Jack Nicholson picks out the "greatest actor of all time" (2024)

Jack Nicholson is counted among the greatest acting talents by many fans, especially due to his incredibly powerful work on popular masterpieces such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Shining, among many others. A true icon who has been described as a “cultural touchstone”, Nicholson’s cinematic legacy is incredibly influential for aspiring artists. His work also enjoys being both commercially successful and critically adored, with a filmography rightfully lauded as one of the most potent in the 20th century.

When he was starting out in the film industry, Nicholson was offered an entry-level job as an animator by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, but he was determined to become an actor. Nicholson went on to star in multiple projects, but at one point, he felt as if his acting career would not take him anywhere. Dejected but not deterred from being creative, instead, Nicholson pursued the difficult vocation of screenwriting. But, in truth, Nicholson’s demeanour always beckoned for the spotlight.

Of course, Nicholson later managed to establish himself as one of the greatest acting talents of his time. He enjoyed critical moments of artistic brilliance and even bagged three Academy Awards. Grabbing the coveted prize of ‘Best Actor’ in 1976 for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, followed by ‘Best Supporting Actor’ in 1984 for Terms of Endearment, before rounding out his haul in 1998 with a ‘Best Actor’ win for As Good As It Gets.

Over the course of an illustrious career, there was one influence guiding him all along – Marlon Brando. According to Nicholson, he was part of the first generation of Brando fans, and he found the icon’s screen presence “mesmerising”.

In a tribute published by Rolling Stone, Nicholson wrote: “Marlon Brando is one of the great men of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and we lesser mortals are obligated to cut through the sh*t and proclaim it.” Recalling his formative years, Nicholson described how he saw On the Waterfront twice every night and was deeply moved by Brando’s incandescent performance.

As a child, Nicholson did not recognise the unique approach to method acting that Brando incorporated into his work, but he had a feeling that Brando was unapologetically unique, and everyone around him knew it too. Even though many other actors have become famous for their method of acting, Nicholson insists that nobody comes close to Brando. The reason he was able to hold the camera’s gaze was because he truly embodied the characters.

“Other actors don’t go around discussing who is the best actor in the world, because it’s obvious – Marlon Brando is,” Nicholson declared. He even turned down the opportunity to star in The Godfather because his character did not have any common scene with Brando and he decided to wait for a project like The Missouri Breaks instead.

However, working on The Missouri Breaks turned out to be an incredibly difficult experience for Nicholson since he was psychologically intimidated by the opportunity. Before that, he had been building up the idea of working with Brando on a film but it was a different story when he got around to it.

“I was totally annihilated by him,” Nicholson recalled while writing about how Brando’s knowledge of his craft overwhelmed him. In fact, Nicholson also claimed that he would not know what to say to those who did not acknowledge the greatness of Brando because they were missing something that was painfully obvious. They had missed the raw talent of one of Hollywood’s legendary figures.

Due to Nicholson’s meteoric rise, he was able to actually live beside his childhood idol on Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills, which was nicknamed the ‘Bad Boy Drive’ because it housed the likes of Nicholson, Brando and Warren Beatty. When Brando passed away, Nicholson bought his house and planted frangipani flowers in remembrance of the icon.

In his article, Nicholson argued that Brando was the best actor in the world because he didn’t just shine in the great films, but he also managed to bring something of value to the projects that did not do so well. Brando may have some fantastic roles in his locker, but as he approached the end of his life, he was more than happy to throw his hat into any ring, as long as the director could handle him. “Almost everything the guy ever did, in my opinion, was revolutionary, Nicholson added. “To me, Marlon Brando was the greatest ever. That’s a truth I hold to be self-evident.”

Commenting on Brando’s extensive filmography, Nicholson noted that the apotheosis of Brando’s career might have been On the Waterfront, but his work as Mark Antony in Julius Caesar was also vastly influential for American actors who adapted Shakespeare. For Nicholson, Brando exists in the same bracket of greatness as Picasso.

He declared: “As an artist, I equate Brando with Picasso. I’ve seen Picasso’s early drawings and so forth in the museums in Barcelona. I always thought if you took the first thing Picasso ever drew and continued to show everything he did until the day he died, you would see that some people are incapable of not being brilliant.”

When considering the greats of modern cinema, it’s hard to ignore the looming figure of Jack Nicholson, but if his shadow is cast over the work of every leading man in the business, it’s because he found his stature at the altar of Marlon Brando.

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