Jack Nicholson was born on this day in 1937 in Neptune City, N.J. The actor-director has won nearly every major award including three Academy Awards (for which he has been nominated a total of 12 times), as well as three BAFTA Film Awards, six Golden Globes, the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Kennedy Center Honor. His breakout role was the alcoholic attorney George Hanson in “Easy Rider” (1969), but you might know him from some of his other roles including the piano prodigy Bobby Dupea in “Five Easy Pieces” (1970), the embattled private eye Jake Gittes in “Chinatown” (1974), Mac McMurphy in the adaptation of Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975), and, of course, Joker in “Batman” (1989). Even if he was a headliner in these films, each one of them featured excellent ensemble casts, however, which has been a hallmark of his filmography. “There's no such thing as a small part,” Nicholson once said. “Every role you play is an opportunity to create something memorable.” Photo from 1976 via the Los Angeles Times CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED.
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