Jack Nicholson started life in Jersey, a confused Catholic boy of uncertain parentage. After years working as a dogsbody at MGM came Jack's overnight break in "Easy Rider" which revealed him as an electrifying and entirely new screen presence. This biography tells the stories behind his great screen roles in films like "Chinatown", "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "The Shining", "Terms of Endearment" and "A Few Good Men" which have made Nicholson into one of Hollywood's most enduringly popular, toughest and highest paid actors. McGilligan takes us into Nicholson's private life - from his cocoon of shyness and sexual repression and into fame, to his Rabelasian parties, drugs, succession of women and increasing wealth and success. Nicholson's approach to fatherhood, his avoidance of marriage, even his selection of film roles, mirrors his history of illegitimacy, fatherlessness and relationships with women.