The Best Jack Nicholson Movies of All Time On His 75th Birthday

Jack Nicholson, one of the greatest actors of Hollywood turned 75 on April 22, 2012.A brief history on his entry into movies…

When he initially got to Hollywood in the late fifties with a dream to make a living in the movies, Jack was not an immediate hit. For some time, he was an assistant at Hanna-Barbera, and essentially showed promise as an animator. But drawing cartoons wasn't his reason for being there. So he gave up.

He then worked with  Roger Corman now and then for several years, appearing in such cult items as ‘The Little Shop Of Horrors’ (1960) and ‘The Raven’ (1963).By the late sixties,though he was not successful as an actor,he was step by step resigning himself to working behind the camera as a writer/director. Then providence played a hand.

His good friend Dennis Hopper was getting ready to shoot ‘Easy Rider’  and had a huge tiff with  character actor Rip Torn, who'd been cast to play gonzo lawyer George Hanson in the film.All of a sudden, Rip was out, and Jack was in.

Jack almost stole that movie, earning himself his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Though clearly he'd broken through, it was hardly predicted the level of success that was to follow.

Over the next six years, Jack was nominated for Best Actor four times, and won his first Oscar in 1976, for ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest’. Thus far, he has been nominated 12 times, and won three Academy Awards.

Though Jack is 75, he seems ageless, chiefly when you revisit his best films which includes:

• One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
• Chinatown
• Easy Rider
• The Last Detail
• Carnal Knowledge
• About Schmidt
• The Shining
• Terms Of Endearment
• A Few Good Men
• Something's Gotta Give
• As Good As It Gets

Octavia Spencer, Academy Award Winner, Might Star As Oscar Grant's Mom In Fruitvale

Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer is apparently in negotiations to play the role of Oscar Grant's mother in the forthcoming indie film about the New Year's Day 2009 killing of the Oakland man. Spencer is best known for her role as Minny in the 2011 film ‘The Help’. 

The film, titled ‘Fruitvale’ will feature the final hours before Grant was shot and killed by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle after he got off the train at the Fruitvale station in Oakland. The shooting was video-recorded by other passengers, making it one of the most sensitively charged officer-involved shootings in Oakland's latest history. Mehserle was convicted of unintentional manslaughter but was released from prison on good behavior after serving 11 months of his two-year sentence. The movie, being written and directed by Oakland resident Ryan Coogler, is set to air by July.

Chinese Film Festival To Screen The Iranian Movie 'A Separation'

China has invited the cast and crew of the Academy Award Winning Iranian movie Nader and Simin : A Separation to the 2nd Beijing International Film Festival.

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s internationally-acclaimed film is scheduled to be screened during the festival that is to be held from April 23 to 28, 2012.

Nader and Simin : A Separation won the Oscar Award for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards in 2012.

The drama grabbed The Best Foreign Film Award of the 27th annual Independent Spirit Awards during a ceremony held a day before the 84th Academy Awards.

A Separation also won the Best Foreign Film Award of the 2012 Cesar Awards on February 24, in Paris.

Farhadi's prize-magnet drama has hit the Canadian and the Brazilian cinemas ever since January 20, 2012.

Christopher Plummer Delivers One Of The Best Oscar Speeches

Christopher Plummer took home the award for Best Supporting Actor during the Oscars this year.

At 82, Plummer may be the oldest Oscar winner ever, but that didn't stop him from being one of the best dressed men of the entire night,in a blue velvet tuxedo. But it was Plummer's speech that grabbed everyone’s attention. He commenced with a bit of humor that gave Billy Crystal a run for his money, gazing at the Oscar statute and joking: "You’re only two years older than me darling, where have you been all of my life?" In a night of bad, callous old people jokes it was good to hear a genuine laugh out of the audience.

Plummer went on to deliver one of the most congenial and heartfelt speeches of the night, saying that he was born "already rehearsing my Academy acceptance speech, but it was so long ago mercifully for you I’ve forgotten it." He then ran through the customary list of people to thank before giving one of the best tributes in the long history of awards shows. He thanked his wife, saying that she "deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for coming to my rescue every day of my life."