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Francesco Castiglia
Costello testifying before the Kefauver Committee.
Born	(1891-02-10)February 10, 1891 Lauropoli, Calabria, Italy
Died	February 18, 1973(1973-02-18) (aged 82) Manhattan, New York, United States
Cause of death	Heart attack
Resting place	Saint Michael's Cemetery, Queens
Nationality	Italian, American
Citizenship	Italian, American
Occupation	Bootlegger, Businessman, Crime boss, Mobster, Racketeer
Known for	Boss of the Genovese crime family

Frank "the Prime Minister" Costello (born Francesco Castiglia; January 26, 1891 – February 18, 1973) was an Italian gangster and Mafia boss. Costello rose to the top of America's underworld, controlled a vast gambling empire across the United States and enjoyed political influence.

Nicknamed "the Prime Minister of the Underworld," he became one of the most powerful and influential Mafia bosses in American history, eventually leading the Luciano crime family (later called the Genovese crime family), one of the Five Families that operates in New York.

Early years[link]

Costello was born in Lauropoli, a mountain village in Calabria, Italy in 1891.^[1] In 1900, he boarded a ship to the United States with his mother and his brother Edward in order to join their father, who had moved to New York's East Harlem several years earlier and opened a small neighborhood Italian grocery store. While Costello was still a boy, his brother introduced him to gang activities. By age 13, Costello had become a member of a local gang and started using the name Frankie. Costello continued to commit petty crimes, and went to jail for assault and robbery in 1908, 1912 and 1917. In 1918, Costello married Lauretta Giegerman, a Jewish girl who was the sister of a close friend. That same year, Costello served ten months in jail for carrying a concealed weapon. After his release, Costello decided to avoid street rackets and use his brain to make money as a criminal. Foregoing the use of violence as a road to success and wealth, Costello claimed that he never again carried a gun. Costello would not return to jail for 37 years.

Alliance with Luciano[link]

Charles "Lucky" Luciano's Mugshot

While working for the Morello gang, Costello met Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, the Sicilian leader of Manhattan's Lower East Side gang. The two Italians immediately became friends and partners. Several older members of Luciano's family disapproved of this growing partnership; they were mostly old-school mafiosi who were unwilling to work with anyone who was not Sicilian. To Luciano's shock, they warned him against working with Costello, whom they called "the dirty Calabrian."^[2] Along with Italian-American associates Vito Genovese and Tommy "Three-Finger Brown" Lucchese and Jewish associates Meyer Lansky and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, the gang became involved in robbery, theft, extortion, gambling and narcotics. The Luciano-Costello-Lansky-Siegel alliance prospered even further with the passage of Prohibition in 1920. The gang went into bootlegging, backed by criminal financier Arnold "the Brain" Rothstein.^[1]

The success of the young Italians let them make business deals with the leading Jewish and Irish criminals of the era, including Dutch Schultz, Owney "the Killer" Madden and William "Big Bill" Dwyer. Rothstein became a mentor to Costello, Luciano, Lansky and Siegel while they conducted bootlegging business with Bronx beer baron Schultz. In 1922, Costello, Luciano, and their closest Italian associates joined the Sicilian Mafia crime family led by Joe "the Boss" Masseria, a top Italian underworld boss. By 1924, Costello had become a close associate of Hell's Kitchen's Irish crime bosses Dwyer and Madden. Costello became deeply involved in their rum-running operations, known as "The Combine"; this could have prompted his name change.

In 1926, Combine boss Bill Dwyer was convicted of bribing a United States Coast Guard official and sentenced to two years in jail. After Dwyer was imprisoned, Costello took over the Combine's operations with Owney Madden. This caused friction between Madden and top Dwyer lieutenant, Charles "Vannie" Higgins. Higgins, referred to as Brooklyn's "Last Irish Crime Boss," believed he should be running the Combine, not Costello. Thus, the "Manhattan Beer Wars" began between Higgins on one side, and Costello, Madden, and Schultz on the other. At this particular time, Schultz was also having problems with gangsters Jack "Legs" Diamond and Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll. With Higgins' help, these two hoodlums had begun to rival Schultz and his partners. Eventually, the Costello-Madden-Schultz alliance was destroyed by New York's underworld.

