It's Jack Nicholson's birthday today

It is impossible to talk about Jack Nicholson in the traditional manner of "five best films" for the simple reason that he had 12 Oscar nominations alone (a record for a male actor), and three Oscars, two of which were not for his best films. So we have to take a different route.

The great Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni recalled that when, before the start of filming his film "Profession: Reporter", he said to Nicholson, with whom he was working for the first time: "Tell me what kind of person you are", Nicholson replied: "I am a fucking son of a bitch, don't forget that."

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Another European director Milos Forman, who filmed "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" with Nicholson that same year, experienced this to the full extent - during the filming they quarreled so much that they communicated only through the cameraman.

Antonioni had no such memories of working with Nicholson (except that he, as a European director, was surprised that a significant part of the film's budget was eaten up by Nicholson's fee). As one might assume - because at that time he was already considered a great director, and Forman was almost a newcomer in Hollywood.

So if we accept the hypothesis that the image of McMurphy from "Cuckoo" was a "hit" on the character of the actor himself, then we are unlikely to be mistaken. Moreover, in those years Nicholson had many similar roles. But, again, not only Antonioni, but also, for example, Roman Polanski in "Chinatown" Nicholson's character does not look like McMurphy. By the way, for many Americans it was this role that made Nicholson great, as it put him in the ranks of such stars as Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney.

And, again, one detail - Roman Polanski raped underage Samantha Geimer in Nicholson's house. The actor himself, who was away at the time, of course, had nothing to do with it, but the detail says a lot.

So in the 70s, Nicholson's great acting career began, which we called "great" for a reason - along with Michael Caine, Nicholson is the only actor who was nominated for an Oscar in every decade of the period 1960-2000. But if Caine remained a wonderful actor playing leading roles even at 80-plus years old, then Nicholson stopped acting back in 2010.

There are not many rumors about how he lives today - simply because the current generation of viewers has not seen Nicholson on the screens. But the previous generation was very excited a few years ago when hints appeared in the media that Nicholson had developed signs of dementia.

These rumors were fueled by the fact that the actor did not appear in public - but last year he did so once, accompanied by his daughter at a gala event in a black suit and a beret with the New York Yankees symbols.

By the way, Nicholson used to be an avid sports fan, known for swearing at referees. Well, basically, "a damn son of a bitch."

Photo: Wikipedia