Ray Nicholson Says Sports, Especially the Lakers, Bond Him With Father Jack
Actor Ray Nicholson, 34, spoke about his bond with his 89-year-old father, Jack Nicholson, in a conversation with his sister Lorraine. He said sports are their shared language, and described a staph infection that pushed him from football toward acting.
Jack Nicholson’s son Ray, the 34-year-old actor, has offered a rare look at his relationship with his 89-year-old father in a conversation with his sister, Lorraine Nicholson, 36. Sports, he said, are what the two men share.
"I love sports so much. It's also the language of love that me and dad share," Ray told Lorraine. "We can't talk about a lot." Their common ground, he added, is the Los Angeles Lakers.
A staph infection and a change of plan
Ray, known for the film Smile, said he once expected to play football in college. A health scare changed that.
After losing a game, he began to lose feeling in his arm. He told his mother he thought he had broken his elbow. At the hospital, doctors sent the family away because he had a staph infection that had worsened into MRSA, a drug-resistant bacterial infection.
He needed 24-hour nurses. Doctors drew a mark on his arm. "If it gets past here, we're cutting your arm," he recalled them saying.
Telling his father
Ray said he then had a "voice-of-god moment" that told him he wanted to be an actor. Telling his father was the hard part.
"I was really scared to tell dad," said Ray, who stars in Mosquito Bowl. He went to USC and came to love filmmaking. "My education really taught me that dad isn't god," he said.
He described his father as "a beautiful part" of the film industry, but "a very small part." Making his dad proud ranks high on his list, Ray said, but acting is also "a way of finding who I am."
A large Nicholson family
Jack Nicholson, star of The Shining, has largely stayed out of public view in recent years. He has five known children by different partners. Jennifer, 62, is his daughter with ex-wife Sandra Knight. Caleb, 56, is his son with Susan Anspach, his Five Easy Pieces costar.
Honey, 44, is his daughter with model Winnie Hollman. Ray and Lorraine are his children with actress Rebecca Broussard. He also has an estranged daughter, Tessa, 32, with Jennine Gourin.
An unnamed source said in an earlier report that Nicholson is "absolutely not hiding from anybody he loves." The same source said Ray and Lorraine "see Jack as their personal hero."
