Michael Douglas Says Jack Nicholson Is Well but Has Withdrawn
Seven Lights
Michael Douglas said over the weekend that Jack Nicholson was well but had stopped working and had withdrawn from public life.
“He’s not working any more. He’s well. He has disappeared. I know that,” Douglas said when asked about his friendship with Nicholson, as The Independent reported. “I still see him, but he is fine. He is up there by his house and walking around in his slippers. It happens. He deserves it. I understand. He is a few years older than me, but I understand.”
Douglas, 82, spoke at an appearance in Swansea, Wales, where he is promoting his memoir “One Helluva Ride”. Nicholson is 89. Asked about his relationship with his friend, Douglas said he had often wished the two had shared the screen. “I would have liked to have acted with Jack,” he said.
The two men’s friendship began in the mid-1970s, when Douglas produced “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, the 1975 film in which Nicholson won the Oscar for best actor. It remains the only picture on which they worked together professionally. Nicholson has three Academy Awards.
Nicholson’s last film appearance was in “How Do You Know”, the 2010 comedy that also starred Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson. He has not appeared on the screen in 16 years. One of his last public outings was in February 2025, at the “Saturday Night Live” 50th anniversary special. A month earlier his daughter Lorraine Nicholson posted a photograph with him on Instagram.
Douglas has continued to work and to publicise his memoir in Britain and the United States. Nicholson has no announced film projects, and The Hollywood Reporter described him as a three-time Oscar winner who has stayed out of the spotlight in recent years. Rolling Stone published Douglas’s remarks on Saturday under the heading “It Happens”.