Before he became the wild-eyed icon of the 1970s, Jack Nicholson’s 1950s experience was the quintessential “struggling actor” story. He arrived in Los Angeles in 1954 at just 17 years old, originally just to visit his sister, but ended up staying to pursue stardom.
Jack didn’t start in front of the camera. His first job in Hollywood was as an office boy/mail carrier for the animation department at MGM. He worked alongside cartoon legends William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (the creators of Tom and Jerry). Legend has it that an MGM producer noticed his sharp looks and offered him a screen test, but Nicholson turned it down initially because he wanted to learn how to actually act first.
He joined a theater group called The Players Ring, where he began honing his craft. During this time, he met other young actors like Robert Towne (who would later write Chinatown). He spent the mid-1950s training in various acting classes, moving away from the “method” style popular at the time toward a more personal, idiosyncratic approach.
He made his first on-screen appearance in an episode of Matinee Theatre in 1956. His feature film debut came in 1958 with the lead role in the low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer. By the end of the decade, he had begun his long-term collaboration with B-movie producer Roger Corman, appearing in films like The Little Shop of Horrors (shot in late 1959, released 1960).
The 1950s were just the beginning of a long climb. Despite appearing in low-budget B-movies, he experienced slow progress but never gave up. His persistence eventually paid off when the New Hollywood movement began reshaping the film industry, and his major breakthrough came in 1969 with Easy Rider.
