HOW JACK NICHOLSON DISCOVERED HIS SISTER WAS HIS MOTHER
By AARON HOMER
History - Science
The 1930s
Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 and grew up around two people he thought were his parents — John and Ethel May Nicholson — and two women he thought were his much older sisters — June and Lorraine. However, June was actually his mother, but since she was a teenager at the time and unsure of the father’s identity, Jack’s grandparents raised him as their son.
Moving to L.A.
June moved to L.A. to become an actress, and Nicholson would follow her in 1954, finally getting his big break in 1969’s “Easy Rider.” Sadly, June didn’t have her “brother’s” success and died in 1963 in her mid-40s.
Beans Spilled
When Time Magazine did a feature story on Nicholson ahead of his 1974 film “Chinatown,” it was revealed that his father wasn’t dead and his sisters were actually his mother and aunt. Nicholson learned this when the magazine came calling for details, and his brother-in-law later confirmed it to him.
Handling the News
When Nicholson found out that he'd been lied to about his parentage, he was relieved more than anything else, thanks to being "pretty well psychologically formed," as he described it. For a while, Nicholson referred to June as his “sister-mother,” but he eventually just stopped publicly talking about her.
Nicholson's Father
When Nicholson found out that the man he had considered his father was actually his grandfather, he was apparently content to leave it at that. A man named Don Furcillo-Rose claimed he was the father, and he was likely dating June around the time, but others believe it was her manager, Eddie Kirschfeld.