The Woman Jack Nicholson Thought Was His Sister Was His Mother

Today I found out that the woman Jack Nicholson thought was his sister for a good portion of his life, turned out to be his mother.

In 1974, Jack Nicholson’s movie Chinatown was opening in theaters and Time Magazine chose to do a cover story on him.  Someone working at Time Magazine called Jack up to verify some facts that would be in the article; among these, was the fact that the person who he’d thought was his sister, June Nicholson, was in fact his mother.  Nicholson knew nothing about this, so denied it.  At this point his “sister” was dead, and so was his “mother”, dying in 1963 and 1970 respectively.

He did, however, call up his “brother-in-law”, Shorty, the husband of his supposed other sister who was in fact his aunt, to verify that this wasn’t true.  Shorty knew nothing about this, so told him that it wasn’t true and they ended the conversation.  Several hours later though, he got a phone call from Shorty: “Jack, it’s Shorty, I’m gonna put Lorraine on the phone.  I just want to say one thing – she’s been crying all night.  Here she is.”  Lorraine, who he now found out was his aunt, not his sister, then told him his mother was in fact the deceased June, who he had thought was his sister and the woman he had thought was his mother, was in fact his grandmother.

Nicholson was 37 years old at this point and both his real mother and the woman he had thought was his mother, were already dead;  both had chosen not to tell him.  Indeed, he even spent time with his “sister”, who was his mother, at the hospital just before she died.  He was filming one of his first movies at the time and shooting in Mexico, so he had to leave her as he desperately needed the money and it was his first major film.  Her last words to him were “Should I wait?” and he said “No” and left.  She died shortly thereafter succumbing to cancer; he got the call when he arrived in Mexico on location.

The initial reason for keeping up this charade was that his mother, June, had gotten pregnant with him at the age of 16 with someone unknown (he still doesn’t know, but doesn’t care to find out either).  June’s mother wanted June to continue to pursue her promising dancing career, thus she would take care of Jack posing as his mother, with June as his sister.

Nicholson is on record actually as saying he’s glad they kept this secret to their graves, “I didn’t have to deal with it with them. They were dead.”; “I am that kind of person-what do I feel-and had the tools to know what I feel. Gratitude. I’ve often said about them: Show me any women today who could keep a secret, confidence, or an intimacy to that degree, you got my kind of gal.”

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Bonus Fact:

  • The famous singer Bobby Darin had the same type of thing happen to him.  At age 32, he found out the woman he’d thought was his sister was in fact his mother.  He had been contemplating a career in politics, which prompted his “sister” to reveal that she was his mother.
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9 comments

  • heard this one a while ago…but my comment is actually more directed at the picture… you could have done a lot better. Jack’s pretty cool… and that pic is not, IMO.

  • Daven Hiskey

    @Maggie: He is a good actor and a funny guy. But as to the picture, if you see the full picture that I zoomed in on there, he is in fact on a boat alone with about 6 women in thong bikinis pretty well falling all over him and that all look to be about 40 years younger than himself. Out for a little boat ride in France, I believe it was, with all his ladies :-). It was either go with the zoomed in “Man-boobs” or a zoomed out “The Man”. I thought this one was better. No?

  • my favorite actor

  • This article is FILLED with typos and unnecessary commas. Doesn’t this site do any kind of editing at all?

  • Vicki richardson

    I was so glad to have read this..my story is somewhat similar as his.FOR 18 YEARS OF MY LIFE I THOUGHT THE WOMAN MY MOTHER WAS MY GRANDMOTHER AND MY SISTER IS MY MOTHER..MY REAL MOTHER WAS 14 YEARS OLD IN DEC 22 1974..I DIDNT FIND THIS OUT ABOUT MY REAL MOTHER TILL I WAS ALMOST 19 YEARS OLD..IT MENATLLY MESSED ME UP!!! NOW IM 44 YEARS OLD AND WISH I WOULD HAVE HANDLED DIFFERENTLY FOR I SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE GRATEFUL MY GRANDMOTHER RAISED ME FOR I WOULD HAVE NOT HAD THE GOOD MORALS TAUGHT TO ME NOR THE MATERIALISTIC THINGS SHE GAVE ME..I JUST WANTED TO SHARE THIS AFTER READING JACKS STORY. THANK YOU FOR THIS STORY MEANT ALOT TO ME..VLR