Which movies won Jack Nicholson his Academy Awards?
Over the course of his legendary career, Jack Nicholson earned an impressive 12 Academy Award nominations—the highest number ever received by a male actor. Eight of these nods were for ‘Best Actor,’ while four recognised him as ‘Best Supporting Actor’. But how many times did he actually take home the coveted Oscar, and which iconic performances secured him those prestigious Golden Statues?
Nicholson’s first Oscar nomination was ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for his performance as alcoholic lawyer George Hanson in 1969’s Easy Rider, but he lost out to Gig Young for They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? The following year, though, Nicholson was back in contention – this time for ‘Best Actor’. His magnificent turn in Five Easy Pieces wasn’t enough to land the trophy, though, with George C Scott winning for Patton instead.
Two more failed bids for ‘Best Actor’ followed by 1973’s The Last Detail and 1974’s Chinatown. The winners of both those trophies—Jack Lemmon for Save the Tiger and Art Carney for Harry and Tonto—may seem crazy to modern audiences. Why? In addition to Nicholson’s enduring performances, other competitors in the categories included time-tested classics like Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris, Robert Redford in The Sting, and Al Pacino in both Serpico and The Godfather: Part II.
In the ’80s, Nicholson lost out on ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for 1981’s Reds and ‘Best Actor’ for 1985’s Prizzi’s Honour and 1987’s Ironweed. He then went up against Gene Hackman and Al Pacino with his ‘Best Supporting Actor’ nominated performance in 1992’s A Few Good Men, but Hackman took home the prize for playing ‘Little’ Bill Daggett in Unforgiven.
Nicholson’s final Oscar nomination came for 2002’s About Schmidt, but once again, he was up against extremely stiff competition for ‘Best Actor’. That year’s category featured Nicolas Cage in Adaptation, Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York, and eventual winner Adrien Brody for The Piano.
Nestled among his nine losses at the Oscars were the three classic performances that won Nicholson the sought-after trophies. Indeed, he is one of only six people to have won three Academy Awards in the acting categories. The other five are Meryl Streep, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ingrid Bergman, Frances McDormand, and Walter Brennan.
Many cinephiles consider Nicholson the greatest actor in Hollywood history, and his list of wins certainly supports this theory. Fascinatingly, though, in 2008, the Oscar darling revealed that he’d developed some reservations over the ceremony—or, more specifically, “Oscar season”, as it had come to be known.
So, which movies did Jack Nicholson win his Oscars for?
“I’m a big supporter of the Oscars from the beginning because I look at it for what I believe it was intended,” Nicholson once said before adding, “I always and always will be for the Oscars.”
However, he believed everything surrounding the ceremony, including Oscar campaigning from studios and actors, had the potential to distract people from the task at hand—making films. He explained: “This thing totally possessed the movie business for three months, and it’s now spreading to five months. Well, this cannot be really good for movies.”
Regardless of any conflicted feelings surrounding the business of the Oscars, Nicholson was more than happy to accept his little gold men. The movies he won for are three of his most beloved, with one being an undisputed New Hollywood classic and two coming from a fruitful partnership with an acclaimed writer/director.
Let’s get into his winning performances.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975)
Widely considered one of the greatest motion pictures ever made, Miloš Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest swept the Oscars at the 1976 ceremony. It was the first film since 1934’s It Happened One Night to win in all five major categories, and Nicholson’s ‘Best Actor’-winning portrayal of Randle McMurphy now holds truly iconic status. However, the fact that Nicholson’s performance in the film is so indelible is perhaps a miracle when you consider that he and Forman had a huge falling out during production.
You see, the star and director had several creative differences throughout the shoot, leading to Nicholson refusing to speak to his director. Director of Photography Bill Butler – who replaced the precious cinematographer Haskell Wexler when he was fired – confirmed this unusual state of affairs on set.
He admitted, “Yes. He never talked to Milos at all. He only talked to me.”
Terms of Endearment (James L Brooks, 1983)
Nicholson’s turn as Garrett Breedlove, the retired astronaut who romances Shirley MacLaine’s Aurora Greenway in James L Brooks’ Terms of Endearment, landed Nicholson his second Oscar. This time, the prize was ‘Best Supporting Actor’, and in his acceptance speech, Nicholson revealed, “It’s nice when the producer, and the director, and the writers are all one man – Jim Brooks” he said, before quipping, “He did everything for us on Terms of Endearment, including writing 11 versions of this speech.”
Interestingly, there is an alternate universe in which Burt Reynolds played Breedlove. He was Brooks’ first choice, and he attached himself to the part before dropping out at the 11th hour. Ultimately, though, no one could have played the role better than Nicholson, who took customary glee in sending up his lothario image in the film. The classic scene where he proudly shows off his middle-aged gut in an open bathrobe caused people to scream with delight in the cinema – and it was entirely his idea.
Brooks marvelled, “That was all him. People just loved it. It just stopped the show.”
As Good as It Gets (James L Brooks, 1997)
Nicholson’s third and final Oscar came in 1998 when he won ‘Best Actor’ for his magnificent performance as the most bizarrely loveable misanthrope in cinema history, Melvin Udall. The movie – James L Brooks’ 1997 comedy-drama As Good as It Gets – also starred Helen Hunt, who won ‘Best Actress’. Amazingly, it’s still the last film to win both major acting awards. Nicholson must consider Brooks to be his lucky charm – after all, two of his three wins have come with the legendary Simpsons co-creator at the helm.
However, despite their long friendship and incredible creative partnership, playing Udall sometimes proved difficult for Nicholson. In fact, he and Brooks often butted heads about just how caustic the character should be, leading to one day when Brooks had a crisis meeting with his star. In 2018, he told Entertainment Weekly, “I did something I’ll never do again: I sent the crew home at midday. It was Jack and I alone on this set, and I couldn’t tell you one word we said to each other, but we sat there for three hours, and the next day, everything was okay.”