Costello continued to be a very influential gangster throughout the 1920s. Costello kept close associates Luciano, Lansky and Siegel involved in most of his gambling rackets, which included punch cards, slot machines, bookmaking and floating casinos. Costello eventually became known as the "Prime Minister of the Underworld" for his cultivation of associations and business relationships with New York's criminals, politicians, businessmen, judges, and police officials. As he followed the "Big Three" ideology of mixing crime, business and politics, Costello's underworld influence grew. His fellow gangsters considered Frank to be an important link between the Mafia and the politicians of Tammany Hall, New York's Democratic Party organization. This relationship gave Costello and his associates, including Luciano, the opportunity to buy the favors of politicians, judges, district attorneys, cops, city officials and anyone else they needed to bribe in order to freely run their criminal operations.

In 1927, Costello, Luciano, and former Chicago gangster John "Johnny the Fox" Torrio organized a group of top East Coast rum-runners into a large bootlegging operation. This gang was able to pool their Canadian and European liquor sources, maximize profits, minimize overhead, and gain an advantage over their competition. The operation was known as the "Big Seven Group", the first concrete move in organizing the American underworld into a national crime syndicate. In May 1929, Costello, Luciano, Torrio, Lansky, and Atlantic City/South Jersey crime boss, Enoch "Nucky" Johnson hosted a crime convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This convention included the members of the "Big Seven Group" and the top crime leaders from across the nation. This was the first true underworld meeting and the biggest step in forming a National Crime Syndicate that would control criminal operations, dictate policy, enforce rules, and maintain authority in the national underworld. Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano were not invited because their Old World ideas ran counter to the convention's goals.

The Castellammarese War[link]

By 1928, Costello and Luciano were considered to be two young, ambitious, and powerful gangsters on the rise. However, an internal conflict in the Italian underworld would sidetrack Costello and associates. Masseria was facing a challenge from Maranzano, a recent arrival from Palermo, Sicily who was born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. When Maranzano arrived in New York in 1925, his access to money and manpower let him quickly set up rumrunning, bootlegging, extortion and gambling operations that directly competed with Masseria, Costello's boss. On October 10, 1928, Joe Masseria eliminated his top rival for the coveted "boss of bosses" title, Brooklyn boss, Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila. However, Masseria still had to deal with the powerful and influential Maranzano and his Castellammarese Clan.

Joe Masseria became an underworld dictator, requiring absolute loyalty and obedience from the other four New York families. In 1930, Masseria demanded a $10,000 tribute from the leader of Maranzano's crime family and got it. The Castellammarese Clan leader, Nicola "Cola" Schiro fled New York in fear, leaving Maranzano as the new leader. By 1931, a series of killings in Detroit, Chicago and New York involving Castellammarese clan members and associates caused Maranzano and his family to declare war against Joe Masseria and his allies. These allies included Costello and his associates, Luciano, Vito Genovese and Joe Adonis. Another Masseria ally was the large Mineo crime family (formerly D'Aquila), whose members included Costello associates Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia, Carlo Gambino, and Frank Scalice. The Castellammarese clan included Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno and Stefano Magaddino, the Profaci crime family which included Joseph Profaci and Joseph Magliocco, along with former Masseria allies the Riena family, which included Gaetano "Tom" Riena, Gaetano "Tommy" Gagliano and Gaetano Lucchese.

The Castellammarese war raged on between the Masseria and Maranzano factions for almost two years. This internal war devastated the Prohibition era operations and street rackets that the New York families controlled with the Irish crime groups. The Castellammarese war cut into gang profits and in some cases completely destroyed the underworld rackets of crime family members.

Several of the younger gang members on both sides realized that if the war did not stop soon, the Italian crime families could be left on the fringe of New York's criminal underworld while the Irish crime bosses became dominant. However, it was inevitable that a breach would eventually occur due to a fundamental philosophical difference between the Old World crime bosses and their younger underlings. Masseria, Maranzano and others who had begun their careers in Italy were known as "Mustache Petes" because they were not willing to work with non-Italians, and were skeptical of dealing with non-Sicilians. Costello, Luciano and their group of "Young Turks," on the other hand, believed that as long as there was money to be made, they should deal with anyone regardless of ethnic roots. Costello, Luciano, Seigel and Lansky decided to end the Castellammarese War, and secretly planned to eliminate one "Mustache Pete" immediately, then bide their time and kill the other one.

Luciano and Costello set their plan in motion by secretly agreeing to betray Masseria if Maranzano would end the war. On April 15, 1931, Masseria was gunned down at Scarpato's restaurant in Coney Island by Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis and Bugsy Seigel. Luciano then took over Masseria's family, with Costello as his consigliere.

