McGilligan Patrick - Jacks life: a biography of Jack Nicholson

Patrick McGilligan is also the biographer of George Cukor, James Cagney, Robert Altman, and Fritz Lang. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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 Jacks Life Patrick McGilligan, one of our finest film historians, has produced the definitive biography of this most private and public of stars, from Nicholsons tangled Dickensian upbringing in New Jersey, his formative years as an actor and screenwriter, and his near-accidental breakthrough to stardom on Easy Rider, to his string of great roles in Chinatown, Five Easy Pieces, One Flew over the Cuckoos 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.

Sources and letters: Howard Browne, Robert W. Campbell, June Carroll, Dick Clark, Bertha M. Grookett, Fred Klemack, Charley Krause, Edward Lakso, Robert L. Lippert, Chester OBrien, Mrs. John OBrien, Viola Quinn, George Hawley Singleton, A. W. Smedley, Robert J. Tompa, Frederick Traverso, Betty Deborah Ulius, Al Wallace, William Witney, Chuck Yeager.

Interviews: Gerald Ayres, Sonny Barger, Harvey Berman, Lynn Bernay, Jacob Brackman, Ellen Burstyn, John Bushelman, Edd Byrnes, Lefty Callahan, Donn Cambern, Martin B. Cohen, Jeff Corey, Roger Corman, Pierre Cottrell, Robert J. Craig, Gail P. Dawson, Samson DeBrier, Gail Dippel, Jonathan Epaminondas, Jules Feiffer, Sandra Hawes Frederick, Kathleen Freeman, Bill Gordon, Byron Griffith, John Hackett, Nancy Wilsea Hawley, Monte Hellman, Will Hutchins, Henry Jaglom, Conrad Janis, Davy Jones, Allan Keith, Ken Kenney, Terence Kilburn, David Kramarsky, Irving Kumin, Jeremy Lamer, Pinky Lee, Jack Leewood, Harold E. Manson, Richard Matheson, Jody McCrea, Thomas McGuane, Cameron Mitchell, Harry Morris, Joseph Dutch Nichols, Michael Nesmith, Leo Paquet, Arthur Penn, Jimmie Rodgers, Pierre Rissient, Adam Roarke, Fred Roos, Donna Rose, Dorothy Rose, Richard Rush, Georgianna Carter Sampler, Leonard Schwartz, John Herman Shaner, Alan Sharpe, Edgar M. Sherman, Irven L. Spence, Dick Stoner, Susan Strasberg, Robert Walker, Dale Wilbourne, Philip Yordan.

Invaluable advice and assistance: Pat Battle, John Baxter, Douglas Brode, Bill Carlos, E. Jean Carroll, Ned Comstock, Sheilagh Cooney, Candy Cooper, Robert David Crane, Jim Dunbar, Bernard Eisenschitz, David Eliscu, Edward Eliscu, Bernadette Fay, Celeste Fremon, David Goodrich, Lawrence Grobel, Stephen Harvey, Charles Higham, Richard Lam-parski, Vincent LoBrutto, James Lowder, Ron Mandelbaum, Dave Martin, Todd McCarthy, Tony Mechele, Alison Morley, Nollaig O Mhuraile, James Robert Parish, Charla Reetz, Margy Rochlin, Dan Schwartz, David Stenn, Gillian Taylor, Robert Taylor, Brian Thomsen, David Thomson, Tise Vahimagi, Jean Van Der Pyl, Harry Wasserman.

Especially: A. W. Smedley, Ethel Mays cousin, became a pen pal over the months, supplying many leads which bore fruit. Helen M. Imburgia investigated the Rhodes geneaology in Pennsylvania, and tirelessly aided my book. Ryta Kroeger, the Town Curator of Neptune, was my savior in New Jersey. Walking into her office, three years ago, was serendipity. Ms. Kroeger proved an ingenious detective of the family tree and Nicholsons early years, and as a bonus, furnished excellent writing suggestions. Hospitality and friendship: John Baxter, Michel Ciment, and Bertrand Tavernier in Paris; Alison Morley, Barry Brown, Marty Spanninger, and Regula Ehrlich in New York City; Ken Mate, Joan Scott, Thomasine Lewis, Mark Rowland, Rosemary Aguayo, and, last but not least, B. J. Merholz in Los Angeles.

