26. A Pro
He admits to never missing a day's work through illness and says that he's professionally cold enough not to allow outside intrusions interfere with business at hand. Yes, even a Lakers' game!
27. Rose From Obscurity
Before the Hollywood limelight Nicholson was just another jobbing actor in a series of cheap Roger Corman productions. His debut was in the titular role of
The Cry Baby Killer in 1958, which led to a small but significant part in
Little Shop of Horrors and then as the lead in out-and-out horror pics
The Raven, The Terror and
St Valentine's Day Massacre. Then Monte Hellman directed him in the box-office disasters
Ride in the Whirlwind and
The Shooting. Despite an acting career going no where Nicholson remained determined and managed to rise from obscurity with a scene-stealing role in
Easy Rider. And the rest, as they say, is history.
28. David Locke in The Passenger (1975)
Due to screening restrictions imposed upon its filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni,
The Passenger is a relatively new Nicholson discovery. The actor is quite simply a sensation as a frustrated war correspondent who takes the risky decision to adopt the identity of a dead arms dealer companion in this tense Hitchcockian thriller.
29. Terrifyingly Funny
Nicholson is often as funny as he is scary. He's a master at combining both personas to come up with terrifyingly funny characterisations. Examples are his manic novelist Jack Torrance reciting 'The Three Little Pigs' in
The Shining, playing a sex crazed devil in
The Witches of Eastwick or simultaneously sending shivers down the spine whilst pulling funny rat faces in
The Departed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL-L050DXeM
30. A Director Too!
Most great actors have dabbled behind the camera and Jack is no exception. There are three directorial credits to his name: sporting drama
Drive, He Said, (1971), western
Goin' South (1978) and the Chinatown sequel
The Two Jakes (1990). Ok so none of the three are his best remembered films but when he had a story he wanted to tell, he made sure it was brought to the big screen.