You May Never See Jack Nicholson In Another Film

Without question, Jack Nicholson is one of the most famous actors in modern Hollywood. His distinctive snark and expressive face made him an icon with one of the most impressive resumes in the business. Nicholson has changed the face of cinema with roles in genre-defining films like "The Shining," "Chinatown," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Batman," "A Few Good Men," "The Departed," and several more. But as the years march on, it seems more and more likely that Nicholson won't star in a film again. Though, we promise the reason for it is bittersweet.

No, he's never officially announced that he's done with acting. Still, it's been over a decade since the star's last major role on the big screen. Some recent reports indicate that we may never see Nicholson in another film. In a November 2023 episode of his podcast "WTF," Marc Maron briefly discussed Nicholson's career with the actor's longtime friend and famed record producer Lou Adler. "He's doing whatever he really wants to do," Adler said. "He wants to be quiet. He wants to eat what he wants. He wants to live the life he wants." Maron then relayed a story suggesting that Nicholson is truly done with acting. "A friend of mine wanted to put him in a movie," Maron shared. "He had a conversation with him, but Jack says, 'I don't want to do it.' He goes, 'You know what I did today? I sat under a tree and I read a book.'" Laughing, Adler responded, "That sounds like Jack."

Before we explore why Jack Nicholson's days as an active performer may be done, we need to look at how he got started as an actor in the 1950s. After appearing in Western TV shows, soap operas, and on stage, he made his film debut in 1958, playing the lead role in the low-budget teen movie "The Cry Baby Killer," produced by B-movie impresario Roger Corman. Their relationship proved to be indispensable to Nicholson's career.

In 1967, Corman tapped Nicholson to write the screenplay for his psychedelic film "The Trip," starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. "His career wasn't really doing that much at that time," Corman said of Nicholson to Flavorwire. "I knew he had experience with LSD, so I hired him as a writer."

Corman's scrappy circle of actors and artists were key players in the burgeoning countercultural film movement, and Fonda, Hopper, and Nicholson reunited for the hippie biker classic "Easy Rider" in 1969. (Corman was initially attached to produce, but he exited when Hopper couldn't curb his foul mouth or wild temperament at business meetings.)

"Easy Rider" follows two hippie drifters, Billy (Hopper) and Wyatt (Fonda), as they make their way via motorcycle from Los Angeles to New Orleans. Along the way, they encounter a free love commune, drugs, and suspicious townsfolk. They also meet Nicholson's George Hanson, an alcoholic ACLU lawyer and self-described square. It's George who articulates the film's us-versus-them mentality. "They're not scared of you," he tells the roving bikers. "They're scared of what you represent to 'em...What you represent to them is freedom."

Soundtracked by artists like Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix and shot for roughly $350,000, "Easy Rider" emerged as an era-defining film, pushing Nicholson toward stardom and helping to usher in the peak years of New Hollywood. It also netted him his first Oscar nomination.

After "Easy Rider," Jack Nicholson spent the 1970s banging out some of the best performances of his or any actor's career. He rang in the 1980s with what has become one of his best-known films: "The Shining."

In his book "Stanley Kubrick and Me: Thirty Years at His Side," Kubrick's longtime assistant Emilio D'Alessandro recalled the director explaining why he was determined to cast Nicholson. "You'll see, everything about Jack is perfect for this role: his expression, even the way he walks," Kubrick supposedly told D'Alessandro (via Esquire). "He doesn't need anything extra to play this part. It's all already there inside him." Nicholson took to the murderous Jack Torrance like a fish to water. "Day after day, he was faultless," D'Alessandro wrote. "He never got a line wrong and always had a professional, collaborative approach. He listened to Stanley and did what he asked."

Kubrick and D'Alessandro were convinced of Nicholson's genius, but upon the release of "The Shining" in 1980, critics were less forgiving. Variety wrote, "The crazier Nicholson gets, the more idiotic he looks." The Washington Post was perhaps crueler, lambasting the "clownish performance by Nicholson, doing impressions of The Big Bad Wolf, Quasimodo and 'The Films of Lon Chaney.'" Even Stephen King criticized the performance. "The character of Jack Torrance has no arc in that movie," the author told Deadline. "All he does is get crazier ... In the movie, there's no tragedy because there's no real change."

