Nicholson was born in 1937 to a young showgirl who used the stage name June Nilson. June’s mother offered to raise her son when it did not work out with the father and Jack Nicholson to this day is not sure of whom his birth father is. Jack was raised believing that his grandparents were actually his parents in Asbury Park, New Jersey, which was the same town where Danny DeVito grew up. By the time he reached the age of seventeen, Jack decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. To friends, he became known as "Pickles."

For the first several years of his career, Jack acted in several low-budget and forgettable films, the first being The Cry Baby Killer in 1958. His first big break came when he took on the role of a lawyer in the film Easy Rider in 1969, also starring Peter Fonda; this role earned him his first academy award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His performance in this film also helped to open the door even further for Nicholson.

The first time he won an Academy Award was for the starring role in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1975; the film also starred Danny DeVito. It was during this time that the two actors discovered they grew up in the same neighborhood and began to form a lifelong friendship. This friendship proved lucrative for the two when they teamed up a second time at Nicholson’s insistence in Batman in 1989, in which Nicholson played the Joker and Devito played the Penguin. It is said that each of the actors has earned a whopping $60,000,000 for their roles.

His career has dictated his home in Los Angeles which has fueled a hobby of his, he is a fanatic Lakers fan. Nicholson has courtside seats to all of the Lakers basketball games and also writes into all of his contracts that he will not work on game days. In the past, Nicholson would also take his wife or girlfriends, but more recently has begun taking his young children to the games. Nicholson is known for his lively antics on the sidelines, giving the paparazzi great shots.

Jack Nicholson is also notorious for his inability to settle down with one woman in a monogamous relationship. To date he has four children by three different mothers and has only been married once to actress Sandra Knight, who co-starred with Nicholson in some of his early films. Nicholson also had a seventeen-year relationship with actress and model Anjelica Huston; they also co-starred in several movies together. The relationship ended when it was discovered that another woman was pregnant with another one of Jack Nicholson’s kids.

To date, Jack Nicholson holds the most Academy Award nominations over any other male actor. He has won three Academy Awards for his roles in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1975; Terms of Endearment in 1983, also starring Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Danny DeVito, Jeff Daniels, and John Lithgow; and As Good as it Gets in 1997, also starring Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Skeet Ulrich. Nicholson has had a total of twelve nominations.

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