What was Jack Nicholson’s last movie?
Stars don’t often voluntarily step out of the spotlight. More often than not, they either fade out of the public consciousness due to increasingly poor film roles or pass away while still in the midst of their careers. Meanwhile, directors seem even more averse to walking off into the sunset.
At 94, Clint Eastwood is still making buzzy movies, and at 87, Ridley Scott seems to be putting his foot on the gas pedal with increasing urgency.
Jack Nicholson has opted for a different route. The three-time Oscar winner has, rather uncharacteristically, removed himself from the limelight so quietly that many people might assume that he’s still out there beaming that Cheshire cat smile into the camera. Although he hasn’t officially retired, Nicholson has been AWOL from the box office since 2010, when he played a peripheral role in the James L Brookes rom-com How Do You Know.
Set in the world of softball and corporate malfeasance, the film centres on a love triangle between Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, and Owen Wilson. Nicholson plays Rudd’s father, a businessman who may or may not be headed for jail, depending on the outcome of his son’s romantic predicament.
Sadly, How Do You Know was not a worthy send-off for the star, whose performances in movies like Chinatown, The Shining, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest helped shape modern Hollywood. There is still hope that the 87-year-old might return for one last cinematic romp, but he certainly doesn’t show any signs of returning to the spotlight.
…and what was Jack Nicholson’s first movie?
Nicholson was one of the many actors of his generation who made the transition from the era of Hollywood melodrama in the 1950s to the gritty realism of New Hollywood in the 1960s and ‘70s. However, he was never a matinee idol or a budding studio player the way Marlon Brando and Paul Newman were.
His first roles were in small theatre productions in Los Angeles and in TV soap operas. When he finally landed a part in a film, it was an appropriately offbeat one. 1958’s The Cry Baby Killer was a teen exploitation flick produced by the master of low-budget exploitation fare and mentor to the stars, Roger Corman.
At just 61 minutes, the film is a typical B-movie of the era, but Nicholson’s star power is undeniable. Playing a disaffected youth who ends up taking a group of strangers hostage over a fight with a romantic rival, he is full of that unpredictable energy and magnetism that would become his trademark.
Nicholson would later star in a string of Corman’s horror films, and called the producer the “lifeblood” not just of his career, but of who he was as a person.
But how many movies has Jack Nicholson been in?
Considering his enormous legacy in Hollywood, Nicholson has made a surprisingly limited number of movies. Setting aside his handful of television roles, he’s only appeared in 64 feature-length films, including those in which he went uncredited. All told, he has 80 acting credits across television, video, short films, and movies.
In contrast, Robert De Niro, who got his start several years after Nicholson and has only won two Oscars, has 119 credits to his name. It’s always tough to quantify what makes an actor truly great, but if you’re basing it on the ratio of the films the person makes to the ones that are successful, Nicholson is somewhere near the top.
Those 64 feature films include all-time classics like Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Terms of Endearment, The Shining, Easy Rider, A Few Good Men, and The Departed, to name but a few. If anyone deserves to retire, it’s Nicholson.
