Jack's Life: A Biography of Jack Nicholson

by Patrick McGilligan

Overview

“Jack’s Life feels true. . . . Fascinating.”—Entertainment Weekly

Jack Nicholson has lived large on and off the screen. Patrick McGilligan, one of America’s outstanding film biographers, has plumbed research and interviews to expand his definitive biography since its publication twenty years ago. Jack’s Life captures the essence of this most private and public of stars with a vivid depiction of Nicholson’s tangled Dickensian upbringing, his hungry years as actor and writer, his nearaccidental breakthrough in Easy Rider, and his prolificacy and artistry ever since, with roles in Chinatown, Five Easy Pieces, The Shining, A Few Good Men, As Good As It Gets, and The Departed, to name a beloved handful of his sixty-plus films. McGilligan captures the life and legacy of this unabashed and complex personality

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393350968
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/09/2015
Edition description:	Updated and Expanded
Pages:	608
Sales rank:	978,116
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Patrick McGilligan has edited the acclaimed Backstory series and written distinguished biographies of film figures including George Cukor, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, and, most recently, Orson Welles. He lives in Milwaukee.

What People are Saying About This

Steven Bach

McGilligan's Jack's Life does what a first-rate biography should do. It answers the questions we didn't even know to ask. It turns a fascinating, often dark life into an illuminating, humane narrative. McGilligan is shrewd, perceptive, lively, and very, very knowledgeable. He has given us the best account we have of the man...
— Steven Bach, author of Dietrich: Life and Legend

Editorial Reviews

"Patrick McGilligan’s book has always been the one Jack deserved—intimate, funny, understanding, an inside job. I sometimes wonder if Jack actually wrote it himself."

David Thomson

Born in New York City in 1937, Nicholson grew up in New Jersey under the ``elaborate charade'' that his grandmother was his mother and his mother was his sister--a fact that was not revealed to him until 1974. After moving to California he studied acting and found work in forgettable Roger Corman films and television. His big break came in 1969 when Bruce Dern turned down the role of George Hanson, a Southern lawyer in Easy Rider. Nicholson was cast in the part and the film became the counterculture hit of the year. There soon followed such films as Five Easy Pieces , Carnal Knowledge , Chinatown and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , for which he won an Academy Award. The author goes into seemingly every facet of Nicholson's life: the drugs (you name it, he's used it); his preoccupation with sex, which has kept him bedding the likes of Michelle Phillips, Anjelica Huston and Margaret Trudeau. There is plenty of behind-the-scenes material on the making of each Nicholson movie and insights into his characterizations. McGilligan ( George Cukor ) has captured Nicholson's intensity in this fact-filled biography , which will be especially appreciated by Nicholson's fans. Photos. Author tour. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

McGilligan, who already has a well-regarded biography of George Cukor to his credit ( George Cukor: A Double Life , LJ 10/15/91), turns his eye to Nicholson in this first-rate biography of a complex character. Heavily researched and well written, this is an insightful and perceptive examination of Nicholson's life and art. Thankfully, McGilligan spares the reader any attempt at titilation, though he does raise some questions over the actual identity of Nicholson's biological father. The author concentrates on studying the circumstances and character of Nicholson. The volume includes an excellent filmography, and publication is timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the film Easy Rider and the actor's 40th year in show business. This will probably rank among the best film biographies of the year. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.-- Marianne Cawley, Kingwood Branch Lib., Tex.

Library Journal

Detailed and engrossing . . . a diligent study of an artist in process.

Washington Post Book World

Entertaining and illuminating.

New York Times Book Review