Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1734
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Jack Nicholson represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 65 years in, and Jack is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Jack Nicholson appears in 42 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Jack. The Departed is the clearest case: a film rated 9.0 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for comedy, music, documentary. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Beth McCarthy-Miller, Colin Hanks, Morgan Neville and others, Jack Nicholson helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
The Departed (2006) as Costello · One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) as Randle Patrick McMurphy · The Shining (1980) as Jack Torrance
Career snapshot
Ranked #1734 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
42
1960–2025
Career length
65 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
The Departed
Average Nutevio score
6.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
The Departed
Most frequent director
Roger Corman
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Roger Corman
Most common genre
Drama
22 titles
Average runtime
1h 50m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.3
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.5
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2000s
7.3 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. The Bucket List, The Departed, The Departed — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.3
Across 7 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1960s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Easy Rider, Targets, Head.
Most productive era
2020s
9 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.64 films | 7.24 films | 6.52 films | 6.94 films | 7.56 films | 6.02 films | — |
| Action | — | — | 7.31 film | — | — | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.81 film | 7.42 films | 8.51 film | 6.01 film | 8.03 films | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.33 films | 6.11 film | 6.42 films | 7.02 films | 6.84 films | 6.02 films | 6.41 film |
| Crime | 6.81 film | 7.81 film | 7.31 film | 6.22 films | 8.03 films | — | — |
| Romance | — | 6.11 film | 6.52 films | 6.82 films | 6.71 film | 5.71 film | — |
| Horror | 6.34 films | — | 7.52 films | 6.31 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1960The Little Shop of Horrors
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Wilbur Force.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2006The Departed
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.0 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2025Breakdown: 1975
The current state of the argument, as Self (The Passenger-archive footage).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
42 of 42 films
as Costello
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Randle Patrick McMurphy
Directed by Miloš Forman
as Jack Torrance
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
as Costello
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as J.J. 'Jake' Gittes
Directed by Roman Polanski
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 41 titles · 45 total credits · active 1960–2025
SNL50: The Homecoming Concert
2025 · Self
John Candy: I Like Me
2025 · Self - Actor (archive footage)
Breakdown: 1975
2025 · Self (The Passenger-archive footage)
Clint Eastwood: The Last Legend
2022 · Self (archive footage)
Untold: Deal with the Devil
2021 · Self (archive footage)
Morceaux de Cannes
2021 · Actor
Joker: Put on a Happy Face
2020 · Self
Kubrick by Kubrick
2020 · Self (archive footage)
40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic
2020 · Self (archive footage)
How Do You Know
2010 · Charles
I'm Still Here
2010 · Jack Nicholson
The Bucket List
2007 · Edward Periman Cole
The Departed
2006 · Costello
Anger Management
2003 · Dr. Buddy Rydell
Something's Gotta Give
2003 · Harry Sanborn
About Schmidt
2002 · Warren Schmidt
The Pledge
2001 · Jerry Black
As Good as It Gets
1997 · Melvin Udall
Mars Attacks!
