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Jack Nicholson has turned 89 – and in celebration, his daughter Lorraine shared a rare photo of the Hollywood titan.
The acting legend, whose films include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Shining, smiled away as he spent the day with family and friends, including singer Joni Mitchell.
Nicholson shares Lorraine with his ex-wife Rebecca Broussard, to whom he was married between 1989 and 1994.He is also father to Jennifer Nicholson, 61, Caleb Goddard, 54, Honey Hollman, 43, Ray Nicholson and Tessa Gourin, 31.
Jack Nicholson celebrating his 89th birthday with Joni Mitchell (Instagram)
In recent years, Nicholson has rarely been spotted in public, and fans have expressed their happiness over seeing the actor looking so happy.
One wrote: “I appreciate the family sharing their Jack with all of us. There’s a world of fans who’ve been entertained and touched by his art and it’s just effing cool to see him hanging with a fellow genius LA artist, Joni Mitchell. We cherish our great artists and wish them joyful days!”
“What a pleasure to see you,” another commented, with one fan writing on X/Twitter: “One of the greatest actors of all time! Happy Birthday Jack!”
Lorraine previously spoke about her relationship with her father in a 2011 interview with US Weekly, where she talked about his role in her own acting career.
“He’s my mentor,” she explained. “I’m going into the family business because we’re so close and he’s such an inspiration. I admire him so much.”
She also shared the one piece of advice from her family members that she continues to follow.
Jack Nicholson with his children, Lorraine and Ray Nicholson (Instagram/Lorraine Nicholson)
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“My grandma always told my father, ‘Don’t toot your own horn,’ which in Nicholson speak means, ‘Be modest and let your work speak for yourself,’” Lorraine said. “That’s sort of what I applied to not only my acting work, but my everyday work.”
For The Independent last year, film critic Geoffrey Macnab wrote about Jack’s “deserved (if unofficial) retirement”.
“There was a time when the actor was spotted everywhere: in nightclubs, on chat shows, at basketball matches, at movie premieres. No more,” he wrote.
“The actor has performed a vanishing act. It is 14 years since his last movie, the rapidly forgotten romcom How Do You Know. One of his friends, music producer Lou Adler, told the WTF podcast that Nicholson now prefers to spend his time ‘sitting under a tree and reading a book’.”
Jack Nicholson in ‘The Shining’ (Columbia-EMI-Warner Distributors)
Nicholson made his film debut in 1958, kickstarting an illustrious career that saw him star in films including Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, Batman, A Few Good Men and The Departed.
He’s received more Oscar nominations than any male actor, winning three for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets.