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Nicholson

A Biography

ebook
7 of 7 copies available
7 of 7 copies available
The definitive biography of a man with one of the most iconic and fascinating careers—and lives—in Hollywood.
 
For six decades, Jack Nicholson has been part of film history. With three Oscar wins and twelve nominations to his credit and legendary roles in films like Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Terms of Endearment, The Shining, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nicholson created original, memorable characters like no other actor of his generation. And his offscreen life has been no less of an adventure—Nicholson has always been at the center of the Hollywood elite and has courted some of the most famous and beautiful women in the world.
 
Relying on years of extensive research and interviews with insiders who know Nicholson best, acclaimed biographer Marc Eliot sheds light on Nicholson’s life on and off the screen. From Nicholson’s working class childhood in New Jersey, where family secrets threatened to tear his family apart, to raucous nights on the town with Warren Beatty and tumultuous relationships with starlets like Michelle Phillips, Anjelica Huston, and Lara Flynn Boyle, to movie sets working with such legendary directors and costars as Dennis Hopper, Stanley Kubrick, and Meryl Streep, Eliot paints a sweeping picture of the breadth of Nicholson’s decades-long career in film and an intimate portrait of the real man.
 
Both a comprehensive tribute to a film legend and an entertaining look at a truly remarkable life, Nicholson is a compulsively readable biography of an iconic Hollywood star.
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    • Kirkus

      October 15, 2013
      There is nothing in these pages from celebrity biographer Eliot (Steve McQueen, 2011) that will come as a surprise to those who have followed the actor through his career and personal life. While it may be fun to remember that Nicholson duly made his appearance on Matinee Theatre and that he took a turn on the Andy Griffith Show, there is no sense of the author digging for the goods: new material, a fresh perspective or insights into Nicholson's moviemaking. Mostly, readers will wonder at the blatantly obvious comments--e.g., "although it took many hard years to happen, he eventually became a star." As for Nicholson's notorious sex life, it either throws a creepy Freudian shadow--"The seeds of sex were clearly planted in Jack from a very early age. 'I was very driven. I remember being at least mentally sexually excited about things from childhood, even sooner than eight' "--or touches that too-much-information chord: "While tripping [on LSD], he could confront the persistent problem of premature ejaculation." Movies take a back seat to goodies like a tour with Michael Douglas, where there were all the "young and beautiful women. They devoured them like shrimp....According to Jack, tongue firmly in cheek (and elsewhere), the tour was all about politics, social behavior, and women." Eliot makes it extremely difficult to take the work seriously or want to take Nicholson so. When the author starts committing pop psychology--"Women were no longer purely objects of desire but a form of self-affirmation, that he was still able to get them"--it is clear the whole project has taken a wrong turn, way back somewhere. Too tawdry by half and as groundbreaking as a Wikipedia entry.

      COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from December 1, 2013

      Celebrity watchers will not be disappointed by this engrossing biography of Academy Award winner Jack Nicholson. Eliot, who has written more than a dozen books on popular culture, including biographies of Cary Grant, James Stewart, and Clint Eastwood, expertly covers Nicholson's early life, his collaboration with B movie director Roger Corman, and his breakout performance in Easy Rider, followed by stardom in 40-plus films, such as Five Easy Pieces, The Shining, Chinatown, and The Departed. Eliot also captures Nicholson's "bad boy" image, the actor's many love affairs (Michelle Phillips, Anjelica Huston), his obsession with the L.A. Lakers, and escapades in his freewheeling personal life. Nicholson fans may be surprised by some of what is revealed. For instance, he was more famous in his early career for writing screenplays (he cowrote the Monkees movie Head with director Bob Rafelson and wrote the Corman-directed cult classic The Trip), he fathered Susan Anspach's child when she starred with him in Five Easy Pieces, and he didn't discover who his real parents were until he was a famous adult. Now 76, Nicholson hasn't made a movie since 2010, leading to retirement rumors. VERDICT Fans of celebrity bios and film students alike will welcome this well-researched addition to the genre.--Rosellen Brewer, Sno-Isle Libs., Marysville, WA

      Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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