Jack Nicholson 'retires from acting due to memory loss'

[zoobyshoe]

Reports claim that Jack Nicholson has retired from acting due to memory loss. Radar Online and Star Magazine say the 76-year-old, three-time Oscar-winner is no longer considering scripts, though he will continue to play an active role in public life.

"There is a simple reason behind his decision – it's memory loss," a source told Radar. "Quite frankly, at 76, Jack has memory issues and can no longer remember the lines being asked of him."

Nicholson has not been seen on the big screen since 2010, when he played the father of a business executive facing jail over alleged corporate malfeasance in the Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd romantic comedy drama How Do You Know. His only other acting role since turning 70 has been 2007's The Bucket List, and he currently has no films on his slate.

As well as best actor Oscars for 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1998's As Good As It Gets and the best supporting actor prize for 1984's Terms of Endearment, Nicholson holds the record for the highest number of Oscar nominations for a male actor: 12...

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/05/jack-nicholson-retires-memory-loss

Sound like it's possibly more serious than an aging memory.

It surprises me because The Departed was just on TV a few nights ago and I happened to see it for the first time. This was released in 2006, just 6 years ago, and Nicholson seemed in tip top shape.

 

[Aero51]

Dementia can progress very quickly, especially if there is a catalyst. My mother went from being a very stubborn lady with a cane (she has MS) to, after a serious fall, completely bed ridden and incapable of any sort of retention beyond 15-30 minutes. It took two years to progress to that stage.
Ill never forget what she looked like after that fall. Her eyes were slowly moving from left to right, but she couldn't see anything. There was a little bit of blood coming from her head. She was awake but could barely mumble. My ex girlfriend was scared. She didnt move or say a word. Hell, that day, December 26, I had to help the EMTs carry my mom in a stretcher to the ambulance since there was over a foot of snow in the yard and the roads were closed.
When we were in the hospital all she could say was "letter T". It took us about 15 minutes to realize she was asking for ice water.
Took her about a week to fully recover. By that time though, the brain damage from the MS just made her head injury 10 times worse and acted as a catalyst as I mentioned above.

When your mind goes, everything goes. My mom went from a woman who was going to finish her PhD after I was born to basically a giant 3 year old before I finished college. Dont underestimate those diseases and injuries that affect the mind.

My father is in the final stages of getting her in a nursing home.

 

[256bits]

It surprises me because The Departed was just on TV a few nights ago and I happened to see it for the first time. This was released in 2006, just 6 years ago,

Uhmm. I must have skipped a year or something.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Uhmm. I must have skipped a year or something.

2012 is not included in the count due to the end of the world having taken place that year.

 

[Curious3141]

Apparently, he CAN handle the truth (of getting old).

 

[zoobyshoe]

Apparently, he CAN handle the truth (of getting old).

Actually, Jessup (Nicholson) accused Kaffee (Cruise) of not being able to handle the truth. Not the other way around.

Anyway, it's not clear exactly who is responsible for making these claims about Nicholson. If you read the whole article you see Maria Shriver says the claims are bogus: he's not retiring and has no memory problems. What's problematic is that neither Nicholson nor any official spokesman for him has spoken up to deny the claims.

If he actually is having memory problems I would be afraid it's not 'merely' old age, because that's not necessarily part-and-parcel of old age, and there are plenty of actors in their 80's going strong. William Shatner is a case in point, and the great actor, Charles Durning seems to have been acting almost right up to the point of his death at 89.

As for lines, Marlon Brando refused to memorize any lines going back, I think, as far as The Godfather. He though it would kill his spontaneity. They had to write them down and paste them up all over the set for him to refer to when he felt like it. There's no question they'd do the same for an actor of Nicholson's status if memorizing lines was really an issue. That wouldn't work, though, if he's suffering from some more severe disorientation. If he is, there's a pretty big variety of potential medical causes.

On the other hand, it could be he just decided memorizing lines was too much fricken' work considering he doesn't need the work and hasn't needed it for years. That's fine. It would put a lot of people's minds to rest, though, to see an interview on TV where he explains this and demonstrates he's fine.

 

[Crake]

Dementia can progress very quickly, especially if there is a catalyst. My mother went from being a very stubborn lady with a cane (she has MS) to, after a serious fall, completely bed ridden and incapable of any sort of retention beyond 15-30 minutes. It took two years to progress to that stage.
Ill never forget what she looked like after that fall. Her eyes were slowly moving from left to right, but she couldn't see anything. There was a little bit of blood coming from her head. She was awake but could barely mumble. My ex girlfriend was scared. She didnt move or say a word. Hell, that day, December 26, I had to help the EMTs carry my mom in a stretcher to the ambulance since there was over a foot of snow in the yard and the roads were closed.
When we were in the hospital all she could say was "letter T". It took us about 15 minutes to realize she was asking for ice water.
Took her about a week to fully recover. By that time though, the brain damage from the MS just made her head injury 10 times worse and acted as a catalyst as I mentioned above.

When your mind goes, everything goes. My mom went from a woman who was going to finish her PhD after I was born to basically a giant 3 year old before I finished college. Dont underestimate those diseases and injuries that affect the mind.

My father is in the final stages of getting her in a nursing home.

wow dude. Seriously, I feel for you. Sorry to hear that.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Reports false:

I checked up on this story tonight and found Nicholson had spoken up to quell the rumors of memory loss causing him to give up acting. The real reason: a lack of desire to act.

"I'm not going to work until the day I die, that's not why I started this. I mean, I'm not driven. I was driven — but I'm not, I don't have to be out there any more. In fact, there's part of me that never really liked being out there... You get older, you change."

The 76-year-old native New Yorker, who began his career in the 1950s, also fears audiences no longer enjoy the type of pictures he wants to continue to make. "The movie business is the greatest business but I only want to do films that move people, films about emotions and people." His last few films, the aforementioned How Do You Know and 2007's The Bucket List, found Jack playing characters who were unlike the roles he made his bones upon (see: One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest). "I had the most chilling thought that maybe people in their twenties and thirties don't actually want to be moved anymore. They may want just to see more bombs, more explosions, because that is what they have grown up with. And I'll never do that type of movie."

http://www.vibe.com/article/actor-jack-nicholson-talks-non-retirement-loss-love-getting-older

 

[inotyce]

...The real reason: a lack of desire to act.

What role do you think he will play then if he acts again ? More contracts and better income sources ?