A Filmmaker's Guide to the Best Performances: Jack Nicholson

Without a shadow of a doubt, Jack Nicholson is one of the greatest cinema actors of all time. He has shown a great amount of range, versatility and an incredible talent for portraying the most difficult of characters with smoothness and accuracy. He has done everything from the Joker in Burton's Batman (1989) to Jack in Kubrick's "The Shining" (1980) - lending his talent also to such films as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Easy Rider" and many, many more.

Born in New Jersey in 1937, Jack Nicholson in 2020 is turning 83 years' old. He was the son of a showgirl and described his birth as an accident. As his mother was only 17 when he was born, her parents agreed to raise him for her - he would be raised as his mother's brother instead of her son. He would only find out many years later that June Nicholson was his mother and not his sister.

Known as the class clown, Jack Nicholson grew up with a colourful personality which definitely shines through in his cinema work. He moved almost three times whilst he was at school and yet, was still raised in New Jersey. He was in detention every single day for the whole year. After he left, he joined the National Air Guard in California. He was honourably discharged in 1962.

From 1959, Nicholson has constantly been in movies left, right and centre, beginning his career with a lead role in the film "The Cry Baby Killer"(1959) which seemed to catapult him into fame. Even though the film was lost for a long time and considered out of print, it was found again quite recently and put on the various streaming sites such as Amazon Prime, where you can now rent the film. It is a very good effort by a very young Jack Nicholson. Even though he's young, you can still see the typical Nicholson look in him. The sharp look in his eyes, the mischievous smile and then there's the voice that you can hear. Though it isn't a frightening one just yet and won't strike the fear of God into you - I'd give it some twenty years and he'll get it. He's got an incredible style in which only he could play his characters. You could never see anyone else in a Jack Nicholson role and that's the brilliance of him. He does his roles so brilliantly that the director cannot possibly replace him with anyone else. He's just far too good. The fact that he plays the characters that are the most difficult only add to the talent of Jack Nicholson. It really is an event to be witnessed. I feel quite privileged to live in the same time as him. He's a brilliant actor, a great screenwriter, an amazing human being and a man who has done and seen it all. For a man in his 80s, I hope he's enjoying himself because he's left us with a lifetime worth of work which we will be watching and re-watching on this special day.

Now you've got a bit of a background to the poor and traumatic life that Jack Nicholson had to lead, let's go through his best performances. Now, I have seen a lot of Nicholson movies, but I can honestly say that it was very, very, very hard to pick only ten. I mean I wanted to choose all of them but you know, we're here for ten. You're not here to listen to me ramble on about movies. Now, let's start the list.

The Ten Best Performances by Jack Nicholson:

10. Jimmy Wallace in "The Cry Baby Killer" (1959)

9. Melvin Udall in "As Good as it Gets" (1997)

8. Garrett Breedlove in "Terms of Endearment" (1983)

7. David Locke in "The Passenger" (1975)

6. Frank Costello in "The Departed" (2006)

5. Colonel Jessup in "A Few Good Men" (1992)

4. Randal "Mac" McMurphy in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975)

3. Jake Gittes in "Chinatown" (1974)

2. Jack in "The Shining" (1980)

1. The Joker in "Batman" (1989)

And there they are, the ten greatest performances by Jack Nicholson. I hope you enjoyed our list and I also hope you're watching Jack Nicholson movies today. I know I am probably gonna watch Batman (1989) for the billionth time yet again. His movies are truly something special.