Jack Nicholson

Born: 22nd April 1937
Where: Neptune, New Jersey

The former MGM messenger boy has won three Oscars and been nominated for nine others in a career which kicked off with Easy Rider in 1969.

Career highlights have ranged from a sympathetic role in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Next to a vicious mobster in Martin Scorsese's The Departed.

The son of a dancer and a showman, Nicholson's father allegedly bigamously married his mother and he was raised by his grandparents.

After moving to Los Angeles at 17, Nicholson got a job in MGM's cartoon department under William Hanna.

He began his career for director Roger Corman in 1958's Cry Baby Killer and over the next ten years was seen in B-movies, developing his own acting style.

Boredom with acting led to his first screenwriting credit, shared with Don Devlin, on the political thriller Thunder Island.

Nicholson then acted in Monte Hellman's Back Door to Hell and Flight to Fury, which he also scripted, before making back-to-back films, both as co-producer with Hellman, and actor in The Shooting and Ride the Whirlwind.

He was cast in a star-making role in Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider, which earned him his first best supporting Oscar nomination, followed with a lead role in Five Easy Pieces, and a best actor Oscar nomination.

1971 saw his film directorial debut with Drive, He Said, which Nicholson also co-wrote and co-produced.

He received a best actor Oscar nomination for Roman Polanski's Chinatown, and then finally won the Oscar for his portrayal of Randall P McMurphy in Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

To kick off the 80s, Nicholson teamed with Stanley Kubrick for The Shining, but two of his best roles of the decade were in Warren Beatty's epic Reds, and Terms of Endearment, which earned him a second best supporting actor Oscar.

His stock remained high with Prizzi's Honour, a diabolical turn in The Witches of Eastwick and a memorable Joker in Tim Burton's first - and best - Batman adaptation.

The following decade saw a variety of roles from A Few Good Men and Hoffa to Wolf, Evening Star, and Mars Attacks! before winning a third best actor Oscar opposite Helen Hunt in As Good as It Gets.

Sean Penn cast him memorably as a alcoholic cop in the underrated The Pledge in 2001 and his lead turn in About Schmidt won him a Golden Globe and another Oscar nomination for best actor.

In 2003, he starred opposite Adam Sandler in the comedy Anger Management, and opposite Diane Keaton in the comedy Something's Gotta Give. In 2006, Nicholson returned to the "dark side" as Frank Costello, a sadistic Boston Irish Mob boss The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs.