Jack Nicholson: Hidden Gems – News reports broke last week that Jack Nicholson was retiring from acting due to issues with memory loss.

Pictured right: Jackson Nicholson with director Michaelangelo Antonioni during the filming of The Passenger.

When news reports broke last week that Jack Nicholson, three-time Oscar winner and Hollywood icon, was retiring from acting due to issues with memory loss, the star, last seen in 2010’s How Do You Know, made no comment. Since then, NBC’s Maria Shriver has confirmed that the rumor was indeed false, but until Nicholson’s representative speak up or a casting announcement arrives soon, rumors are likely to continue.

Either way, now is as good a time as any to comb through what has already amounted to an incredible career. Sure there’s The Shining, As Good as it Gets, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Batman or The Departed, but let’s dig a little deeper. Here are five lesser-known gems from the Nicholson file, each worth a watch:

From the over-the-top references to shenanigans worthy of The Godfather, to choice, scene-chewing appearances Anjelica Huston, William Hickey and Robert Loggia, to the dark crime family humor that pervades this story of a hit man, Nicholson, and hit woman, Kathleen Turner, who fall for each other, this film, the penultimate picture from legendary director John Huston, has guilty pleasure written all over it.

Those who haven’t seen Warren Beaty’s Bolshevik Revolution epic may not even realize that Nicholson co-stars in the radical story of activists as Diane Keaton’s cool-headed, overly devoted “other man.” By the 1980s, Nicholson was rarely playing support to another lead actor, but in this case, when he does, he still makes audiences hope the girl chooses him instead.

Nicholson vs. Brando. All you need to know, really. But this True Grit-style Western from Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde) offers plenty of tense showdowns as Brando, a psychotic killer sporting an unsettlingly twee Irish accent, is hired to hunt down Nicholson’s womanizing horse thief. It’s not a great film, but the scenes featuring these two giants going toe-to-toe are not to be missed.

This gorgeously shot film from Michaelangelo Antonioni (Blow-Up) uses more striking visuals of North African landscapes and European vistas than it does explanatory dialog as it follows Nicholson, an adrift war correspondent who gets in way over his head when he assumes the identity of a murdered gunrunner. It is one of Nicholson’s quietest performances, and given a little patience, one of his most rewarding.

As a Navy lifer, Nicholson’s “Bad-Ass” Buddosky takes it upon himself to impart some street wisdom and inject a little joie de vivre into the last days of freedom for the young officer he is escorting to prison for theft. In a lonely, autumnal picture by introspective director Hal Ashby (Being There) and writer Robert Towne (Chinatown), all of Nicholson’s passions and fears, his anger and ego, his wounded pride and rampant lust for life are on display in a powerhouse performance.

Of course, if you want to go really deep, YouTube has the complete version of Nicholson’s 1960 car-charged drama The Wild Ride.