Jack Nicholson is one of the most memorable actors of recent times. He has made a name for himself by starring in dark, off-kilter films such as One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest and The Shining. In the former he plays an inmate of an insane asylum who has a complete disregard for the rules of the place. In The Shining, he play a father that goes insane in a hotel enclosed by snow and takes a liking to axes.

In One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Nicholson gives a stellar performance as Randle McMurphy, a rather insolent inmate of Oregon State Hospital. He stirs up the inmates to rebel against the tyrannical rule of Nurse Ratched, who runs the hospital like a concentration camp. He has an eccentric personality, typified by remarks like, “I must be crazy to be in a loony-bin like this.”

The Shining is based on a Stephen King novel. Like most Stephen King novels, it involves a supernatural force that begins to affect someone by driving them insane and – usually – violent. The movie is carried primarily by Nicholson’s chilling performance as Jack Torrance. If you’ve seen the film, then you know how much malice he puts into two little words: “Here’s Johnny!”