Jack Nicholson’s 10 best movies ranked

Jack Nicholson turns 85 today. His films have earned him widespread acclaim and box office success, cementing him as one of Hollywood’s most beloved actors.

To wish the 3-time Oscar-winning screen legend a happy birthday, we’ll share our 10 favorite films of his, plus a few honorable mentions.

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10) Easy Rider (1969)

Nicholson provided much needed levity in Dennis Hopper’s psychedelic road movie classic about bikers traveling from L.A. to New Orleans through the open country and desert lands. He plays an alcoholic lawyer who bridges the counter-culture gap for Hopper and Peter Fonda during their fateful odyssey.

9) The Departed (2006)

As callous Irish Mob boss Frank Costello, Nicholson finally worked with fellow great Martin Scorsese and chewed plenty of scenery in the process, dutifully stealing thunder from heavyweights like Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon who seemed grateful to share screen-time with the legend himself.

8) Chinatown (1974)

Way in over his head, Nicholson’s private detective J.J. Gittes is hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles, as he finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption and murder in Roman Polanski and Robert Towne’s neo-noir classic, finding the actor doing great work opposite Faye Dunaway and John Huston.

7) Terms of Endearment (1983)

As a retired astronaut and next-door neighbor to Shirley MacLaine’s widow Aurora in James L. Brook’s outstanding domestic dramedy, Nicholson shines in every scene he appears on his way to winning the best supporting actor Oscar. Still at the peak of his powers, he uses them sparingly and effectively here.

6) As Good as It Gets (1997)

Nicholson would win his third Oscar for playing a misanthropic, misogynistic author who forges an unlikely friendship with a waitress and an artist. Re-teaming with James L. Brooks, the already-legendary actor found new ways to stretch thanks to tremendous chemistry with Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear (oh, and that dog).

5) Batman (1989)

Before Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix won Oscar for playing the Joker, Jack Nicholson set a high bar for big screen portrayals of Batman’s greatest nemesis. He even received top billing ahead of Michael Keaton, but his star power warranted it, and his wacky performance as the Clown Prince of Crime delivered the goods.

4) The Last Detail (1973)

Nicholson stars as one of two Navy men ordered to bring a young offender to prison, but not before showing him one last good time in New York City along the way. Hal Ashby’s underrated, understated classic mines all the charisma jolting throughout the actor’s mind and body it can in a terrific performance alongside Otis Young and Randy Quaid. “I am the shore patrol!” (or something like that…)

3) About Schmidt (2002)

As a recently retired man who embarks on a journey to his estranged daughter’s wedding, Nicholson proved he still had the goods (and then some) in Alexander Payne’s thoughtful and highly entertaining portrait of a senior still coming of age. Nicholson reins in the charm to channel an everyman who feels all too hilariously familiar at times.

2) The Shining (1980)

Stanley Kubrick’s loose adaptation of Stephen King’s novel currently holds the belt for best horror movie until someone convinces me otherwise. Nicholson’s over-stressed caretaker of the mysterious Overlook Hotel is a little in over his head from the beginning, never more than when he tries to murder his family and chases his son Danny into the hotel’s hedge maze almost totally piled under several feet of snow. A total immersion into psychosis that transports us to a place we’ll never forget, no matter how hard we try. “Here’s Johnny!”

1) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

As R.P. McMurphy, a criminal who pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, Nicholson rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies her once-terrified patients in Milos Forman’s timeless best picture winner that saw the actor in a career-defining turn. Perhaps the Jack Nicholson performance, with all the charisma you’d expect, his finest moments come in quieter scenes like when he shares a stick of Juicy Fruit with Will Sampson’s Chief Bromden.

Honorable mentions: Five Easy Pieces (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971), Reds (1981), A Few Good Men (1992), Mars Attacks! (1996), Anger Management (2003)