After a decade of roles in second-rate horror and motorcycle movies (mainly helmed by fringe director Roger Corman), Jack Nicholson's ship came in when Rip Torn shipped out of Easy Rider in 1969. He made the most of his small part and earned the first of many Oscar nominations; he then made screen history in the offbeat Five Easy Pieces diner scene a year later. From then on, more nominations and acclaim accumulated for brilliant characterizations in Carnal Knowledge, The Last Detail, and Chinatown, among others. By the time he won the Oscar, in 1975, for a tour de force portrayal in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Nicholson was solidly established as Hollywood's hottest and most versatile star. He added a Supporting Actor statue to his mantle in 1983 for his aging astronaut in Terms of Endearment, which was his only win out of a string of nominations for off-beat, anti-hero roles in Reds, Prizzi's Honor and Ironweed. As Batman's Joker, he added no less than $50 million to his till in pay and merchandising profits. Stints in the director's chair were less successful: Goin' South and The Two Jakes were genuine disasters. But audiences never complained. On a first-name basis with their favorite devil, the public is willing to forgive freak accidents like Man Trouble, the actor's own women troubles, and the golf club incident, especially when he continues to deliver strong performances in films such as A Few Good Men, which earned him yet another Supporting Actor nomination. 1996 witnessed Nicholson playing two different roles--an oily U.S. president and an equally unctuous Las Vegas slimeball--in Mars Attacks!, Tim Burton's cheeky alien-invasion spoof; he also made a cameo in The Evening Star, the sequel to 1983's Terms of Endearment. Nicholson's private life mirrors his nonconformist roles. His sister turned out to be his mother and his mother his granny, a fact that a Time magazine researcher discovered while preparing a cover story on him. A four-year marriage to actress Sandra Knight and a 17-year relationship with Anjelica Huston didn't disrupt indulgences in a roster of recreational drugs and romances with starlets, models, Michelle Phillips, and his daughter's best friend. When the latter (Rebecca Broussard) became pregnant in 1990, Huston finally turned in her house key. Nicholson embraced late-life fatherhood by settling the new family in front of a hearth in a separate house on his grounds.
