After he had kept his head above water with small roles at the beginning of his career, Jack Nicholson finally made his breakthrough in 1969 with Easy Rider. One of his most important roles was that of the crazy "Jack Torrance" in the Stephen King movie The Shining. Jack Nicholson also played as the character of the cult villain "Joker" in the 1989 Batman film adaptation. In Hollywood, he was generally known as a womanizer. Jack Nicholson has five children from four different women. He was only married once from 1962 to 1968 with Sandra Knight. He then had an on-off relationship with Anjelica Huston for years. Meanwhile his career has slowed down considerably.

Jack Nicholson today

His last big movie was How Do You Know That It Is Love in 2010. In 2017, fans briefly drew hope as Jack Nicholson was considered for the role of father in the "Toni Erdmann" remake. In August 2018, however, Jack Nicholson's participation was cancelled. Rumours circulated about a possible Alzheimer disease that he was experiencing - Jack Nicholson disproved these rumours however. In an interview with The Sun he made it clear that he simply wanted to enjoy his retirement. He was last seen with his son Raymond at an L.A. Lakers basketball game in January 2019.