However, at a secret meeting in Upstate New York, Maranzano surprised everyone by naming himself boss of all bosses. Although they had planned to get rid of Maranzano anyway, Costello and Luciano came to believe that Maranzano was even more power-hungry than Masseria had ever been, and moved up their timetable. Maranzano served as boss of bosses until September 10, 1931, when he was killed in his 9th floor Helmsley Building office in Manhattan by gunmen posing as IRS agents. Hired by Lansky and Luciano, the shooters allegedly included Schultz gang lieutenant, Abraham "Bo" Weinberg and Murder, Inc. gunman, Samuel "Red" Levine. It has been estimated that the Castellammarese War led to about 60 deaths among gangsters.^[3]

Years as Consigliere[link]

In 1931, after the killings of Mafia bosses Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, Charles Luciano became the leader of the new Luciano crime family, with Vito Genovese as underboss and Frank Costello as consigliere. Costello quickly became one of the biggest earners for the Luciano family and began to carve his own niche in the underworld. Costello controlled the slot machine and bookmaking operations for the Luciano crime family with associate Philip "Dandy Phil" Kastel. Costello placed approximately 25,000 slot machines in the bars, restaurants, cafes, drug stores, gas stations, and bus stops throughout New York. However, in 1934 mayor Fiorello La Guardia confiscated thousands of Costello's slot machines, loaded them on a barge, and dumped them into the river. Costello's next move was to accept Louisiana governor, Huey Long's proposal to put slot machines throughout Louisiana for 10% of the take. Frank Costello placed Kastel as the overseer of the Louisiana slot operation. Kastel had the assistance of New Orleans mafioso Carlos "Little Man" Marcello, who knew every place in New Orleans that could take one of Costello's "one-arm bandits". Frank Costello brought in millions of dollars in profit from slot machines and bookmaking to the Luciano Family. In fact, Costello and Frank Erickson, the overseer of Costello's bookmaking operations, are credited with starting the layoff and odds systems used by bookies and gamblers all across North America.

In 1936, Luciano was convicted of running a prostitution ring and sent to Dannemora prison, known as "Siberia," in Upstate New York, for 30 to 50 years. Luciano attempted to rule the crime family from prison with the help of Costello and Lansky, but it was difficult to do far away from the streets of New York. Luciano finally named his underboss, Vito Genovese, as the acting boss of the Luciano family. However, Genovese was himself indicted for murder in 1937 and had to flee to his hometown of Naples, Italy. Genovese ingratiated himself with Benito Mussolini and the Fascists by donating $250,000 to them from a cash hoard of $750,000 carried in a suitcase. Luciano then appointed Frank Costello acting boss.

Boss[link]

The departure of Vito Genovese to Italy left Frank Costello in firm control of the Luciano crime family. With the help of his top capos, Joe Adonis, Anthony Carfano (also known as "Little Augie Pisano") and Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola, the crime family ran smoothly and undeterred. Costello's rule was very profitable, with rackets going from coast to coast: slots in New Orleans with Carlos Marcello, gambling in Florida with Meyer Lansky, and illegal race wires with Bugsy Siegel in Los Angeles. Costello also enjoyed more political strength than any other mobster in the US. Costello was a popular and well-liked boss; he equitably shared the profits from family operations, and did not demand a large cut of his underlings' criminal earnings. He apparently was the owner of New York's third biggest poultry meat supply firms and a chain of MeatMarts; he did not need to be greedy. Costello also expanded the family's operations to include casinos in Las Vegas and Cuba. However, Costello always stayed clear of drug trafficking; he believed that the Mafia did not need narcotics to make money. This aversion to selling drugs was not shared by Genovese, a known drug dealer throughout his criminal career. After Luciano's prison sentence was commuted and he was deported to Italy in 1946, Costello became the undisputed boss of the Luciano crime family.

Genovese and Kefauver[link]

Vito Genovese's mugshot

After Genovese's return to the US and the dismissal of 1936 murder charge, he began a campaign to regain the family leadership from Costello. Genovese started building loyalty among family soldiers by lending them money or by doing them favors that they someday would have to reciprocate. The resentment Genovese felt for Costello was multiplied by the fact that Genovese was no longer a top boss in the family; he was just a capo (caporegime), a street boss in charge of a crew of soldiers. However, Genovese was treated as a "don" by the capos and street soldiers who committed most of the violent crimes (i.e., murder, robbery, etc.). In contrast, Frank Costello controlled the support of the capos and soldiers who ran the white collar crime rackets (i.e., gambling, loansharking, construction, etc.) and the family's many legitimate investments. Costello's position as a Commission member and his popularity as a top boss kept him safe from any assassination attempt or power move by Genovese. To unseat Costello, Genovese needed more support from the Luciano family and the other Commission members. Genovese was also dissuaded from a direct attack on Costello by the strength of underboss, Guarino "Willie Moore" Moretti, a Costello cousin and staunch ally who commanded a small army of soldiers in New Jersey.

