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20 April 2017

Hard to believe but the mischievous, scene-stealing star of Easy Rider, Chinatown and Batman turns 80 on 22 April. Cast an eye over Jack Nicholson's stellar career as seen through classic movie stills and behind-the-scenes images. Plus, Jack's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest co-stars Louise Fletcher and Brad Dourif recall a brilliant film actor.

Jack Nicholson has spent a lifetime playing wild, seductive mavericks. It has earned him three Academy Awards and a special place among his fellow film makers. So what is it that makes him such a thrilling actor?

Nicholson was born in 1937 in New Jersey, the illegitimate child of a teenage mother. He was raised by his grandparents, whom he believed to be his parents (he thought his mother was his big sister). He only learnt the truth as an adult, after his mother died.

A bright but rebellious student, he went to Hollywood to become an actor, but it was his writing that got him his big break when in 1966 he wrote a screenplay for a psychedelic film called , directed by Roger Corman and starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper.

When Fonda and Hopper made Easy Rider, they cast Nicholson in a cameo which made his name and gained him a first Academy Award nomination. The classic 'on the road' shot, with Nicholson riding pillion on Fonda's machine alongside Hopper, was ubiquitous.

Easy Rider, 1969

In May 1969 the trio of Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper headed to the Cannes Film Festival for the world premiere of Easy Rider. Hopper would receive the Festival's Best First Work award.

Nicholson later recalled being in the movie theatre watching the film as an "uncanny experience, a cataclysmic moment". "I was sitting there... 'My God, I'm a movie star!'"

Cannes Film Festival, May 1969

In September 1969, soon after Nicholson had captivated both audiences and critics with his performance in Easy Rider, LIFE magazine sent photographer Arthur Schatz to Jack's new Los Angeles home on Mulholland Drive, overlooking Franklin Canyon.

Capturing the actor before his journey to superstardom, the resulting pictures included Nicholson playing with his 5-year-old daughter, Jennifer, and taking his first piano lesson with teacher Josef Pacholczyk in preparation for his next role, in Five Easy Pieces.

At home, September 1969

In the gritty Five Easy Pieces, directed by Nicholson's friend Bob Rafelson, he played Robert Eroica Dupea, an oil rig worker who in his youth was a talented pianist. It received four Oscar nominations - for Nicholson, his co-star Karen Black, screenwriter Carole Eastman and Rafelson for Best Picture.

Critic , ten years into his career, this is when Jack "proved that he was a great actor and a star".

Five Easy Pieces, 1970

Carnal Knowledge, The King of Marvin Gardens (also directed by Bob Rafelson) and The Last Detail soon followed. Then came director Roman Polanski, screenwriter Robert Towne and a noir in the classic style set in 1930s Los Angeles.

In Chinatown, Nicholson plays private eye J.J. Gittes, starring opposite Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Mulwray. Both were Oscar-nominated, and Nicholson was awarded a BAFTA for his performance.

Towne, the lone winner from Chinatown's 11 Oscar nominations, :

"Jack was Gittes. I could not have written that character without knowing Jack. We had been roommates, and we’d studied acting with (American actor blacklisted in 1951 who went on to teach generations of film stars) for years, so he was, in a very real sense, a collaborator."

Chinatown, 1974

To celebrate Nicholson's birthday, the British Film Institute . One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest won five Oscars, including a Best Actor award for Nicholson. His character, RP McMurphy, is a charismatic petty criminal let loose in a US mental institution in an adaptation of Ken Kesey's classic 1962 novel. Half a lifetime later, it remains the defining performance of his career.

We asked writer William Cook to speak to Nicholson's co-stars and fellow Oscar winners, Louise Fletcher and Brad Dourif, about Jack. They were clear what makes him unique.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1975

Louise Fletcher

"Jack is such a hardworking actor, yet his demeanour is more fun-loving. He makes it look very easy but I can assure you it isn’t! He’s just figured out a way to make it look like he’s not giving you any effort whatsoever."

"Every actor on that movie could not wait to go to work every day because it was so gratifying. He was there 100% every day and made it so wonderful for everybody else too. They all got the bug of improvising and having fun with it, and being inventive and creative."

"I’d known Jack in the early days. We had the same acting teacher – a few times we were in the same class. I remember him vividly from that time. He had grown into this wonderful actor and I enjoyed every scene – especially the physical scene we had where he was trying to kill me, that was a lot of fun to do. He made it fun, I enjoyed doing it, and he got sick of rehearsing it because I liked it so much!"

Brad Dourif

"Jack created a style - he influenced and changed acting. He was doing something really well that people just didn’t do before. He added a kind of freedom. He made everything very real and yet extraordinarily committed."

"He’s a huge personality, he’s very funny but he’s also incredibly generous. He really gets a kick out of actors - he loves being on set with actors. He’s a generous actor, he’s probably the most generous actor I’ve worked with. He’s one of the most important actors of my lifetime."

Nicholson had been inspired by Marlon Brando in films like On the Waterfront, and Brando’s influence still shines through. Nicholson has the same intensity, the same naturalistic candour. What sets him apart is his wicked sense of fun. Like all great actors, he galvanises all those around him.

The Missouri Breaks was filmed shortly after Cuckoo's Nest. The two actors had been next-door neighbours for years. Nicholson, following Brando's death in 2004, recalled the experience of working with the 'greatest ever':

"I watched some of Brando's dailies... I watched nine or ten takes of this same scene. Each take was an art film in itself... It was one of the wildest things I ever put my eyes on."

"The next day I woke up completely destroyed... 'Who do you think you are, Jack? You're in a movie with Marlon Brando!' I was totally annihilated by him... Our director, Arthur Penn, really had to nurse me back to health just to get me to continue on with the picture."

(Although unloved by critics on its release, the film was later reappraised in some quarters. The Guardian's Xan Brooks , "Time has worked wonders on The Missouri Breaks.")

The Missouri Breaks, 1976

Although Nicholson’s CV was occasionally patchy, he still got calls from the major players. For The Shining he gave Stanley Kubrick a memorably demented central performance. And, while on the set at Elstree (the largest ever built at that time), jokey Jack showed little sign of being awed by the demanding director.

The Shining, 1980

Nicholson has transformed more mainstream movies as well. Without him, Terms of Endearment would have been just another romantic weepie; A Few Good Men would have been just another conventional vehicle for Tom Cruise. Whether he’s playing high camp in Batman or downbeat naturalism in About Schmidt, he lights up every scene.

Batman, 1989

Happy 80th Birthday, Jack!

The BFI release of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is .