He played in his first movie 66 years ago… today he is a world star. Did you know this young 21-year-old actor?

With 12 Academy Award nominations and three Best Actor statues for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Tender Passions (1983) and For Worse or Better (1997), Jack Nicholson is one of the most decorated actors at the prestigious Academy. .

But before he achieved fame, Nicholson made his acting debut at the age of 21 in a very small exploitation film called The Cry Baby Killer, in which he played one of the main roles.

His first role? taken hostage!

In this very small production, shot in 10 days, Jack Nicholson plays Jimmy Wallace, a student who is beaten up by Manny Cole and his gang. Wallace decides to confront them, but this time he’s armed. Two shots are heard at night. Wallace escapes and hides in a house, where he takes hostage a co-worker and a mother with her baby, hence the title, The Cry Baby Killer, directed by Justus Adiss.

This exploitation film still allows Nicholson, who was then completely unknown and had never acted in a film, to play the second leading role behind Harry Lotter, who plays the police lieutenant in charge of the case.

“The community is angry”

Producer Roger Corman, who died this year, approved the initial screenplay written by Melvin Levy, but in his absence on the trip, David Kramarski (whom Corman had hired to oversee the film’s financing) hired screenwriter Leo Gordon to “fix” the plot.

Korman writes in his memories : “I’ve always felt that the ‘fixes’ weakened the story. Upon its release, the film became Corman’s first production that did not immediately make money. Jack Nicholson describes the release of the film as “terrible experience” or “The community is angry”. A shock that will keep him off the set for two years.

The first role and then?

Jack Nicholson continued to do small productions to learn his trade. Despite appearances in the 1960 cult film Little Shop of Horrors and two good Monte Hellman films that hit the radar at the time, it was really Easy Rider that introduced the actor to the wider public in 1969, after a decade of roles. Very few will remember.

Nicholson became one of the icons of the new Hollywood, which allowed him to play in front of the biggest cameras in the 70s and early 80s, before playing the Joker in Tim Burton’s Batman, which, in addition to making him very rich. Bringing him worldwide fame to a new audience.