Michael Douglas says his longtime friend Jack Nicholson is in good health but has withdrawn from public life, offering a rare update on the 89-year-old actor who has not appeared in a film in 16 years. Douglas spoke Monday in Swansea, Wales, while promoting his memoir “One Helluva Ride.” Asked about Nicholson, he said he wished the two had shared a screen. Nicholson no longer works, Douglas said, adding: “He’s well. He has disappeared.”
Douglas, 82, stressed that he still sees his friend and described him as living quietly near his home, wandering around in slippers. He called Nicholson’s retreat a natural stage of life and said the three-time Oscar winner has earned it. Nicholson is a few years older than he is, Douglas noted, and he understands the choice.
The two men’s bond dates to the mid-1970s. Douglas produced “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the 1975 drama that won Nicholson an Oscar and swept the major awards that year. Their careers have since run in parallel without a joint project. Douglas has also stepped back, with his last role coming in 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”
Nicholson last appeared on the big screen in James L. Brooks’ 2010 romantic comedy “How Do You Know.” He has never announced a retirement. In a 2013 interview he said he felt less drawn to being “out there,” and he has rationed his public appearances ever since, turning up mostly at Los Angeles Lakers games.
Douglas’s comments cut against a more hopeful note from Brooks, who suggested last year that audiences would soon see Nicholson again and said the actor was reading scripts. Neither man has offered details, and Nicholson’s representatives have not addressed the question publicly.
Nicholson made one notable exception to his seclusion in February 2025, when he walked onstage at the “Saturday Night Live” 50th anniversary special to introduce Adam Sandler. He performed the same duty at the show’s 40th anniversary in 2015.
