Jack Nicholson is definitely one of the most infamous actors in Hollywood, particularly for people of a certain generation. He has starred in numerous powerful films, including The Shining, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Easy Rider. He's also lived through plenty of dramas in his personal life, including one that hit extremely close to home.
In 1974, Jack found out that the woman he believed to be his mother was actually his grandmother. Ethel May Nicholson raised Jack alongside the women he believed to be his sisters, Lorraine and June.
The worst part is that his family didn't reveal this intimate news to him — a researcher caught him off guard when he filled Jack in on his actual biological parentage.
The researcher from Time magazine was working on a cover story about Jack when he made the discovery about Jack's grandparents and his mom. Jack received a phone call from the researcher, who was trying to clarify a few points in the piece. The researcher told Jack that his biological father was alive, and that his mother was the woman he believed to be his sister.
Up to that point, Jack had enjoyed a genuinely lovely childhood and adulthood. He was raised by a supportive mom who delighted in his career. His mother, Ethel, owned a beauty parlor. Jack had two sisters — June and Lorraine.
Jack asked the researcher not to publish the news in the article, and he immediately called his brother-in-law, Shorty. In the biography Jack's Life, he's reported as saying, "Shorty, this is the most [expletive] thing I've ever heard. A guy calls me on the phone, and says that my father is still alive, and that Ethel May wasn't really my mother, that June was my mother."
His brother-in-law tried to dodge the query at first, but he eventually gave the phone to Jack's sister, Lorraine. Unfortunately, both Ethel May and June had died by this point, so Jack wasn't able to ask them if the story was true. Lorraine also wasn't sure if the man the researcher pointed to — Don Forucillo-Rose — was really his biological father.
It turns out the story was totally true. June got pregnant in 1936 by her boyfriend, Don. She was 18 at the time, and Ethel May threatened Don unless he agreed to stay away from June and the baby. He relented, and the family reportedly never saw him again.
Jack hasn't made much of the news publicly in the years that have followed. He described the news as "dramatic" to Rolling Stone, but he also added that it "wasn’t what I'd call traumatizing."
He also noted, "I was very impressed by their ability to keep the secret, if nothing else."
Of course, this is hardly the only wild story that Jack Nicholson has lived through. He's definitely known for being an unusual character in an industry that caters to unusual characters. In the 1960s, he spent three months totally nude and wouldn't put clothes on for anyone.
Rolling Stone journalist Erik Hedegaard once spoke about the home Jack lived in at the time, explaining, "It's where, in the late Sixties, as a matter of self-help, he spent three months walking around in the nude, at all hours of the day, no matter who stopped by, his daughter included."
These days, Jack is reportedly living alone in Hollywood. In 2015, he said that he's still holding out for one more relationship:
"I would love that one last romance. But I'm not very realistic about it happening. What I can't deny is my yearning."
