Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf, to our Tree of Knowledge.

Today's episode is a covid special, but we won’t let that get in the way, as today’s episode is on an absolute legend of the silver screen, a man that when you look at him, has character written all over his face. His complex performances have inspired and entertained, and won him numerous awards.

But no matter how many awards Jack Nicholson has won, and there have been many, which have primarily included three Oscars and six Golden Globes, no figure could compare to the number of women Jack Nicholson has dated, throughout Hollywood and beyond. Which suggests that it may be time, a movie was made on Jack, and his long, colourful and entertaining life.

Today’s mnemonic is on his top 5 movies.

With that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jack_Nicholson_2001.jpg

Wikipedia Summary

John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker.[1] He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time.[2][3] In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure.[4] He received numerous accolades throughout his career which spanned over five decades, including three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, a Grammy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. He also received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 1994 and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2001.

Nicholson has won three Academy Awards, for Best Actor for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and As Good as It Gets (1997) and for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983). He was Oscar-nominated for Easy Rider (1969), Five Easy Pieces (1970), The Last Detail (1974), Chinatown (1974), Reds (1981), Prizzi's Honor (1986), Ironweed (1987), A Few Good Men (1992) and About Schmidt (2002). Nicholson is also known for his notable roles in Carnal Knowledge (1971), The Shining (1980), Heartburn (1986), Broadcast News (1987), Batman (1989), Hoffa (1992), Mars Attacks! (1996), Something's Gotta Give (2003), The Departed (2006) and The Bucket List (2007).

Nicholson has directed three films, Drive, He Said (1971), Goin' South (1978), and The Two Jakes (1990). He is one of only three male actors to win three Academy Awards, and one of only two actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in films made in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s. His 12 Academy Award nominations make Nicholson the most nominated male actor in the Academy's history.

Above information extracted from Wikipedia – link: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Nicholson]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dennis_Hopper_and_Jack_Nicholson_at_the_62nd_Academy_Awards.jpg

Mnemonic

Jack Nicholson – Top 5 Movies – Cuckoo BOAT

(Picture Jack Nicholson in the famous scene from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” where he took nine other patients from the mental asylum on a fishing trip)

1. Chinatown (1974)

2. Batman (1989)

3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

4. A Few Good Men (1992)

5. The Shining (1980)

Five Fun Facts

1. The first fact is a ripper. Jack was born in 1937 in Manasquan, New Jersey. His parents were John and Ethel May Nicholson and he had two sisters; Lorraine and June. Or did he? Well, apparently not, it ends up that Jack’s parents were his grandparents and his sister June was actually his mother.

Apparently, June had Jack when she was 17 and unmarried, so in line with what was socially acceptable at the time, her parents raised him as their own. Jack discovered the truth in 1974 through a very inquisitive Time magazine reporter.

2. There is a salient reason why Jack Nicholson was never asked back to do Batman Returns. That is because in Batman in 1989 he made a deal with Warner Bros. to get a cut of the merchandising, which in the end earned Jack over $50 million. The studio never thought it would be possible, but Jack did and his performance was the icing on the cake.

3. Originally Jack Nicholson aspired to be a filmmaker and along the way wrote the psychedelic movie “Head” which starred The Monkees. It was a flop, and it wasn’t until after his success with “Easy Rider” in 1969, that he then decided to pursue an acting career alone.

4. Jack Nicholson was once part of the hippie movement of the 1960’s, and was close to LSD advocate Gabe Katz. He altruistically purchased some land in New Mexico so Katz and friends could set up a commune. Unfortunately for the group, they were pushed off the land by gun wielding bandits, with no recourse from authorities, as it was high in the mountains and extremely remote.

5. Jack Nicholson is not a big fan of TV. You may have noticed that he rarely appears on talk shows and has been quoted as saying “I don’t like what the light box has done to America at night—turned everybody into a f***ing pinball-machine moth…”

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jack_Nicholson,_holding_award,_1976_Academy_Awards_(cropped).jpg

Three Question Quiz

Q.1. What year was Jack Nicholson born? Options are 1937, 1942 or 1947

Q.2. Which movie based on a Stephen King book did Jack Nicholson star in?

Q.3. What was the name of Jack Nicholson’s character in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1975? I will accept just the surname.

Bonus Q. In which movie did Jack Nicholson win his third Academy Award for Best Actor?

Bonus Q. Which basketball team does Jack Nicholson follow?

Bonus Q. When does Jack Nicholson take Viagra?

Mnemonic Recap