Jack Nicholson’s career in the movie industry is beyond impressive. He’s one of two actors ever to be nominated for the prestigious award Oscar every decade from the 1960s through the early 2000s.
Over the span of 60 years, Nicholson played remarkable roles. His distinctive eyebrows, awesome looks, and deep voice made him the perfect fit for the roles of many villains. Of course, he has never limited himself in playing just certain kinds of characters, but showed versatility not many can achieve.
Nicholson got into the world of movies when he made his debut in the low-budget crime flick Cry Baby Killer in 1958, playing a teenager who mistakenly believes he committed murder. From that moment on, the sky was the limit for young and talented Nicholson who will later be widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation and beyond.
Today, Nicholson is 83-years-old and retired from acting. And although everyone knows him best for his talent and successful career, there is a story of his personal life that many people find intriguing.
Most of his life, Nicholson believed that his grandparents were his parents when in fact he was the son of their daughter June whom they presented to Nicholas as his sister. It took 37 years for him to learn that June was in fact his biological mother.
The truth was revealed when a Time Magazine reporter asked Nicholson about that. He refused to believe something like that could be true, but then his other sister Lorraine who was actually his aunt confirmed the reporter’s story.
His mother and grandma took the secret to their graves and he didn’t get the chance to confront them.
Speaking of the secret that had been kept from him for so long, Nicholson said, “It was pretty dramatic event, but it wasn’t what I’d call traumatizing…I was pretty well psychologically formed.”
Allegedly, when June gave birth to Nicholas, she was just 18 years old and wasn’t married, so her parents presented her son as their own.
There were many speculations about who Nicholson’s father could be, but nothing was ever confirmed.
Nicholson seemed not to be mad or bitter at his mom and grandmother for keeping the secret. He was reported saying, “I didn’t have to deal with it with them. They were dead. I am that kind of person-what do I feel-and had the tools to know what I feel. Gratitude. I’ve often said about them: Show me any women today who could keep a secret, confidence, or an intimacy to that degree, you got my kind of gal.”
We believe that how he dealt with the huge revelation speaks a lot about him as a human being. Nicholson isn’t just one of the greatest actors of all time, but an incredible individual as well.