The one actor Jack Nicholson called his soulmate: “It was a very singular relationship”
Successful actors are in a fortunate position where if they work with a fellow thespian or filmmaker and have a great time, nothing stops them from doing it repeatedly. Jack Nicholson notched several recurring collaborators throughout his career, but there was only one of them he called his soulmate.
As one of the biggest stars of his era, Nicholson had his pick of on and off-camera talents to choose from. He was a box office draw, a proven leading man, and an awards season fixture, placing him in the envious spot of being able to call his own shots and dictate the trajectory of his professional life.
While accumulating one of Hollywood’s most vaunted and storied filmography, Nicholson’s inner circle grew. He made multiple pictures with Bob Rafelson, James L Brooks, and Roger Corman, among others, and called screen legends like Michael Caine, Marlon Brando, Meryl Streep, Warren Beatty, and Danny DeVito close personal friends.
However, none of them were his soulmates. The actor who did earn that distinction co-starred with Nicholson in three features that were released in 1967, 1968, and 1969, and their bond endured for the remainder of their careers despite the fact they never reunited to add a fourth flick to their collection.
If anyone were asked to rattle off the most notorious hellraisers of ‘New Hollywood’, no list would be complete without Nicholson. Similarly, it would feel incomplete and utterly redundant if Dennis Hopper didn’t make the cut either, with the two hard-partying counterculture icons helping to usher in a new era by pushing the boundaries of cinema while enjoying the excesses of celebrity away from the cameras.
Nicholson and Hopper shared the screen in Corman’s psychedelic cult classic The Trip and Monkees movie Head, both of which were written by the three-time Academy Award winner, but it’s stating the obvious to say that the seminal and transformative Easy Rider was their most famous creative partnership by far.
Their paths may not have crossed again on set, but their friendship endured until Hopper’s death at the age of 74 in May 2010, with Nicholson paying tribute to someone he dramatically undersold as “an all-around guy” at the actor’s funeral. “It was a very singular relationship I had with him, like nobody else,” he said. “We were soulmates in a way. I really miss him.”
Nicholson and Hopper were two peas in a sex and drug-fuelled pod when they broke through at around the same time, and even when they mellowed with age, their kinship never wavered. Individually, they were a pair of the most influential figures of what history remembers as a seismic shift for the industry, but together, they were evidently connected on a deeper and borderline spiritual level.
