'''John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson''' (born April 22, 1937) is a highly successful, iconic American method actor known for his often dark-themed portrayals of neurotic characters.

He has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times (winning 3 of them), more than any other male actor, and second only to Meryl Streep (who has 13 nominations and 2 wins) in total nominations. He is tied with Walter Brennan for most wins by a male actor, and second to Katharine Hepburn for most acting wins overall (Hepburn had 4).

He has also won seven Golden Globe Awards and he received a Kennedy Center Honors in 2001.

Biography and personal life

Nicholson was born at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City to June Frances Nicholson (alias June Nilson), a showgirl of English and Irish descent who had previously married an Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) six months earlier in Elkton, Maryland, on October 16, 1936. Elkton was a town known for its "quickie" marriages. However, Furcillo was already married, and, although he offered to take care of the child, June's mother Ethel insisted that she bring up the baby, partly so that June could pursue her dancing career.

Jack was brought up believing his grandparents Joseph (a department store window dresser in Asbury Park, New Jersey) and Ethel May Nicholson (a hairdresser and beautician and amateur artist in Neptune, New Jersey) were his parents. He attended high school at nearby Manasquan High School, where a drama award was ultimately named in his honor. Nicholson only discovered that his parents were actually his grandparents and his sister was in fact his mother in 1974 after being informed by a ''Time Magazine'' journalist who was doing a feature on him (see http://www.jacknicholson.org/Time.html) while he was filming ''The Fortune'' with Stockard Channing.

By this time both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively), Nicholson has stated he does not know who his father is, saying "Only Ethel and June knew and they never told anybody" (see http://www.jacknicholson.org/1984RollingStone.html) . Although Donald Furcillo claimed to be Nicholson's father and to have committed bigamy by marrying June, biographer Patrick McGilligan, who wrote ''Jack's Life'' (published in December 1995) asserted that Eddie King, June's manager, may be the father and other (see http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,21,00.html) sources have suggested that June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. Jack Nicholson has chosen not to have a DNA test or to pursue the matter. Although Nicholson is personally against abortion, he is pro-choice.http://www.adherents.com/people/pn/Jack_Nicholson.html Nicholson told ''Vanity Fair'' in 1992 that he did not believe in God.http://www.ronaldbrucemeyer.com/rants/0422b-almanac.htm
250px|right|thumb|Jack Nicholson as Wilbur Force in ''Article licensed under GNU Free Documentation License. See the Wikipedia article "Jack_Nicholson"