From May 1950 to May 1951, the US Senate conducted a large scale investigation of organized crime, commonly known as the Kefauver Hearings. The entire country was held in awe by the parade of over 600 gangsters, pimps, bookmakers, politicians and mob lawyers testifying before Congress, showcased on television. The hearings were called by a Special Committee of the United States Senate chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, who had been appointed to investigate organized crime in Interstate Commerce.

By this time, Costello had become a powerful and respected underworld figure; however, Costello still craved the respectability of high society. Costello allegedly consulted a psychiatrist on achieving this goal, but ultimately failed to gain legitimate respectability. During the Kefauver hearings, Costello became the star attraction, being billed as America's #1 gangster and the de facto leader of New York's Tammany Hall. As the underworld grapevine put it, "Nobody in New York City can be made a judge without Costello's consent."

Costello agreed to testify at the hearings and not take the Fifth Amendment, in contrast to all the previous underworld figures to take the stand. The Special Committee and the TV networks had agreed not to broadcast Frank Costello's face, only his hands. During the questioning, Costello nervously refused to answer certain questions and skirted around others. When asked by the committee, "What have you done for your country Mr. Costello?", the raspy-voiced Costello's reply evoked a rare laugh at the hearings: "Paid my tax!" Costello eventually walked out of the hearings.

Costello found the 1950s to be very trying, as the high visibility he received during the Kefauver Hearings brought additional law enforcement and media scrutiny. However, Costello's greatest troubles began with the assassination of Willie Moretti, his right hand man. His mental condition had prompted Moretti to reveal some embarrassing details at the Kefauver hearings. As a result, the Commission ordered Moretti's elimination, which happened October 4, 1951 in a New Jersey restaurant. In addition to Moretti's death, Costello was convicted on contempt of Senate charges in August 1952 for the hearings walkout, and went to jail for 18 months. Released after 14 months, Costello was charged with tax evasion in 1954 and sentenced to five years imprisonment. Costello served 11 months of this sentence before it was overturned on appeal. In 1956, Costello was again convicted and sent to prison. In early 1957, he was again released on appeal.

Assassination attempt[link]

Albert Anastasia's mugshot

Vito Genovese finally made his move on the embattled Frank Costello. It started in 1956 when Joe Adonis, a powerful Costello ally, chose voluntary deportation to Italy, instead of a long prison sentence. Adonis' departure had left Costello weakened, but Genovese still had to neutralize one more powerful Costello ally, Albert Anastasia. Anastasia, the Brooklyn waterfront boss, had taken over the second largest family in the US after the disappearance of boss Vincent Mangano and the murder of brother Philip Mangano on April 14, 1951. With the addition of Albert Anastasia to the Commission in 1951, the so-called "Liberal faction," which included Costello, began to get stronger. In 1953, another Liberal ally, boss Tommy Lucchese, was added to the Commission. As a result, the "Conservative faction" that controlled the Commission from 1936–53, was now rivaled by the Liberal Costello-Anastasia-Lucchese alliance. However, Genovese converted this reversal into an opportunity of conflict by approaching Lucchese and Anastasia's underboss Carlo Gambino about switching sides. The potential reward in eliminating Costello and Anastasia was control of the Luciano and Anastasia crime families by Genovese and Gambino.

Vito Genovese had patiently waited 10 years after his deportation from Italy to make his final move against Frank Costello, and time had finally arrived. On May 2, 1957, soon after Costello's release from prison, an attempt was made on his life. As Costello was walking to the elevator in the lobby of his Manhattan apartment building, he was shot in the head by Genovese driver and protege, Vincent "Chin" Gigante. Before taking the shot, Gigante called out, "This is for you Frank!" On hearing this, Costello turned his head. Gigante fled the scene thinking the fallen Costello was dead. However, Gigante's unintentional warning had saved Costello and left him with only a scalp wound. After the abortive hit, Gigante went on the lam and lost a great deal of weight from his 6'2, 300 pound frame to conceal his identity. However, Gigante finally turned himself in to face mob trial, hoping that Costello would adhere to the Mafia code of secrecy, "omertà." Costello refused to identify his shooter and Gigante was eventually acquitted.