Time has been kind to "The Shining," which is now considered a horror masterpiece, and many publications have changed their tune since 1980. A 2022 reassessment from Variety reads, "The audacity of Nicholson's performance never stops surprising you...All work and no play make Nicholson a funny, mesmerizing boy."

Even after decades of achieving critical acclaim and accolades, the 19990s saw Jack Nicholson maintaining a soft spot for B-movie-style horror and lower-budget films that appealed to younger fans. Indeed, an underrated Nicholson film — Tim Burton's 1996 satire "Mars Attacks!" — recalls some of the actor's early, freewheeling productions.

Nicholson had spent the decades in between honing his smirking grin and conniving menace, making him uniquely prepared to star in the sci-fi sendup. In fact, he does double duty. Nicholson plays the smarmy President James Dale, who attempts to reason with the killer Martians. He also plays a sleazy casino owner named Art Land.

According to Burton, who was familiar with Nicholson's cartoonish abilities from their time making "Batman," the actor was eager to dive into "Mars Attacks!" "I remember that at first Jack wanted to create a multi-role tour de force performance," Burton told ArtsBeatLA in 1996. "When I asked him which part he wanted to play, he replied, 'How 'bout ALL of them?'" As a concession, Burton developed two parts for Nicholson — one opposite Glenn Close, the other opposite Annette Bening.

"There is no better actor to go up against the Martians than Jack," Burton continued. "I was very lucky. I enjoy seeing someone who is really strong at what they do and who just goes for it. Jack is willing to do anything, no matter how crazy it seems. He's the greatest and to see him in two parts is amazing."

A year later, Nicholson demonstrated his versatility by winning his third Oscar for "As Good As It Gets." But does he really need to make another film, given all his accomplishments through the years?

Although Jack Nicholson has the door open for the possibility of another big-screen appearance, Marc Maron's story isn't much of a surprise. Nicholson's last feature film role came in the 2010 romantic comedy "How Do You Know." Far from a commercial or critical hit, the film was widely panned and bombed at the box office – despite a great core cast of Nicholson, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, and Paul Rudd. The result was extra disappointing because Nicholson had previously collaborated with writer, director, and producer James L. Brooks on both "Terms of Endearment" and "As Good as It Gets." Each of those films earned Nicholson an Oscar win — best supporting actor for the former, and best actor for the latter.

Clearly, the third time wasn't the charm for this creative pairing. Brooks hasn't written or directed a feature film since "How Do You Know," and Nicholson quietly — and seemingly — made it his swan song. Since then, he's made a couple of appearances in the spotlight, but never in a true acting capacity. For instance, in 2015, Nicholson gave a short presentational monologue as part of the "Saturday Night Live" 40th anniversary special. In a 2013 interview with Vanity Fair, Nicholson said that he was not yet retired, but he admitted feeling less of a drive to act. However, he told the outlet, "[T]he movie business is the greatest business, but I only want to do films that move people, films about emotions and people."

In all likelihood, Jack Nicholson has played his last movie character. While that's a bittersweet thing to acknowledge for film fans, it's also more than fair. Nicholson was in his early 70s when he last appeared in "How Do You Know," and he's 86 as of this writing. At some point, retirement calls to everyone. No actor has left a more lasting mark on the industry than he has.

With a whopping 12 Academy Award nods, Nicholson is the most Oscar-nominated male actor in history and tied with Katharine Hepburn for second overall — behind Meryl Streep's staggering 21 nominations. His three wins tie him with Daniel Day-Lewis, Streep, Frances McDormand, Walter Brennan, and Ingrid Bergman — all of whom share second place behind Hepburn's four wins.

From noir detective movies and gangster flicks to psychological dramas and romantic comedies, Nicholson has dabbled in almost every genre of film. Of course, not every Nicholson film has been a home run. The 1992 crime biopic "Hoffa" was meant to be a true star vehicle for Nicholson, but it landed mixed reviews and widespread criticism. 2003's "Anger Management," an Adam Sandler comedy, also fell flat. Who knows? Maybe he'll save his formal swan song for one last Oscar grab.

Nicholson has often been a controversial figure in his personal life, and his career has encompassed everything from instant classics to full-on flops. But at this point, no one would fault him for choosing reading under the trees over returning to the spotlight.