Especially: William B. Winburn, who contributed lodgings and special photography; and Nat Segaloff, who also kept me off the streets and, as usual, proved generous with information and insights.

Extracurricular activity: Thank you to the editors who assigned occasional magazine work that kept me afloat in the meantime: Ann Martin of Film Quarterly; Richard Porton of Cinaste; Wolf Schneider of American Film; and Richard Jameson of Film Comment

Screenings of Nicholsons television episodes and rare films: The Big Reel; Boyd Magers Video West; M & M Enterprises (David Miller); WCGV-TV Fox-24, Milwaukee; J. Fred MacDonald; Kim Miller and Jim Clark (the Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club); Sinister Cinema; Shock Theatre; and especially Dave Martin.

Archives and organizations: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Margaret Herrick Library); Ann Arbor Public Library, Ann Arbor, Mich. (Don Callard, Reference Librarian); Arthur Murray International Inc. (George B. Theiss, President); Asbury Park Free Library; Asbury Park Press (Molly Graham, Library); Boston University Special Collections (Karen Mix); Bridgeport Public Library, Bridgeport, Conn. (Mary Witkowski); British Film Institute; California Air Reserve (Bruce Roy, National Guard); Chicago Public Library (Lauren Buffered, Special Collections); City of Ann Arbor (Robert M. Scott, Personnel); Coast Star, Manasquan, NJ. (James Manser); Delaware County Historical Society (Broomall, Penn.) Equity News (Dick Moore & Associates); Fall River Herald News (James N. Dunbar); Fall River Public Library, Fall River, Mass. (Anne Klegraefe, Local Reference Librarian); the Huntington (Susan Naulty, Assistant Curator, Rare Book Department); Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts; Manasquan High School (Jeff Osborn, Principal, and Mrs. Tully, Librarian); Manasquan Town Historian Westley V. Banse, Sr.; Miami Dade Public Library, Miami, Fla. (Sam Boldrick, Local History); Museum of Modern Art, Stills Archive (Mary Corliss and Terry Geesken); NBC Television (Jan Kreher); Neptune, N.J., Historical Museum (Ryta Kroeger, Curator); New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (Bob Taylor, Billy Rose Theatre Collection); Ocean County Library, Toms River, N.J.; University of Southern California Cinema-TV Library (Leith Adams and Ned Comstock); State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (Maxine Fleckner Dulcey); Yankee Air Museum, Willow Run (Harold W. Sherman, Library); Westport Historical Society, Westport, Conn. (Barbara Clark); Westport Public Library, Westport, Conn. (Kathy Breidenbach, Head of Information Services); the Ziegfeld Club (Elizabeth Rae Lamont).

Especially: My home away from home, the Milwaukee Public Library, particularly the Reference Librarians and the Inter-Library Loan Service.

My editor and I had some shouting matchesa memorable one over sushi. But Gerald Howard believed in this book, pushed, prodded, and urged me along. He felt strongly about the subject, an actor whose achievements he also admired. I am grateful to him and W. W. Norton for injecting the book, at every stage, with encouragement. In England, Paul Sidey and Hutchinson were every bit as patient and supportive.

I cant remember life before Gloria Loomis, who is my agent. This book would not exist if it were not for her. Not only because she arranged the deal, but because her common-sense advice has helped sustain me through three long and sometimes difficult years of research and writing.

Especially: Thank you Tina, Clancy, Bowie, and Sky.

T he story behind a book is like the shadow cast by a moving object.

Why did you decide to write about Jack Nicholson? Will Jack cooperate with the book? (Everybody, even total strangers, seemed to be on a first-name basis with this most familiar of motion picture stars.) How can you write a biography of a person when he is obviously very much alive and active? These were among the questions I was asked as I traveled around during the last two and a half years, digging up information and interviewing close friends, relatives, and associates of Mr. Hollywood, preparatory to writing a book about Jacks life.