Jack Nicholson is an acclaimed actor who first won the Academy Award for Best Actor for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, as well as two more wins and multiple nominations. His intense performances worked equally well for emotional or determined types and for unbalanced portrayals, as in The Shining and as the Joker in Tim Burton's Batman. His long filmography also includes Blood and Wine, a 1996 film which included an animatronic shark by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
Nicholson's early acting career included several films for low-budget producer/director Roger Corman, including the lead in The Cry Baby Killer and a showy one-scene role as a masochist in The Little Shop of Horrors (which later inspired a musical version). He played secondary roles to Boris Karloff in The Raven and The Terror. Nicholson scripted several low-budget Westerns and co-wrote The Monkees film Head, as well as making TV appearances on Dr. Kildare and The Andy Griffith Show.
Nicholson's career picked up in 1969, co-starring in Easy Rider followed by the lead in Five Easy Pieces the following year, earning his first Oscar nomination. Now firmly established as a star, subsequent films included Chinatown, the remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice, Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets (Oscar wins for each), Prizzi's Honor (with William Hickey), and A Few Good Men.
Nicholson was considered by the writers of Muppets Tonight to make a cameo appearance in the pilot as indicated by the script for the episode, but the actor did not ultimately appear.
References[]
- When Debra Winger tries to pick up her toaster at the Fix-It Shop in Sesame Street Episode 2934, Maria tells her the toasters she sees belong to "Redford, Nicholson, and Brando."
- Big Bird's copy of Yakkety Yak Magazine in Episode 3533 of Sesame Street boasts an interview with "Yak Nicholson."
- The Jacket Channel in "Elmo's World: Jackets" announces Jacket Nicholson in Five Easy Jackets as upcoming programming.