Jack's Life: A Biography of Jack Nicholson

by Patrick McGilligan

"Volatile Jack Nicholson has found the perfect biographer in Patrick McGilligan, who gives us a rich, absorbing portrait of one of the greatest movie stars ever." ―Patricia Bosworth No male American film star of the post-Brando era has demonstrated the talent, the charisma, the larger-than-life audacity, and the string of screen triumphs of Jack Nicholson. In Jack's Life , Patrick McGilligan, one of our finest film historians, has produced the definitive biography of this most private and public of stars, from his tangled Dickensian upbringing in New Jersey, his formative years as an actor and screenwriter, his near-accidental breakthrough to stardom in Easy Rider , and his string of great roles in Chinatown , Five Easy Pieces , One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , The Last Detail , The Shining , and other films that mark him as a searching, complex artist. Here as well is the often Rabelaisian life behind the smiling mask, the legendary romances and appetites for sex and drugs, the obsessions with money and control, and the perpetual restlessness.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Film

512 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1994

About the author

Patrick McGilligan is the author of Clint one of America’s pre-eminent film biographers. He has written the life stories of directors George Cukor and Fritz Lang — both New York Times “Notable Books” — and the Edgar-nominated Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light. His books have been translated into ten languages. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Reviews

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

9/10 Very well written and very interesting!

[Sull · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK, this was a good but sad book. He thought he would be different but he ends up the same as some of his heroes like Brando--a sad lonely fella sitting around a dark house. He's a bit more honest & articulate than the others, but no better at managing the toubles in his life, i.e.women, love, legacy....

[Mick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography is slow to draw the reader in and at times contains too much detail. However, it does document Jack’s life quite thoroughly and I am glad I read it. If you can make it past the first 100 pages or so, you’ll likely finish the book.

Jack Nicholson is a nearly mythical character in US society and culture, and having read this book is going to allow me to enjoy his works much more.

[Nathan Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I was hoping this would be more of a critical biography assessing how Nicholson's performance style evolved through the years; it does touch on that a bit but McGilligan really doesn't go very deep, focusing more on both the actor's sordid personal life (it will surprise no one to learn he's quite the womanizer and hedonist) and on the cultural context surrounding most of his movies. One thing I did really take away was how many extraordinary films Nicholson has been in, and how many brilliant performances he's given, which I think eclipses an awful lot of his peer group. The parts of this book I enjoyed most were about the early brushes with fame, and then the social transition out of '60s ideology and into commercialism in the movie industry, which is mirrored in Nicholson's salary demands and (to an extent) his choices of films, which may sound ironic given how selective he's always been but is something McGilligan argues pretty well. I've become especially interested lately in the way that iconoclastic '60s figures sort of burned out or faded away, which is something that comes up in the book not just with Nicholson but with people like Robert Towne, Roman Polanski (of course), Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider too. But he doesn't really run with this. That's not so bad if you're looking for a very basic rundown of Nicholson's life story, but he's really not interesting enough -- the intriguing strangeness of his confused upbringing aside (he grew up thinking his mother was his sister) -- for that to be especially engrossing, whereas more about his actual work would've been welcome, and not in the manner McGilligan provides, which by the second half of the book is basically just a repetitive format of production stories followed by a readout of the popular and critical responses to each film. It was diverting, I guess, and I didn't mind being reminded of how much good stuff Nicholson did over the years.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biographies can be a little dry, so I only read them if they are about people I'm truly interested in. I have always found Jack to be mysterious and intriguing, so I was excited when I stumbled upon this book.

I know Jack's career is a little before my time - I didn't really discover him until the 90s - so most of the information about his early days, while interesting, was more in depth than I needed. Once we finally got to films from the 80's (at the end of the book) I felt this period of his life was largely glossed over.

I did enjoy reading about his childhood and how he got his start in Hollywood.

[Sergio GRANDE · Rating 3 out of 5]

Any biographer worth his salt will research his subjects over and over again. Over-research and then whittle the material down seems to be the right approach.

Now, when you over-research and then try to cram every single bit of information plus a lot of personal observations into a book, there's a strong chance the subject may be eclipsed by a surfeit of words.

On the author's defence, I must admit that I never thought one could make Jack Nicholson's biography appear boring at times. But he did. I look forward to the one when he makes Mick Jagger look chaste and Donald Trump appear rational.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

McGilligan's insights provide a lot of entertainment, but only as they coincide with Jack Nicholson's Renaissance period of the 1970s. Once the 1980s kick in, the Nicholson celebrity personality dominates the book, so the movies (and the man) become less interesting. It doesn't help things Nicholson was a devoted interview subject, so the more talking he does, the less wisdom comes with it--be the subject sex or Camus. Unfortunately, his personal issues carry less weight as the movie star persona takes over. The maverick becomes a square who actually enjoys the way Hollywood functions.

[GrandmaG · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very dry so I could not stay interested. My.opinion, not worth reading.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the detailed information on how Jack came from New Jersey as a young adult and took small parts along the way as well as writing script as well, on his way to his movie star career. It was most interesting how he had some behind the scenes contact with one of my favorite shows growing up, which was the Monkee's.
I look forward to my next biography or auto-bigraphy.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

While a fan I wanted to read this more for the eras of Hollywood history it would cover. Nicholson is innately fascinating and this is a good companion piece to Star, the Warren Beatty biography. Unlike Star, Nicholson is revealed to be quite generous to his fellow actors and incredibly hard working despite his steep salary demands. Trouble is unlike Star, this book gets bogged down in his early and frankly less interesting days. This is my standard complaint about celebrity biographies so I'm not getting too in a twist about it. There are great tidbits about many classic movies in Nicholson's career and some great quotes from the man himself. Jack Nicholson is an icon, a great actor and an enigmatic presence. Here's a rant not so much about this book but iBooks. I went to buy this from them and it was 22 dollars and it was the 1996 edition. On Amazon, the current 2015 was nearly half that. If I could've read this digitally, I could've shaved weeks off the reading time. WHY would anyone pay double price for an incomplete book? Just wanted that on the record.

[Eric Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it when I read it in the mid-90s.

[Me · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written account of the actor's life. There are parts of this book that still haunt today such as when Jack discovers that his "sister" was really his mother. He then has to call up every one of his friends to tell them (before the National Rag publishes it). He hangs up the phone each time and sobs. Powerful imagery like that makes this book a must read.

[Em · Rating 2 out of 5]

This read more like a term paper to me than a biography. Just wasn't my taste, I guess,

[John Graham Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

One has to admit this book is better than the McDougal "Five Easy Decades" because it goes into far greater detail. Jack Nicholson is a man who worked his ass off to attain stardom - and to keep working to accomplish success in his own terms after it had arrived. One has the sensation that this author has inside knowledge the other writers did not discover - he often quotes a diversity of people who know Jack Nicholson well, as well as Jacks own interviews from various sources. It is true the first part of the book is rather over detailed and a bit laboured, but there are many later passages that provoke the reader into making her own interpretations about Jacks strange personality - one that can never be pinned down - that go close to the man in all his guises. Worth reading.