Vito Genovese now ordered all the Luciano crime family members loyal to him to show their support by attending a meeting at his New Jersey mansion. All the family's capos showed up except Costello loyalist Anthony Carfano (who was murdered for this insult on September 25, 1959). Even though the attempt on Costello's life had failed, Vito Genovese went on to appoint himself boss of the Luciano crime family. He then called for a national Commission meeting to discuss Mafia affairs in New York and other important issues. The Luciano crime family, the most powerful, influential, and wealthy crime family in America, was now officially renamed the Genovese crime family.

After recovering from the assassination attempt, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese made peace before the 1957 Apalachin meeting. Costello abdicated as family boss in favor of Genovese. In return, Genovese let Costello keep all of his gambling operations in Louisiana and Florida and his legitimate business interests. Officially, Costello was demoted to the rank of soldier within the crime family, but he was never looked at as less than a top level boss in the criminal organization who helped build "Cosa Nostra," or "Our Thing."

Retirement[link]

During his retirement, Costello was known as "The Prime Minister of the Underworld." He still retained power and influence in New York's Mafia and remained busy throughout his final years. Cosa Nostra bosses and old associates such as Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese still paid visits to Costello at his Waldorf Astoria penthouse, seeking advice on important Mafia affairs. Costello's old friend, Meyer Lansky, kept in touch with him.

In 1973, at age 82, Frank Costello died of a heart attack at a Manhattan hospital. He is buried in Saint Michael's Cemetery in Queens.^[4]

As a testament to Costello's fame and influence, Carmine Galante ordered the bombing of Frank Costello's burial site soon after his release from prison in 1974. By blasting the bronze doors off Costello's mausoleum, Galante announced his return to the New York Cosa Nostra scene and finally achieved revenge on his old enemy.

Popular culture[link]

• Costello has been portrayed in several movies by actors James Andronica in Gangster Wars (1981), Carmine Caridi in Bugsy (1991), Costas Mandylor in Mobsters (1991), and by Kirk Baltz in the television movie Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long (1995).
• The character of "Vito Corleone" in the book and 1972 film The Godfather is based on a composite of mid-20th Century New York Mafia figures, perhaps chief among them Frank Costello. The Corleone character featured similar mannerisms (including a raspy voice) and political connections, as well as many events from his real life. (Like Costello, Don Corleone voices disapproval of the drug traffic, which he labels a "dirty business"). Marlon Brando, who played Corleone, apparently used tapes of Costello from the Kefauver hearings as the basis for the character's accent.
• Costello was the godfather to ABC News reporter and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Assistant Director for the Office of Public Affairs John Miller. Miller's father and Costello were close friends.
• Referenced in Allen Ginsberg's poem, "Hadda Be Playing on the Jukebox". The line is written, "It had to be FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover / and Frank Costello syndicate mouthpiece / meeting in Central Park, New York weekends, / reported Time magazine". The poem was later performed live (with music) by the band Rage Against The Machine on the album Live & Rare.
• The film The Departed features an Irish mob boss named "Frank Costello" (played by Jack Nicholson) in present-day Boston. Nicholson's character is not related to the real-life Costello except in name; the character was based on Boston mobster "Whitey" Bulger.

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Brennan, Bill (1962). The Frank Costello Story. Derby, CT: Monarch Books. 
• Katz, Leonard (1973). Uncle Frank: The Biography of Frank Costello. New York: Drake Publishers. 
• Wolf, George (1974). Frank Costello: Prime Minister of the Underworld. New York: William Morrow & Company. 
• Raab, Selwyn. (2006). Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-30094-8. 

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Frank Costello at Rotten.com
• Seize The Night: Frank Costello
• The Free Information Society: Frank Costello Biography
• Frank Costello at Find a Grave

Virginia Hill (August 26, 1916 – March 24, 1966) was an American organized crime figure. A Chicago Outfit courier, she was famous for being the girlfriend of Genovese crime family mobster Bugsy Siegel, following the breakdown of his marriage.^[1]

The Kefauver hearings[link]

In 1951, Hill was subpoenaed to testify before the Kefauver hearings and denied having any knowledge of organized crime.^[2] Described by Time magazine as the "queen of the gangsters' molls", she told investigators that her income came from gifts her boyfriends gave her because of her sexual prowess.^[3][4]

Later life and death[link]

Hill spent her remaining years in Europe because she was accused by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of failing to pay $161,000 in income tax and indicted on June 23, 1954.^[2] In her last years, when she was separated from her husband, she was supported by their only child, Peter Hauser, who worked as a waiter. She died of an overdose of sleeping pills,^[5] an apparent suicide, in Koppl, near Salzburg, Austria on March 24, 1966 at the age of 49.^[2] Her body was found in a lone area by a bridge crossing the "Alterbach," a small stream. Hill is buried in Aigen Cemetery in Salzburg.^[6]

According to Andy Edmonds' biography Bugsy's Baby: The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill, Hill's death was suspicious, since her body was found outdoors, near a brook, two days after she met with a former lover, former Genovese family boss Joe Adonis, who reportedly had her escorted home with two of his bodyguards. The Austrian media, which were well informed about her former relationship with Siegel, speculated that she tried to get money by using her knowledge of the Italian-American Mafia and the Mexican drug cartels.^{[7][clarification needed]}

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Edmonds, Andy. Bugsy's Baby : The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill. Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, 1993. ISBN 1-55972-164-2

External links[link]

• Virginia Hill at the Internet Movie Database
• Excerpt of testimony
• Virginia Hill at Find a Grave

Not to be confused with Nicholas Jackson

Jack Nicholson
Nicholson at Dennis Hopper's Hollywood Walk of Fame Star ceremony, March 26, 2010
Born	John Joseph Nicholson (1937-04-22) April 22, 1937 (age 75) New York City, New York, U.S.
Residence	Hollywood Hills, California
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Actors Studio
Occupation	actor, director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1958–present
Home town	Neptune City, New Jersey
Spouse	Sandra Knight (1962–1968)
Children	4 (including Lorraine Nicholson)

John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. His twelve Oscar nominations make him the second most nominated actor of all time, behind only Meryl Streep, and tied with Katharine Hepburn.

Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and for As Good as It Gets. He also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the 1983 film Terms of Endearment. He is tied with Walter Brennan for most acting wins by a male actor (three). Nicholson is well known for playing villainous roles such as Jack Torrance in The Shining, Frank Costello in The Departed, and the Joker in 1989's Batman, among many other roles.

Nicholson is one of only two actors who have been nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade from the 1960s to 2000s; the other is Michael Caine. He has won seven Golden Globe Awards, and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. In 1994, he became one of the youngest actors to be awarded the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. Notable films in which he has starred include Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Passenger, The Shining, Reds, Terms of Endearment, Batman, A Few Good Men, As Good as It Gets, About Schmidt, The Departed and Anger Management .

Early life[link]

Nicholson was born in St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City,^{[citation needed]} the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson).^[1][2] June had married Italian American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) six months earlier in Elkton, Maryland, on October 16, 1936.^[3] Furcillo was already married. Although he reportedly offered to take care of the child, June's mother Ethel insisted that she bring up the baby, partly so that June could pursue her dancing career. Although Furcillo claimed to be Nicholson's father and to have committed bigamy by marrying June, biographer Patrick McGilligan asserted in Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King (originally Edgar A. Kirschfeld),^[4] June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was.^[1] Nicholson's mother was of Irish, English, and Pennsylvania Dutch descent,^[5][6] though he and his family reportedly self-identified as Irish.^[7][8]

Nicholson was brought up believing that his grandparents, John Joseph Nicholson (a department store window dresser in Manasquan, New Jersey) and Ethel May (née Rhoads, a hairdresser, beautician and amateur artist in Manasquan), were his parents. Nicholson only discovered that his "parents" were actually his grandparents and his sister was in fact his mother in 1974, after a journalist for TIME magazine who was doing a feature on Nicholson informed him of the fact.^[9] By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). Nicholson has stated he does not know who his biological father is, saying "Only Ethel and June knew and they never told anybody",^[9] and has chosen not to have a DNA test or to pursue the matter.

Nicholson grew up in Neptune City, New Jersey.^[10] He was raised in his mother's Roman Catholic religion.^[5][7] Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey.^[11][12] "Nick", as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted "class clown" by the Class of 1954. He was in detention every day for a whole school year.^{[citation needed]} A theatre and a drama award at the school are named in his honor. In 2004, Nicholson attended his 50-year high school reunion accompanied by his aunt Lorraine.^[4]

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Nicholson as Wilbur Force in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

When Nicholson first came to Hollywood, he worked as a gofer for animation legends William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. Seeing his talent as an artist, they offered Nicholson a starting level position as an animation artist. However, citing his desire to become an actor, he declined.^[13]

He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer, in 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 Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven, The Terror, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre. He worked frequently with director Monte Hellman as well on low-budget westerns, though two in particular, Ride in the Whirlwind and The Shooting, initially failed to find interest from any US film distributors but gained cult success on the art house circuit in France and were later sold to television.

