Jack Nicholson’s friends are airing concerns about the aging star’s increasingly reclusive nature, a new report has revealed.
An anonymous insider close to the 85-year-old actor says ‘he doesn’t want to face reality anymore’ and is holed up in his luxurious Mulholland Drive mansion in Los Angeles.
It is more than a year after the A-lister last appeared in public, at an LA Lakers game in October 2021 with his 30-year-old son Ray.
That appearance came more than a year after the famed womanizer’s last Lakers game in January 2020, amid reports regarding his deteriorating health.
Speaking to RadarOnline, the source confided that those close to the actor – who has six children by five women but married only once – are fearful he will die a recluse like his late friend, the legendary Marlon Brando.
‘Jack’s in touch with certain relatives – especially Ray, his protégé, who he’s so proud of – but his socializing days are long gone,’ the insider said, referring to the star’s 30-year-old son with actress Rebecca Broussard.
Ray, the actor’s youngest child, was seen sitting with his father during his last two Lakers outings.
The sources went on to describe behavior from Nicholson that has worried them, likening the once-legendary lothario’s reclusiveness to the sad last days of Brando, a leading man who ballooned in weight after taking up residence in Tahiti in the decades before his death at 80 in 2004.
‘Brando died a virtual recluse after leading such a colorful life, and Jack’s friends are drawing the comparisons,’ the source said.
‘His kids will visit, but they’re his only connection to the world,’ the insider added. ‘It’s like he doesn’t want to face reality anymore – and that’s just sad.’
In the 1970s Brando and Nicholson earned reputations as hell-raisers and impassioned womanizers, with both living on Mulholland Drive alongside Warren Beatty.
The street has since been renamed ‘Bad Boy Drive’ after their widely reported escapades – with Nicholson reportedly running an open house out of the home bought with the proceeds from the drug-fueled, generation-defining movie Easy Rider.
In a 2009 article, Nicholson’s unique approach to housewarming was revealed, with insiders telling Express how he ‘spent three months walking around completely naked from dawn till sunset whether he had visitors or not.’
Still in the same house, Nicholson’s approach to visitors could not have changed more dramatically, according to the insiders’ accounts.
Worsening matters, sources said, are rumors swirling surrounding the actor’s allegedly deteriorating health, with close friends telling Radar last year that they believe he could be suffering from dementia, and that his son Ray and older sister Lorraine have been ‘looking after him’.
‘Jack and I have been friends for years and he doesn’t leave his house anymore… I think his son and daughter are looking after him now,’ a friend of the three-time Academy Award winner said in September 2021.
“The Mulholland Drive community is pretty close-knit, and they are all worried about him,” added the friend, who noted that ‘physically he is fine – but his mind is gone’.
‘It’s really sad to see such a super talented actor, like Jack, go out this way,’ the source said.
The actor remains shacked up at his longtime, sprawling mansion, which boasts four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a pool, and 3,303 square feet of space. Since the 70s, the home has served as a site for Nicholson’s multiple high-profile trysts.
Nicholson’s lovers have included actresses and models such as Michelle Phillips, Bebe Buell, Lara Flynn Boyle, Anjelica Huston and Rebecca Broussard.
He was married to Sandra Knight for six years between 1962 and 1968, a marriage she described as ‘very beautiful and sweet’.
But his affair with Addams Family actress Angelica Huston was far more volatile, with him repeatedly cheating on her.
It finally ended in 1989 after 16 years when he announced over dinner that Broussard was going to have his baby.
In remarks published by Closer, Nicholson says he was ‘annihilated emotionally’, adding: ‘I’m childish and I did make a mistake’.
The magazine reports how Nicholson spends his time sleeping until 1pm, drinking milk to soothe his stomach, playing golf and going next door to the property that contains his art collection.
He bought the adjacent house, once owned by Marlon Brando in Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, largely so that he didn’t have to cope with any neighbors.
A source said his family had been trying to get him to sell the properties to downsize to a ‘more manageable place in Beverly Hills’.
Jack and Ray’s tradition of watching the LA Lakers, meanwhile, has spanned decades as the father-son pair have consistently attended basketball games together. However, over the past year, the actor has been noticeably absent from his regular courtside throne.
Jack has been a fan of the Los Angeles basketball team for decades and has stuck with them even through the past few losing seasons.
He famously walked out on them back in 2013, taking Adam Sandler with him, when the Lakers were defeated by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Jack has enjoyed a more relaxed lifestyle since his last film in 2010, How Do You Know, and has taken up painting as a hobby.
