- Jack Nicholson made a rare public appearance at the SNL 50th anniversary show
- Nicholson introduced Adam Sandler during the show
- The 87-year-old is a three-time Oscar winner and a 10-time nominee
Jack Nicholson may have been retired for 15 years and out of the public eye for much of that time, but that wasn’t going to stop the iconic 87-year-old acting titan from showing up to Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary show to introduce his friend Adam Sandler.
Nicholson’s appearance garnered a lot of attention, as the three-time Oscar winner rarely makes any public appearances nowadays. The Easy Rider star signed off his 54 year career in 2010 with How Do You Know, alongside Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson and Reese Witherspoon. In the intervening 15 years, not much has been seen of the man who brought the likes of Jake Gittes, R.P. McMurphy, Jack Torrance, Eugene O’Neill and The Joker searing onto the silver screen across the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.
Nicholson, of course, starred alongside Sandler in 2003 comedy Anger Management, and was on hand, Kangol hat and all, to introduce his former co-star’s musical appearance on SNL’s 50th birthday special.
At 87 years of age, Nicholson appeared in good health during his brief cameo on the show. In years gone by he had been a regular fixture courtside at countless Lakers games (he last appeared during a 2023 playoff game, which was reportedly the first game he had attended in two years) , but recently any sightings of him have come courtesy of shots snatched by members of the paparazzi.
Despite retiring from acting 15 years ago, Nicholson’s towering body of work is still highly regarded and revered to this day. His roles in the likes of Chinatown, Five Easy Pieces, The Shining, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Prizzi’s Honor, A Few Good Men, Batman, Terms of Endearment, As Good As It Gets and The Departed have cemented Nicholson as one of the all time greats, with three Oscars from a staggering 10 nominations coming his way over the years. No male actor has won more (Daniel-Day Lewis and Walter Brennan both have three apiece. Katharine Hepburn is the most successful overall with four wins. Meryl Streep, Frances McDormand and Ingrid Bergman all have three each, too).
But when did Jack Nicholson’s incredible run at the Academy Awards start? Which unforgettable role was it that earned him his first Oscar?
That moment would arrive in 1975, for his role as R.P. McMurphy in Milos Forman’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, in which Nicholson stars as a Korean War veteran who pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution. McMurphy attempts to led an uprising against the tyrannical Nurse Ratched, starring alongside Louise Fletcher, Will Sampson and relatively fresh faced pair Christopher Lloyd and Danny DeVito, both starring in early career roles.
Cuckoo’s Nest has long been widely regarded as one of the finest films ever made, earning Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay (being based off the original novel by Ken Kesey). It is the second of only three films to win The Big Five at the Oscars.
Following his victory in 1975, Nicholson would once again be crowned Best Actor, in 1997, for his performance in romantic comedy As Good As It Gets. In between these two wins, Nicholson also scooped Best Supporting Actor in 1983 for his role in Terms of Endearment. He has also received nominations for Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Detail, Chinatown, Reds, Prizzi’s Honor, Ironweed, A Few Good Men and About Schmidt.
