Nicholson grew up thinking his mother was his sister
John Joseph Nicholson was raised in Neptune City believing showgirl June was his sibling. In 1974 Time magazine researchers told him the truth—after June and his grandmother had both died. He called the revelation dramatic but not traumatizing for a man already formed.
Born April 22, 1937 in Neptune City, New Jersey, Nicholson was the son of nineteen-year-old June Frances Nicholson. Her parents raised him as their own while June posed as his sister; possible fathers include showman Donald Furcillo or manager Eddie King. Class clown of Manasquan High’s 1954 class, he later joined the California Air National Guard in 1957 and served through the 1961 Berlin Crisis until discharge in 1962.
Film work began with Roger Corman’s The Cry Baby Killer (1958) and years of low-budget collaborations. Writing The Trip (1967) and co-writing The Monkees’ Head barely steadied him until Easy Rider (1969): as lawyer George Hanson—replacing Rip Torn—he earned his first Oscar nomination in a four-hundred-thousand-dollar film that grossed sixty million. Five Easy Pieces (1970) cemented the antihero persona; critics compared him to Brando and Dean.
Across five decades he collected three Academy Awards—Best Actor for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and As Good as It Gets (1997), Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983)—plus twelve nominations, the most for any male actor. He is one of two men nominated for acting Oscars in every decade from the 1960s through the 2000s, alongside Michael Caine. Directing credits include Drive, He Said, Goin’ South, and The Two Jakes. He retired after How Do You Know (2010). He later said the revelation arrived after his own personality was already fully formed, so shock never displaced craft.
Source: Jack Nicholson
