eastwood have acted well after 80.
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But whatever the future holds, its Jack's illustrious past that matters today.
After over a decade in Roger Corman indies(horror, biker movies, LSD movies), Jack hit it big in Easy Rider and became the "hippie superstar of the counterculture," with a historic run in the early seventies:
Easy Rider(1969, but still; Oscar nom)
Five Easy Pieces (Oscar nom)
Carnal Knowledge(classic and US Supreme Court obscenity case)
The King of Marvin Gardens (Paired with Bruce Dern , as brothers)
The Last Detail(Oscar nom; cussing sailor classic)
Chinatown("A star becomes a superstar"; Oscar nom
The Passenger(foreign film partially based on an unmade Hitchcock)
Cuckoo's Nest(Oscar WIN)
That stretch "made" Jack. He could have stopped there as one of the greats. But he kept going, encountering the usual slumps that hit all stars, and the "attack on the seventies" that sank a LOT of seventies stars in the 80's(Gould, Segal, Dreyfuss, Voight.)
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Hitchcock wanted Nicholson for Family Plot. Nicholson turned it down and the part went to his pal Bruce Dern(that happened a lot.) Irony: INSTEAD during this period, Nicholson made such bad movies as The Fortune(with Beatty), The Missouri Breaks(with Brando) and Goin' South(as director.) Family Plot was better than those three(if a bit old fashioned and slow) but...Nicholson went with the "hip crowd."
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Nicholson's "middle-aged career savers" were classics in which he got to pour on the character. With weight gain, he shifted to using his great voice and his expressions to get sex appeal and character. He wasn't averse to playing villains. He wasn't averse to p playing mad men. So we got:
The Shining(for the great Kubrick, who rarely worked; a real lucky break.)
Batman(The best possible superstar casting for the Joker; Jack knew it and cashed in.)
The Witches of Eastwick(The Devil was the role Jack was born to play.)
Wolf(A werewolf was the role Jack was born to play. Hey, wait a minute.)
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Jack wasn't averse to playing supporting roles either:
Reds(Oscar nominated)
Terms of Endearment(An Oscar winner, and he saved the entire female-based tearjerker, you ask me, the reticient man who keeps coming back into the story just when he needs it.)
A Few Good Men(well, its a star role...but in only three scenes. And the last one is the best one.)
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A surprise Oscar in 1997 for playing a racist homophobe misogynist misanthrope in As Good As It Gets(it turns out we NEEDED that guy to say a few things even if we hated him.)
...and all sorts of good stuff for "the devoted fan." (Me.) I love Blood and Wine(Jack and Caine as dangerous old crooks) and The Departed, for instance. And Jack advanced one of my favorite causes -- sex for the aging couple -- in the otherwise just OK "Something's Gotta Give"(Jack and Diane Keaton get a charming sex scene in which they realize birth control is unnecessary.)
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A helluva career.
And how nice that "How Will I Know" won't be his last film.
Thanks for that response, ecarle. That was enjoyable to read. Great summary of his career there.
We're getting him back next year in a remake of Toni Erdmann(yay). And Michael Caine and Clint Eastwood have acted well after 80.[/quote]
It's nice to see him come back. It might be his last time, but at least this is a remake of a much-acclaimed, Palme d'Or-nominated film. Jack could end on a very sweet high note too if the remake ends up good (and him possibly being nominated).
[quote]Hitchcock wanted Nicholson for Family Plot. Nicholson turned it down and the part went to his pal Bruce Dern(that happened a lot.) Irony: INSTEAD during this period, Nicholson made such bad movies as The Fortune(with Beatty), The Missouri Breaks(with Brando) and Goin' South(as director.) Family Plot was better than those three(if a bit old fashioned and slow) but...Nicholson went with the "hip crowd."