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 movie's soundtrack. After a spot opened up in Fonda and Hopper's "Easy Rider" (1969), it led to his first big acting break. Nicholson played hard-drinking lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million. Biographer John Parker states that Nicholson's interpretation of his role placed him in the company of earlier "anti-hero" actors, such as James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, while promoting him into an "overnight number-one hero of the counter-culture movement". The part was a lucky break for Nicholson—the role had been written