Rise to fame[link]

With his acting career heading nowhere, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the LSD-fueled screenplay for the 1967 film, The Trip (directed by Corman), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, the movie Head, which starred The Monkees. In addition, he also arranged the movie's soundtrack. However, after a spot opened up in Fonda and Hopper's Easy Rider, it led to his first big acting break. Nicholson played hard-drinking lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The part of Hanson was a lucky break for Nicholson—the role had in fact been written for actor Rip Torn, who was a close friend of screen writer Terry Southern, but Torn withdrew from the project after a bitter argument with the film's director Dennis Hopper, during which the two men almost came to blows.^[14] In interview, Nicholson later acknowledged the importance of being cast in Easy Rider: "All I could see in the early films, before Easy Rider, was this desperate young actor trying to vault out of the screen and create a movie career."^[15]

A Best Actor nomination came the following year for his persona-defining role in Five Easy Pieces (1970). Also that year, he appeared in the movie adaptation of On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, although most of his performance was left on the cutting room floor. Jack was the first choice to play the role of Father Damien Karras in The Exorcist, but the role was turned over to Jason Miller.

Other Nicholson roles included Hal Ashby's The Last Detail (1973), for which he was awarded Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival, and the classic Roman Polanski noir thriller, Chinatown (1974). Nicholson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for both films. Nicholson was friends with the director long before the death of Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate, at the hands of the Manson Family, and supported him in the days following the deaths.^[16][17] After Tate's death, Nicholson began sleeping with a hammer under his pillow,^[17] and took breaks from work to attend the Manson trial.^[18] It was at Nicholson's home where the rape case for which Polanski was arrested occurred. Nicholson would go on to star in The Who's Tommy (1975), directed by Ken Russell, and Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975).

Nicholson (right) and Dennis Hopper at the 62nd Academy Awards, March 26, 1990

Nicholson earned his first Best Actor Oscar for portraying Randle P. McMurphy in the movie adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, directed by Miloš Forman in 1975. His Oscar was matched when Louise Fletcher received the Best Actress Award for her portrayal of Nurse Ratched. After this, he began to take more unusual roles. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon, opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's western The Missouri Breaks, specifically to work with Marlon Brando. He followed this by making his second directorial effort with the western comedy Goin' South. His first movie as a director was a 1971 quirky release called Drive, He Said.^{[citation needed]}

Although he garnered no Academy Award for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. His second Oscar, the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, came for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (1983), directed by James L. Brooks. Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Reds (1981), Prizzi's Honor (1985), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Broadcast News (1987), and Ironweed (1987). Three Oscar nominations also followed (Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed).

Nicholson introduced several acts at Live Aid at the JFK Stadium in July 1985. He turned down the role of John Book in Witness.^[19] The 1989 Batman movie, wherein Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, The Joker, was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned Nicholson about $60 million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessep in A Few Good Men (1992), a movie about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Academy nomination. This film contained the court scene in which Nicholson famously explodes, "You can't handle the truth!", in one of the Aaron Sorkin-penned monologues to become part of popular culture.^{[citation needed]}

In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (1992) and Hoffa (1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination.^{[citation needed]}

Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Melvin Udall, a mean-spirited, compulsive obsessive neurotic author in As Good as It Gets (1997), again directed by Brooks. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt as a Manhattan waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant in which she worked. In 2001, Nicholson was the first actor to receive the Stanislavsky Award at the Moscow International Film Festival for "conquering the heights of acting and faithfulness".^{[citation needed]}

2002–present[link]

Jack Nicholson at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival

In About Schmidt (2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor. In Anger Management (2003), he plays an aggressive therapist assigned to help overly pacifist Adam Sandler. In 2003, Nicholson also starred in Something's Gotta Give, as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend.

In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the "dark side" as Frank Costello, a sadistic Boston Irish Mob boss presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs.

In November 2006, Nicholson began filming his next project, Rob Reiner's The Bucket List, a role for which he shaved his head. The film starred Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as dying men who fulfill their list of goals. The film was released on December 25, 2007 (limited), and January 11, 2008 (wide). In researching the role, Nicholson visited a Los Angeles hospital to see how cancer patients coped with their illnesses. His last film role to date saw him reunite with Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets director James L. Brooks for a small supporting role as Paul Rudd's father in How Do You Know.

