Jack Nicholson list of goals. In researching the role, Nicholson visited a Los Angeles hospital to see how cancer patients coped with their illnesses. Nicholson's next film role saw him reunite with James L. Brooks, director of "Terms of Endearment", "Broadcast News", and "As Good as It Gets", for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in the 2010 film "How Do You Know". It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting because of memory loss, but in a September 2013 "Vanity Fair" article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that
Jack Nicholson a starting-level job as an animator, but he declined, citing his desire to become an actor. He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas. He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama "The Cry Baby Killer" (1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in "The Little Shop of Horrors", as masochistic dental patient and undertaker