Michael Douglas Says Jack Nicholson, 89, Is “Not Working Any More" and Has “Disappeared"

While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.

Douglas made the comments while discussing his recent memoir at the Swansea Building Society Arena on Monday:

I would have liked to have acted with Jack. He's not working any more. He's well. He has disappeared. I know that. I still see him, but he is fine. He is up there by his house and walking around in his slippers. It happens. He deserves it. I understand. He is a few years older than me, but I understand.

Douglas co-produced Nicholson's Oscar-winning "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" back in 1975.

Nicholson never officially retired, but he did mention in a 2013 interview that he was less inclined to "be out there any more."

Believe it or not, Nicholson was set in 2017 to star opposite Kristen Wiig in a remake of the German film "Toni Erdmann," with Lena Dunham in talks to write the screenplay, but he — wisely — dropped out, and the project was later scrapped.

It's been 16 years since Nicholson last appeared on-screen, in James L. Brooks' "How Do You Know," a rom-com starring Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, and Owen Wilson.

Nicholson remains a national treasure, and in the pantheon of great post-'60s American actors, he stands alongside Pacino, De Niro, Hoffman, and Hackman. His loose, charismatic style has been widely imitated but never duplicated: the sardonic drifter, the eternal outsider, the man who always seemed slightly at odds with the system.

His filmography is filled with landmark performances: "Five Easy Pieces," "Chinatown," "The Last Detail," "The Passenger," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "The Shining," "Terms of Endearment," "Prizzi's Honor," "Broadcast News," "Batman," "A Few Good Men," "As Good as It Gets," "The Pledge," "About Schmidt," "The Departed," and many more.