His former partner, Anjelica Huston, described him as a "class womanizer" and was known in Hollywood for being a party lover. He has six children with five women and currently lives away from the spotlight.
Although he has lived practically retired for a decade, Jack Nicholson (1937) continues to be one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. With six decades of career behind him, the actor still holds the record for the most Oscar nominations with 12, having won the award three times for the films One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), The Force of the honey (1983) and Better... impossible (1997).
An inveterate womanizer, in the words of his ex-partner, Anjelica Huston, and a famous lover of parties, his personal life, sometimes despite himself, made as many headlines as his professional life: when he turned 30, he discovered that his biological mother was the one who until then he considered His older sister, among his many relationships, has had six children and with more than 50 he was fined half a million dollars for destroying a car with his golf club.
Starting with his family, six years after starring in Easy Rider (1969), his first big role in the cinema and the film that opened the doors of Hollywood for him, a Time journalist wanted to know more about his origins, discovering a truth that the Nicholson himself was unaware. June Frances Nicholson, who had always been presented as Jack's older sister, had become pregnant when she was only 17 years old. Shortly before, the dancer had married the artist Donald Furcillo, but after discovering that he was already married and not clear about the identity of her father, the family decided to hide the truth. June's parents, John and Ethel, then chose to raise her grandson as her son and never told her anything.
By the time reporter informed Nicholson of his true parentage, both his mother and his grandmother had already passed away. Although the actor initially did not want to believe these reports, his aunt Lorraine confirmed that they were true and he soon reconciled with his past. "It was quite a dramatic event, but it was not what I would call traumatic. He was already quite psychologically formed," said the then 37-year-old actor.
Perhaps for all this, Nicholson has tried to exercise fatherhood and be a positive influence in the lives of his six children, to whom he has said he read stories or took to the opera or ballet to open their sights. "They give your life a resonance that you can't have without them... As a father, I'm there all the time. I give them unconditional love," the actor said of his offspring. However, he regretted not seeing his eldest daughter enough because, in his own words, he was trying to carve out a career.
She is Jennifer Nicholson (1963), also an actress, and whom the actor had with his first and only wife, the actress, painter, and writer Sandra Knight, to whom he was married between 1962 and 1968. Caleb Godard (1970) is the second and it was the fruit of an affair between Nicholson and actress Susan Anspach. At first, the actor doubted the paternity, but he ended up recognizing his son.
Nicholson's third daughter is Honey Hollman (1981), also an actress and born from her affair with model Winnie Hollman. The interpreter Rebecca Broussard, with whom he had a relationship between 1989 and 1994, gave Nicholson two other children: Lorraine (1990) and Raymond (1992). And the sixth and last is Tessa (1995), whom he had with Jeannine Gourin.
Among her many relationships, the longest and most troubled was with actress Angelica Huston, with whom he was on and off between 1973 and 1990. In her words: "I didn't see that he was a first-rate ladies' man." They ended when the aforementioned Broussard became pregnant. And the Hollywood gossips say that he was the lover of up to 2,000 women. Nicholson also dated Twin Peaks actress Lara Flynn Boyle, 33 years his junior, for five years between 1999 and 2004. And in the '60s and '70s, her name was synonymous with partying.
Nicholson's complicated character has also led him into trouble with the law on several occasions. In 1994 Robert Blank denounced the actor for breaking the roof and the windshield wiper of his Mercedes. According to his account, the actor approached him at a red light and after accusing him of cutting him off with his car, he proceeded to smash the moon with a golf club. Charged with assault and vandalism, Nicholson, 56, apologized and closed a settlement for $500,000.
On April 22, the actor from Chinatown, The Shining or Some Good Men turns 84 and, according to The Guardian, suffers from memory loss. Retired since 2010.
