Danny DeVito has shared details of his friend Jack Nicholson’s recent welfare as the 88-year-old has rarely been seen in public over the last decade.
Once known for his frequent appearances courtside at Laker’s games, Nicholson is now rarely seen out and about, with the recent exception of his cameo during the live broadcast of SNL50: The Anniversary Special in February.
DeVito, 80, has been close friends with Nicholson since the pair first worked together on One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest 50 years ago.
‘I just saw Jack a couple weeks ago — it was his birthday a month ago, and he’s great,’ DeVito told People Magazine in a recent interview.
Nicholson and the Always Sunny in Philadelphia star bonded on the set of the iconic film, with DeVito going on to star in the Nicholson-directed 1978 comedy Goin’ South three years later.
They also both appeared in James L. Brooks’ seriocomic, 1983 Best Picture winner Terms of Endearment, the 1992 biopic Hoffa directed by DeVito, and the 1996 Tim Burton comedy Mars Attacks!.
‘We were in the presence of this guy who’s really at his moment,’ DeVito says, reflecting on meeting Nicholson during production of the now-classic 1975 drama.
By then, Nicholson had already built a formidable résumé with Easy Rider, Carnal Knowledge, The Last Detail, and Chinatown. Cuckoo’s Nest would cement his status, earning him his first Academy Award for Best Actor and launching a career that would tally 12 nominations and three wins.
Despite that, DeVito says Nicholson remained deeply grounded.
‘He started out exactly the way everybody else did, where he couldn’t get a job,’ DeVito recalls.
‘It was like he came to Hollywood and he was going to just write and direct, and then Easy Rider comes along after the Corman stuff… So he was in our milieu, and he was always just as open and genuine, and we all felt it immediately.’
Nicholson was last seen on Saturday Night Live’s 50th birthday special, with the show pulling stars that included Steve Martin and Sir Paul McCartney as well as Nicholson.
The 87-year-old has rarely been seen in public in the 15 years since his last film, How Do You Know, released in 2010.
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