Jack Nicholson is one of the most respected actors in Hollywood. His career has spanned more than 60 years and includes a wide range of roles in films, from antiheroes and chilling villains to hilariously comedic characters.
In fact, Nicholson is the most nominated male actor ever when it comes to the Academy Awards, having received a total of 12 nominations through his career, the earliest in 1969 and the most recent in 2002.
How do these twelve Oscar-nominated films rank, however?
Ironweed (1987) – 6.7
Nicholson starred alongside Meryl Streep, Michael O'Keefe, Nathan Lane, and others in this drama based on the novel of the same name by William Kennedy about a homeless couple and their lives following the Great Depression.
The couple includes Francis (Jack Nicholson), an alcoholic retired baseball player who blames himself for the accidental death of his son. Helen, meanwhile, is terminally ill and played by Streep, who was also nominated for an Oscar for the film. Despite high praise from the Academy, including a Best Picture nomination as well, the film remains the lowest rated one of them all.
Prizzi's Honor (1985) – 6.7
One of the lesser known films from Nicholson, Prizzi's Honour is based on the Richard Condon 1982 novel of the same name about two assassins who are hired to kill one another but end up falling in love instead.
Nicholson stars alongside other Hollywood heavyweights like Kathleen Turner and Angelica Huston in the black comedy crime film, which was director John Huston's last before he passed away in 1987. In addition to a nomination for Nicholson, the film received six others, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress for Huston, which she won.
About Schmidt (2002) – 7.1
An unconventional Oscar choice, this comedy-drama was loosely based on Louis Bagley's 1996 novel of the same name. Warren Schmidt (Nicholson) is a retired actuary who, like many who end their careers, is having a hard time adjusting without having a supposed life purpose.
After seeing a commercial on TV about fostering African children, he decides to sponsor a child and begins to share his personal feelings and insecurities through letters to the Tanzanian boy who has been named his foster child. It's an existential film that looks deeply and emotionally at the true meaning of life.
Reds (1981) – 7.3
John Reed is a journalist who covered the Russian Revolution in his 1919 novel Ten Days That Shook the World. In this epic historical drama, Warren Beatty, who also co-wrote, produced, and directed the film, stars as Reed.
Nicholson is among the supporting cast of the film, which tells the story of Reed's life and career. He plays Eugene O'Neill, a playwright who has a torrid affair with a married socialite and growing radical and feminist, played by Diane Keaton. Nicholson's nomination was one of many for the film, which took home a few as well.
Easy Rider (1969) – 7.3
In one of his earlier film roles, Nicholson played an ACLU lawyer who befriends two motorcyclists, played by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, smuggling cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles.
The independent road drama, which was written by Fonda, came out during the height of the hippie movement when drug use and a communal lifestyle were commonplace. Thus, it was considered a "landmark counterculture" film that perfectly captured the times.
Terms of Endearment (1983) – 7.4
Adapted from the Larry McMurtry novel of the same name, the film follows a mother and daughter relationship over the span of 30 years. Starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger in the key roles, the cast also included big names like Danny DeVito, Jeff Daniels, and John Lithgow.
Nicholson's character is a retired astronaut named Garrett Breedlove who has a relationship with the widowed mother that might just be the one to last, as it seems far more serious than her many other fleeting romances.
The Last Detail (1973) – 7.5
The use of profanity in film wasn't as commonplace back in the '70s as it is today, but this Nicholson-starring comedy-drama totally went against the grain, and viewers seemed to be okay with it since The Last Detail picked up three Academy Award nominations, including one for Nicholson.
He's a navy lifer signalman nicknamed "badass" who is one of two men assigned to patrol an 18-year-old seaman who has been dishonorably discharged. If they don't get him to his desired destination within one week, they will be kicked out of the Navy. Naturally, the job seems simple and the stakes high. Nonetheless, the guys take it upon themselves to show the young boy a good time before it's all over.
Five Easy Pieces (1970) – 7.5
Another of Nicholson's earlier films, this drama is about a blue-collar oil rig worker who resents his life choices and job, wishing he had followed his dreams and made good use of his privileged upbringing and raw talent to pursue playing the piano professionally instead.
With several Academy Award nominations under its belt, respected film critic Roger Ebert awarded the movie four stars, dubbing it one of the best American films. It's often remembered for the famous "chicken salad sandwich scene" when Nicholson tries to reason with a waitress who refuses to bring him a side of toast because "toast" isn't on the menu.
As Good As It Gets (1997) – 7.7
One of two of the films for which Nicholson actually won, and his most recent win, he stars alongside Helen Hunt as an obsessive-compulsive novelist who ends up falling for the single mother of a chronically ill son.
Both Nicholson and Hunt won the awards, and the movie is named on Empire magazine's list of the 500 best movies of all time.
A Few Good Men (1992) – 7.7
In this law drama, Nicholson was joined by a jam-packed cast that also included Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollack, Cuba Gooding Jr., Kiefer Sutherland, and others. Adopted by Aaron Sorkin's 1989 play of the same name, it was about two U.S. Marines fighting murder charges of a fellow Marine and the lawyers preparing to defend them.
Nicholson plays Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, USMC, the Base Commander, who, it is revealed at the end of the film, issued the "code red" order that led to the man's death.
Chinatown (1974) – 8.2
Inspired by the California Water Wars of the 20th century, the neo-noir mystery film by Roman Polanski is about Los Angeles' fight to secure water rights in the Owens Valley.
The movie stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, has been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry, and has been named one of the greatest films of all time. It received 11 Oscar nods and one for Best Original Screenplay.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) – 8.7
It's no surprise that the top-rated film among the dozen for which Nicholson has been nominated for Oscars would also be the second of two for which he actually won the award. Based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is about a patient who is sent to a mental institution but isn’t actually mentally ill.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has also been called one of the best movies ever made and was selected for the National Film Registry. It won all five major Academy Awards that year, making it the second movie in history to ever do so following 1934's It Happened One Night.