But the actor's life has at times been just as shocking and bizarre as a movie script.

Take, for instance, 1974, when a reporter working on a cover story for Time magazine revealed to Nicholson that June, the woman he believed to be his sister, was actually his mother. And that Ethel May, the woman he thought was his mother, was really his grandmother.

Or, 1996, when the Oscar winner was slapped with a $10-million lawsuit and accused of rupturing a woman's silicone breast implants during an attack at a dinner party.

Or, 1997, when Nicholson stopped his limo in Queens to spread some holiday cheer -- and share a pint of Jim Beam -- with residents in a working-class neighborhood.

Nicholson got his start as an office boy in MGM's cartoon department and then spent a decade in B films and second-rate horror movies. His break came in 1969, when Rip Torn bowed out of "Easy Rider" and Nicholson landed the small but important role that would earn him his first Oscar nomination.

His career flourished after that, and by 1975 he nabbed his first Academy Award, for best actor in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

Despite a fondness for recreational drugs and Hollywood starlets that overshadowed his four-year marriage to Sandra Knight and a 17-year relationship with Anjelica Huston, Nicholson has developed a reputation as a brilliant actor.

He's played everything from a werewolf and a psychotic killer to a troubled classical pianist and the devil. And his versatility hasn't been limited to acting. He's also written and directed films.

On many levels, Nicholson has earned the respect of his peers.