26 Things You Didn’t Know About Jack Nicholson’s Millionaire Lifestyle

Jack Nicholson is one of Hollywood’s still-standing greats from the bygone Hollywood era of machismo leading men who bolstered their silver screen personas with raucous off-screen antics.

He’s one of the greatest actors of his generation, and he’s been awarded some of the highest accolades — and paychecks — Hollywood has ever offered. And he’s lived a legendary lifestyle.

From a notorious bad boy with an unrelenting sex drive as a young actor to a calmer 86-year-old screen legend with a net worth of $390 million dollars, these are The Great Seducer’s most fascinating experiences and stories.

Nicholson was good friends with fellow lothario and next-door neighbor, Marlon Brando.

When the actor died in 2005 and the home went up for sale, Nicholson picked up the 3,040 square-foot, 1954-built house for $5 million, SFGATE reported at the time. But Nicholson didn’t keep the house for long. Instead, he reportedly demolished it and planted frangipani flowers in its place. It was a tribute to what Brando had nicknamed his longtime home —“Frangipani.”

Another of Nicholson’s friends, actor Warren Beatty, lives a few houses down  —for a while there, this section of Mullholland Drive was known as “Bad Boy Drive.”

Nicholson is an avid art collector and owns originals from the likes of world renowned painters such as “Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Magritte, Bouguereau, Botero and Rodin,” according to CNN.

Nicholson is said to be one of Hollywood’s top 10 art collectors, with a staggering $100 million collection.

Art hasn’t always been about Picasso and Matisse for Nicholson. His first job in Hollywood was as an assistant to William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the animators behind “Tom & Jerry” cartoons. He was only 13 at the time. 

…and he didn’t put on clothes for anyone. Seriously. While interviewing Nicholson for “Rolling Stone,” journalist Erik Hedegaard remarked about the surreal experience while he was at Nicholson’s house: “It’s where, in the late Sixties, as a matter of self-help, he spent three months walking around in the nude, at all hours of the day, no matter who stopped by, his daughter included.”

Some context: according to biographer Patrick McGilligan, Nicholson referenced a point in his life where he walked around nude for quite a while in order to get used to appearing nude on film for a sex scene. While filming, Nicholson said he went upstairs and tried to get an erection for 45 minutes for a scene in “The Postman Always Rings Twice” because it would add an element of strangeness to the scene, but he got performance anxiety. As it turned out, the film barely had any nudity at all—and Jack’s Johnson is nowhere to be seen.