Jack Nicholson’s daughter recalls childhood neighbor Marlon Brando’s kind gesture
Jack Nicholson's daughter, Lorraine, recalls her Hollywood childhood filled with famous friends and neighbors like Marlon Brando, as well as forging her own path as a filmmaker.
Lorraine Nicholson, the 33-year-old daughter of Oscar-winner Jack Nicholson, had quite the Hollywood childhood.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair, she said, "I believe my parents had a full-blown party in the room at Cedars-Sinai because adults are constantly coming up to me saying, ‘I was there the day you were born.’"
Lorraine’s parents, Nicholson and Rebecca Broussard, welcomed her into the world on April 16, 1990. The one-time couple also share a son, Ray, 31.
Nicholson reportedly has four other children, Jennifer Nicholson, 59, who he shares with his first and only wife Sandra Knight, Caleb Goddard with Susan Anspach, Honey Hollman, 42, with model Winnie Hollman (though he’s never formally acknowledged paternity), and Tessa Gourin, who claims she is the actor’s illegitimate daughter with Jennie Gourin, though he’s never publicly addressed the claim.
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As a child growing up in the celebrity scene in Los Angeles, Lorraine had her share of famous friends and neighbors.
She told Vanity Fair that Hugh Hefner’s kids were her best friends and recalled enjoying meals at the Playboy Mansion.
"At the Playboy Mansion, you could order any food you wanted. I would order pounds of mashed potatoes and peas," she said.
Lorraine also remembered losing a journal outside and having it returned to her by none other than Marlon Brando, who added a note that read, "Dear Lorraine, you left this in my driveway, love, the fat man next door."
In 2008, Nicholson spoke with AARP Magazine about his relationship with Lorraine and Ray.
"We've always gotten along. I want to be inspirational, or some kind of good influence on them without overburdening them," he said at the time.
"It's their time of life to find out who they are," he continued. "I always read to them, from childhood on; I think that's a father's responsibility. I took them to things I knew they might not love – opera, ballet. They like going to the ball games with me."
He added, "And they are very comfortable around show business; they are good set rats. They walked in on my death scene in ‘The Departed.' I said, ‘If I can get these two kids really worried, I'm doin' my job!’"
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The "Terms of Endearment" star also noted in the interview he had recently done a college tour with Lorraine, who graduated from Brown University in 2012.
When it came to following in her dad’s Hollywood footsteps, she told Vanity Fair, "Everybody around me were performers, it didn’t even occur to me to do anything else."
She’s appeared in several films, beginning with a small role in her dad’s film "Something’s Gotta Give," before taking bigger parts in films like "Click," with Adam Sandler, "World’s Greatest Dad," with Robin Williams, and "Soul Surfer," with Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt, her dad’s co-star from "As Good as It Gets."
In 2011, she told Zimbio, "I watched him work my entire life, and that's obviously a lot of the reason why I wanted to go into acting," she told the outlet. "Just seeing his artistic process and watching him on set, and what you're capable of creating as an actor has really inspired me. It's pretty cool having a family business like that."
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But Lorraine told Vanity Fair this she wasn’t interested in sticking with acting, citing a lack of "that trusting nature," and has instead pursued writing and directing.
Her third short film, "Life Boat," premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017 and played at several festivals, and earned an audience award at the Napa Valley Film Festival.
She’s also worked on music videos for Joy Division and Grammy-nominated artist K.Flay.
Her upcoming project is a feature film about an exotic dancer married to a Ponzi scheme money manager who loses everything and builds herself back up.
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She told Vanity Fair she has an interest in "LA eccentrics," that comes from "the larger narrative of choosing your family in the Wild West. That’s one thing I love about our wonderful city."
Though she hasn’t been super active on her social media in the past year, previous posts from Lorraine show a close family bond.
She shared a cute photo of Nicholson holding her and Ray next to a motorcycle with the simple caption, "Dads. Am I right?"
One year when she wished him a happy birthday on Instagram with a cute selfie, she wrote, "After 4/5 of a century, still the coolest guy I know. HBD dad."
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Lorraine and her brother Ray also appear to be close with Duke Nicholson, the youngest grandson of Nicholson from his daughter Jennifer, and a fellow actor.
In a post of the three together, the brother and sister are both wearing shirts that read "Duke’s Uncle," with the caption from Lorraine joking, "the artist formerly known as jack’s daughter."
Nicholson effectively retired from acting in 2010, and stepped away from the spotlight, though he can still be seen off and on courtside at Lakers games.
"I’m definitely a Lakers fan," Lorraine told Access Hollywood in 2011. "I sort of grew up courtside, if you will. There's like all these pictures of me as a kid, like on the court confused."
In 2017, Lorraine told Town & Country the biggest lesson she learned from watching her father’s life in the spotlight.
"It’s really important to live a fulfilled life," she said.
As for advice he’s given her directly, she said, "My dad told me, ‘The only goal you should have when you start out is to get people to want to work with you again,’ because if you get the opportunities to try, you’ll get better."
