Happy birthday to one of the greats, Jack Nicholson, who turns 89 today.
Here’s an actor known for his trademark grin, and flexible delivery to suggest a mind always working ahead of the viewer. It’s an acting style that feels improvised, theatrical yet deeply cinematic—instantly recognizable, and almost impossible to replicate.
It’s been 16 years since Nicholson last appeared in a film — James L. Brooks’ “How Do You Know,” a rom-com starring Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, and Owen Wilson. In 2017, he was also rumored to star in a remake of the German comedy “Toni Erdmann,” but he later dropped out, and the project was ultimately shelved.
Nicholson never officially announced his retirement, but at 89, the likelihood of seeing him on screen again seems slim to none. He has largely stepped away from acting, choosing instead a quieter life at his longtime Mulholland Drive home, where he has lived since 1975.
During an appearance on the “WTF With Marc Maron” podcast, record producer and longtime friend Lou Adler recalled a recent conversation with Nicholson, in which the actor made his stance clear on returning to work:
“A friend of mine wanted to put him in a movie. Jack said, ‘I don’t want to do it. You know what I did today? I sat under a tree and I read a book.’ […] He’s doing whatever he really wants to do. He wants to be quiet. He wants to eat what he wants. He wants to live the life he wants.”
In a 2013 Vanity Fair interview, Nicholson said he did not consider himself retired, only less inclined to “be out there anymore.” He did, however, make a rare public appearance in 2015 as a presenter on SNL 50, the anniversary special of “Saturday Night Live.”
In 2017, Page Six quoted his close friend, the late Peter Fonda, who said: “I think he is basically retired. I don’t want to speak for him, but he has done a lot of work and he has done very well as a person financially. Sometimes people have a reason that you don’t know, and it’s not for me to ask.”
Nicholson remains a national treasure, and in the pantheon of great post-’60s American actors, he stands alongside Pacino, De Niro, 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.