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Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter, is a three-time Academy Award winner and twelve-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received an Oscar nomination in every decade from the '60s through the '00s.
Nicholson was born on April 22, 1937, in Neptune, New Jersey. He was raised believing that his grandmother was his mother, and that his mother, June Frances Nicholson, a showgirl, was his older sister. He discovered the truth in 1975 from a Time magazine journalist who was researching a profile on him. His real father is believed to have been either Donald Furcillo, an Italian American showman, or Eddie King (Edgar Kirschfeld), born in Latvia and also in show business. Jack's mother's ancestry was Irish, and smaller amounts of English, German, Scottish, and Welsh.
Nicholson made his film debut in a B-movie titled The Cry Baby Killer (1958). His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films, including The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).
Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971). Before that, he wrote the screenplay for The Trip (1967), and co-wrote Head (1968), a vehicle for The Monkees. His big break came with Easy Rider (1969) and his portrayal of liquor-soaked attorney George Hanson, which earned Nicholson his first Oscar nomination. Nicholson's film career took off in the 1970s with a definitive performance in Five Easy Pieces (1970). Nicholson's other notable work during this period includes leading roles in Roman Polanski's noir masterpiece Chinatown (1974) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which he won his first Best Actor Oscar.
The 1980s kicked off with another career-defining role for Nicholson as Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Shining (1980). A string of well-received films followed, including Terms of Endearment (1983), which earned Nicholson his second Oscar; Prizzi's Honor (1985), and The Witches of Eastwick (1987). He portrayed another renowned villain, The Joker, in Tim Burton's Batman (1989). In the 1990s, he starred in such varied films as A Few Good Men (1992), for which he received another Oscar nomination, and a dual role in Mars Attacks! (1996).
Although a glimpse at the darker side of Nicholson's acting range reappeared in The Departed (2006), the actor's most recent roles highlight the physical and emotional complications one faces late in life. The most notable of these is the unapologetically misanthropic Melvin Udall in As Good as It Gets (1997), for which he won his third Oscar. Shades of this persona are apparent in About Schmidt (2002), Something's Gotta Give (2003), and The Bucket List (2007). In addition to his Academy Awards and Oscar nominations, Nicholson has seven Golden Globe Awards, and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. He also became one of the youngest actors to receive the American Film Institute's Life Achievement award in 1994.
Nicholson has six children by five different women: Jennifer Nicholson (b. 1963) from his only marriage to Sandra Knight, which ended in 1966; Caleb Goddard (b. 1970) with Five Easy Pieces (1970) co-star Susan Anspach, who was automatically adopted by Anspach's then-husband Mark Goddard; Honey Hollman (b. 1982) with Danish supermodel Winnie Hollman; Lorraine Nicholson (b. 1990) and Ray Nicholson (b. 1992) with minor actress Rebecca Broussard; and Tessa Gourin (b. 1994) with real estate agent Jennine Marie Gourin. Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 nonmonogamous years he spent with Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard announced she was pregnant with his child.Harry Angel-Angel Heart (1987)
Daddy Warbucks-Annie (1982)
Capt. Benjamin L. Willard-Apocalypse Now (1979)
Willie-Bad Santa (2003)
Ed Bloom (senior)-Big Fish (2003)
Peter Fallow-The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)
C.W. Moss-Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
God-Bruce Almighty (2003)
Caligula-Caligula (1979)
The Old Man Parker-A Christmas Story (1983)
Roy Neary-Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Luke Martin-Coming Home (1978)
Dick Tracy-Dick Tracy (1990)
Jerry Baskin-Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)
Martin Dysart-Equus (1977)
Father Karras-The Exorcist (1973)
Father Lamont-Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
George Lumley-Family Plot (1976)
Nick Hurley-Flashdance (1983)
Michael Corleone-The Godfather (1972)
Elliot Garfield-The Goodbye Girl (1977)
Ben Braddock-The Graduate (1967)
Jay Gatsby-The Great Gatsby (1974)
Hades (voice)-Hercules (1997)
Coach Norman Dale-Hoosiers (1986)
Grinch-How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Mitch Leary-In the Line of Fire (1993)
Jim Garrison-JFK (1991)
Det. John Kimble-Kindergarten Cop (1990)
Monroe Stahr-The Last Tycoon (1976)
Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Edward Hyde-Mary Reilly (1996)
Paul Sheldon-Misery (1990)
Allie Fox-The Mosquito Coast (1986)
Napoleon Bonaparte-Napoleon (2023)
Richard M. Nixon-Nixon (1995)
Seymour Parrish-One Hour Photo (2002)
Captain Thomas Bartholomew Red-Pirates (1986)
Henry Thaw-Ragtime (1981)
Raymond Babbitt-Rain Man (1988)
Dr. Hannibal Lecter-The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Scanlon/‘Dominguez’-Sorcerer (1977)
Tank Sullivan-Space Cowboys (2000)
Johnny Hooker-The Sting (1973)
David Sumner-Straw Dogs (1971)
Congressman David Dilbeck-Striptease (1996)
Travis Bickle-Taxi Driver (1976)
Archie Gates-Three Kings (1999)
Gordon Gekko-Wall Street (1987)
Eddie Valiant-Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
John Book-Witness (1985)
Buck Barrow-Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Han Solo-Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
Lex Luthor-Superman (1978)
Indy-Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Dan Gallagher-Fatal Attraction (1987)
Lex Luthor-Superman Returns (2006)
Captain Shakespeare-Stardust (2007)
Captain Haddock (voice)-The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
Marsh-The Expendables 4 (2023)- Actor
- Producer
- Director
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II was born on June 9, 1963 in Owensboro, Kentucky, to Betty Sue Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, a civil engineer. He was raised in Florida. He dropped out of school when he was 15, and fronted a series of music-garage bands, including one named 'The Kids'. When he married Lori A. Depp, he took a job as a ballpoint-pen salesman to support himself and his wife. A visit to Los Angeles, California, with his wife, however, happened to be a blessing in disguise, when he met up with actor Nicolas Cage, who advised him to turn to acting, which culminated in Depp's film debut in the low-budget horror film, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), where he played a teenager who falls prey to dream-stalking demon Freddy Krueger.
In 1987 he shot to stardom when he replaced Jeff Yagher in the role of undercover cop Tommy Hanson in the popular TV series 21 Jump Street (1987). In 1990, after numerous roles in teen-oriented films, his first of a handful of great collaborations with director Tim Burton came about when Depp played the title role in Edward Scissorhands (1990). Following the film's success, Depp carved a niche for himself as a serious, somewhat dark, idiosyncratic performer, consistently selecting roles that surprised critics and audiences alike. He continued to gain critical acclaim and increasing popularity by appearing in many features before re-joining with Burton in the lead role of Ed Wood (1994). In 1997 he played an undercover FBI agent in the fact-based film Donnie Brasco (1997), opposite Al Pacino; in 1998 he appeared in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), directed by Terry Gilliam; and then, in 1999, he appeared in the sci-fi/horror film The Astronaut's Wife (1999). The same year he teamed up again with Burton in Sleepy Hollow (1999), brilliantly portraying Ichabod Crane.
Depp has played many characters in his career, including another fact-based one, Insp. Fred Abberline in From Hell (2001). He stole the show from screen greats such as Antonio Banderas in the finale to Robert Rodriguez's "mariachi" trilogy, Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). In that same year he starred in the marvelous family blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), playing a character that only the likes of Depp could pull off: the charming, conniving and roguish Capt. Jack Sparrow. The film's enormous success has opened several doors for his career and included an Oscar nomination. He appeared as the central character in the Stephen King-based movie, Secret Window (2004); as the kind-hearted novelist James Barrie in the factually-based Finding Neverland (2004), where he co-starred with Kate Winslet; and Rochester in the British film, The Libertine (2004). Depp collaborated again with Burton in a screen adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and later in Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Dark Shadows (2012).
Off-screen, Depp has dated several female celebrities, and has been engaged to Sherilyn Fenn, Jennifer Grey, Winona Ryder and Kate Moss. He was married to Lori Anne Allison in 1983, but divorced her in 1985. Depp has two children with his former long-time partner, French singer/actress Vanessa Paradis: Lily-Rose Melody, born in 1999 and John Christopher "Jack" III, born in 2002. He married actress/producer Amber Heard in 2015, divorcing a few years later.Arturo Bandini-Ask the Dust (2006)
Brian McCaffrey-Backdraft (1991)
Jonathan Harker-Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Wilhelm Grimm-The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Chuck Barris-Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)