1996 · President Dale / Art Land
Blood and Wine
1996 · Alex
Wolf
1994 · Will Randall
Hoffa
1992 · James R. 'Jimmy' Hoffa
A Few Good Men
1992 · Col. Nathan R. Jessep
Batman
1989 · Joker / Jack Napier
The defining work
#1
Costello
The Departed (2006)
Performance score9.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Costello gives Jack Nicholson a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Randle Patrick McMurphy
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Performance score9.0
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Randle Patrick McMurphy is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Jack Torrance
The Shining (1980)
Performance score8.9
The Shining asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jack Torrance is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Costello
The Departed (2006)
Performance score8.6
The Departed asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Costello is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Costello
Start here. The Departed is the clearest statement of what Jack Nicholson does — accessible, 151 minutes, and rated 9.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Jack at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Chinatown (1974)
Keeps the crime register of The Departed but asks for a colder reading of it.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
A deliberate change of key after Chinatown — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Shining (1980)
A deliberate change of key after One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Departed (2006)
Keeps the thriller register of The Shining but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Roger Corman
Director
3 films together
Notably The Raven
Mike Nichols
Director
2 films together
Notably Wolf
Bob Rafelson
Director
2 films together
Notably Head
Tim Burton
Director
2 films together
Notably Batman
Martin Scorsese
Director
2 films together
Notably The Departed
Rob Reiner
Director
2 films together
Notably A Few Good Men
James L. Brooks
Director
2 films together
Notably As Good as It Gets
Monte Hellman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Shooting
Peter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together
Notably Targets
Dennis Hopper
Director
1 film together
Notably Easy Rider
Roman Polanski
Director
1 film together
Notably Chinatown
Miloš Forman
Director
1 film together
Notably One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Michelangelo Antonioni
Director
1 film together
Notably The Passenger
Ken Russell
Director
1 film together
Notably Tommy
Arthur Penn
Director
1 film together
Notably The Missouri Breaks
Jack Nicholson
Director
1 film together
Notably Goin' South
Stanley Kubrick
Director
1 film together
Notably The Shining
Warren Beatty
Director
1 film together
Notably Reds
George Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably The Witches of Eastwick
Danny DeVito
Director
1 film together
Notably Hoffa
Sean Penn
Director
1 film together
Notably The Pledge
Alexander Payne
Director
1 film together
Notably About Schmidt
Nancy Meyers
Director
1 film together
Notably Something's Gotta Give
Peter Segal
Director
1 film together
Notably Anger Management
Casey Affleck
Director
1 film together
Notably I'm Still Here
Derek Wayne Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably 40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic
Morgan Neville
Director
1 film together
Notably Breakdown: 1975
Colin Hanks
Director
1 film together
Notably John Candy: I Like Me
Beth McCarthy-Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably SNL50: The Homecoming Concert
Matt Damon
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Leonardo DiCaprio
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Mark Wahlberg
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Martin Sheen
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Ray Winstone
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Vera Farmiga
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Anthony Anderson
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Alec Baldwin
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Kevin Corrigan
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
James Badge Dale
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
David O'Hara
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Mark Rolston
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Roger Corman
Director
3 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The RavenMartin Scorsese
Director
2 films together · 8.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The DepartedRob Reiner
Director
2 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
A Few Good MenTim Burton
Director
2 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
BatmanJames L. Brooks
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
As Good as It GetsMike Nichols
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
WolfBob Rafelson
Director
2 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
HeadMiloš Forman
Director
1 film together · 8.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestStanley Kubrick
Director
1 film together · 8.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ShiningRoman Polanski
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ChinatownColin Hanks
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
John Candy: I Like MeMichelangelo Antonioni
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PassengerDennis Hopper
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Easy RiderDerek Wayne Johnson
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a ClassicAlexander Payne
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
About SchmidtPeter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TargetsNancy Meyers
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Something's Gotta GiveWarren Beatty
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RedsSean Penn
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PledgeGeorge Miller
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Witches of EastwickMorgan Neville
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Breakdown: 1975Arthur Penn
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Missouri BreaksKen Russell
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TommyBeth McCarthy-Miller
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SNL50: The Homecoming ConcertDanny DeVito
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HoffaPeter Segal
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Anger ManagementMonte Hellman
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ShootingCasey Affleck
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I'm Still HereJack Nicholson
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Goin' SouthSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Departed
as Costello
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Reds
as Eugene O'Neill
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Departed
as Costello
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Morceaux de Cannes
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Departed
as Costello
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Jack Nicholson has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.2 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #204 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.0 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Crime, Thriller, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Martin Scorsese | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Intensity, Quiet performance, Drama | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2006–2006 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Costello — The Departed | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | The Departed | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
The Departed
Shared directors
Martin Scorsese
Shared collections
Top 100 Crime Movies, Thriller Movies, Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Martin Scorsese · Leonardo DiCaprio · Mark Wahlberg
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
65 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
22 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
The Departed
as Costello
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Departed
as Costello
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Reds
as Eugene O'Neill
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Chinatown
as J.J. 'Jake' Gittes
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Departed
as Costello
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Batman
as Joker / Jack Napier
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Something's Gotta Give
as Harry Sanborn
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Morceaux de Cannes
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 4 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
Which Jack Nicholson performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