Personal life[link]

Family and relationships[link]

Nicholson in 2008

Nicholson has been romantically linked to numerous actresses and models, including Michelle Phillips, Bebe Buell, and Lara Flynn Boyle. Nicholson's longest relationship was for 16 years with actress Anjelica Huston, daughter of film director John Huston, from 1973 to 1989. However, the relationship ended when the media reported that Rebecca Broussard had become pregnant with Nicholson's child. Nicholson and Broussard had two children together, Lorraine (born 1990) and Raymond Nicholson (born 1992). Nicholson's other children are Jennifer (born 1963 with Sandra Knight) and Honey Hollman (b. 1981 with Winnie Hollman). Actress Susan Anspach contends that her son, Caleb Goddard (born 1970), was fathered by Nicholson, though he is not convinced he is the father.^[20][21]

Celebrity friendships[link]

Nicholson lived next door to Marlon Brando for a number of years on Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills. Warren Beatty also lived nearby, earning the road the nickname "Bad Boy Drive". After Brando's death in 2004, Nicholson purchased his neighbor's bungalow for $6.1 million, with the purpose of having it demolished. Nicholson stated that it was done out of respect to Brando's legacy, as it had become too expensive to renovate the "derelict" building which was plagued by mold.^[22]

Nicholson shared a friendship with author-journalist Hunter S. Thompson, described in Thompson's autobiography "Kingdom of Fear" where, according to Thompson, they would exchange "bizarre" presents which resulted in a perceived assassination attempt against the actor. Thompson appeared outside Nicholson's home on the night of Nicholson's birthday, having set off a high-powered spotlight and gunfire, playing a tape of animal cries through an amplifier to awaken him. Thompson then left a freshly-cut elk's heart on Nicholson's door as a joke before leaving when it appeared that nobody would exit the house.^[23]Following the death of Thompson in 2005, Nicholson and fellow actors Johnny Depp, John Cusack, and Sean Penn attended the private memorial service in Colorado.^[24]

Hobbies[link]

Nicholson is a fan of the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Lakers. His attendance at Lakers games is legendary, as he is a season ticket holder since 1970 and has held courtside season tickets for the past 25 years at both The Forum and the Staples Center, missing very few games. In a few instances, Nicholson has engaged in arguments with game officials and opposing players, and has even walked onto the court.^[25] His ardent refusal to miss a Lakers home game means that studios are rumored to have to schedule filming around the Lakers home schedule^[25][26] although he disputed this claim in an interview with BBC radio in 2008.^[27]

Nicholson is a collector of 20th century and contemporary art, including the work of Scottish artist Jack Vettriano.^[28]

Honors[link]

Footprints and handprints of Jack Nicholson at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced on May 28, 2008, that Nicholson would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. The induction ceremony took place on December 15, 2008, where he was inducted alongside 11 other legendary Californians.^{[citation needed]}

In 2010, Nicholson was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.^[29]

In 2011, Nicholson received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Brown University at its two hundred and forty-third commencement. At the ceremony Ruth Simmons, Brown University's president, called him, "the most skilled actor of our lifetime."^[30]

Academy Awards history[link]

	Academy Award portal
	Film portal

With twelve nominations (eight for Best Actor and four for Best Supporting Actor), Jack Nicholson is the most nominated male actor in Academy Awards history. Only Nicholson and Michael Caine have been nominated for an acting (lead or supporting) Academy Award in five different decades: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (decade). With three Oscar wins, he also ties with Walter Brennan for the second highest-number of Oscar wins in acting categories (all of Brennan's wins, however, were for Best Supporting Actor).

At the 79th Academy Awards, Nicholson had fully shaved his hair for his role in The Bucket List. Those ceremonies represented the seventh time he has presented the Academy Award for Best Picture (1972, 1977, 1978, 1990, 1993, 2006, and 2007). Nicholson is an active and voting member of the Academy. During the last decade he has attended almost every ceremony, whether nominated or not, sitting in the front row.

Filmography[link]

Additionally, in 1999, Nicholson was presented with the Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award lifetime achievement award.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jack Nicholson

• Jack Nicholson at the Internet Movie Database
• Jack Nicholson at Yahoo! Movies
• Rolling Stone Interview with Jack Nicholson
• Jack Nicholson slideshow at AMCtv.com
• Literature on Jack Nicholson