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WORK TITLE: Rebel
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 2/8/1941
WEBSITE:
CITY: Malibu
STATE: CA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born February 8, 1941, in Omaha, NE; son of Franklin and Helen Nolte; married Sheila Page, 1966 (divorced 1970); married Sharyn Haddad, 1978 (divorced 1983); married Rebecca Linger, 1984 (divorced 1994); married Clytie Lane, 2016; children: Sophie and Brawley.
EDUCATION:Attended Phoenix College, Pasadena City College, Eastern Arizona College, and Arizona State University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Model, producer, actor, and author.
Actor in television, including Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, 1969; Griff, 1973; Cannon, 1973; Medical Center, 1973-74; The Streets of San Francisco, 1974; Emergency!, 1974; The Rookies, 1974; Toma, 1974; Chopper One, 1974; Gunsmoke, 1974; Winter Kill, 1974; The California Kid, 1974; Barnaby Jones, 1974-75; Adams of Eagle Lake, 1975; Rich Man, Poor Man, 1976; Ultimate Rush, 2011; Luck, 2011-12; Gracepoint, 2014; and Graves, 2016-17.
Also actor in films, including Dirty Little Billy, 1972; Electra Glide in Blue, 1973; Death Sentence, 1974; Return to Macon County, 1975; Northville Cemetery Massacre, 1976; The Deep, 1977; Who’ll Stop the Rain, 1978; North Dallas Forty, 1979; Heart Beat, 1980; Cannery Row, 1982; 48 Hrs., 1982; Under Fire, 1983; Grace Quigley, 1984; Teachers, 1984; Down and Out in Beverly Hills, 1986; Extreme Prejudice, 1987; Weeds, 1987; Three Fugitives, 1989; Farewell to the King, 1989; New York Stories, 1989; Everybody Wins, 1990; Q&A, 1990; Another 48 Hrs., 1990; Cape Fear, 1991; The Prince of Tides, 1991; Lorenzo’s Oil, 1992; The Player, 1992; I’ll Do Anything, 1994; Blue Chips, 1994; I Love Trouble, 1994; Jefferson in Paris, 1995; Mulholland Falls, 1996; Mother Night, 1996; Nightwatch, 1997; Afterglow, 1997; U Turn, 1997; Affliction, 1997; The Thin Red Line, 1998; Breakfast of Champions, 1999; Simpatico, 1999; The Golden Bowl, 2000; Trixie, 2000; Investigating Sex, 2001; The Good Thief, 2002; Northfork, 2003; Hulk, 2003; The Beautiful Country, 2004; Clean, 2004; Hotel Rwanda, 2004; Neverwas, 2005; Paris, je t’aime, 2006; Peaceful Warrior, 2006; Quelques jours en septembre, 2006; Off the Black, 2006; The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, 2008; The Spiderwick Chronicles, 2008; Tropic Thunder, 2008; My Own Love Song, 2010; Arcadia Lost, 2010; Arthur, 2011; Warrior, 2011; A puerta fría, 2012; The Company You Keep, 2012; Gangster Squad, 2013; Parker, 2013; Hateship, Loveship, 2013; The Trials of Cate McCall, 2013; A Walk in the Woods, 2015; Run All Night, 2015; Return to Sender, 2015; The Ridiculous 6, 2015; The Padre, 2018; and Angel Has Fallen, 2018.
AWARDS:Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor, 1991, for Prince of Tides; Los Angeles Film Critics Association for Best Actor, 1991, for Prince of Tides; Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, 1992, for Prince of Tides; Valladolid International Film Festival Award for Best Actor, 1997, for Affliction; New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, 1998, for Affliction; National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor, 1999, for Affliction; Sant Jordi Awards for Best Foreign Actor, 1999, for Affliction; San Diego Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor, 2011, for Warrior.
Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor – Television Series Drama, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, 1977, for Rich Man, Poor Man; Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, 1988, for Weeds; Academy Award for Best Actor, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 1992, for Prince of Tides; Academy Award for Best Actor, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 1999, for Affliction; Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, 1999, for Affliction; Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2012, for Warrior; Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, 2017, for Graves.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Nick Nolte is most widely recognized for his pursuits as a model and actor. He has been active in the modeling world during the ’60s, and made his film and television debut during the ’70s. Many know him for his roles in such films as Lorenzo’s Oil, 48 Hrs., The Prince of Tides, and Grace Quigley, among several others. One of his more recent roles was on the series, Graves, which was a part of the Epix TV network programming lineup from 2016 to 2017. He has received numerous accolades for his work, including numerous Academy Award nominations and a Golden Globe.
Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines marks Nolte’s foray into writing. The book serves as a self-written memoir of Nolte’s life, starting from his early years. Nolte divulges stories about his childhood and life with his parents, as well as the impact they left upon his life. One of the most significant events from his period of Nolte’s life, as he narrates, was his mother’s treatment of him as he grew. In order to get him to cooperate and attend school whenever he was unwilling, Nolte’s mother fed him a stimulant pill, which she told him was a vitamin. Nolte’s mother also indulged in drugs, and spent her days as an employee for the department store industry. Nolte was also deeply affected by his father’s decline in mental health following his participation in the Second World War. Nolte’s father left hale and healthy, only to come back traumatized. From there, Nolte describes his adolescence, as well as his journey to becoming an actor. In addition to illustrating the highlights of his professional career, Nolte also discusses the ins and outs of his personal life and the many relationships he has built throughout his life. One Kirkus Reviews contributor expressed that the book is “better than the usual run of actor memoirs and plenty of fun to boot.” In an issue of Washington Post, Sibbie O’Sullivan called the book “[t]ouching, funny in parts, full of the excesses postwar America readily supplied, and, hopefully, truthful.” Ellen Bates, writing in Xpress Reviews, felt that the book “[s]hould be read by young actors as Nolte the mentor.” On the USA Today website, Patrick Ryan wrote: “We can only hope that Father Time doesn’t come knocking then, or frankly, any time soon, because this scintillating screen legend clearly has many more yarns to tell.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2018, review of Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines.
Washington Post, February 19, 2018, Sibbie O’Sullivan, “Book World: How weird is Nick Nolte? Actor bares his soul in memoir,” review of Rebel.
Xpress Reviews, February 2, 2018, Ellen Bates, review of Rebel.
ONLINE
Daily Mail Online, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ (April 12, 2018), “Nick Nolte tells all: He did heroin for eight weeks for a role, slept with Jacqueline Bisset, dislikes Edward Norton and turned DOWN the role of Superman.”
Esquire, https://www.esquire.com/ (March 21, 2018), Paul Wilson, “What I’ve Learned: Nick Nolte.”
Page Six, https://pagesix.com/ (February 12, 2018), Francesca Bacardi, “Nick Nolte looks like a mess.”
USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/ (January 22, 2018), Patrick Ryan, “Hollywood bad-boy Nick Nolte tells all in his memoir, ‘Rebel’,” review of Rebel.
Variety, http://variety.com/ (November 20, 2017), Malina Saval, “Nick Nolte Reflects on What Acting’s Meant for Him Ahead of Walk of Fame Honor.”
Nick Nolte
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Nick Nolte
Nolte as Tom Jordache in 1976
Born
Nicholas King Nolte
February 8, 1941 (age 77)
Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Residence
Malibu, California, U.S.
Nationality
American
Education
Westside High School
Occupation
Actor, model
Years active
1969–present
Height
1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Spouse(s)
Sheila Page (1966–1970)
Sharyn Haddad (1978–1983)
Rebecca Linger (1984–1994)
Clytie Lane (m. 2016)[1]
Children
2
Nicholas King Nolte (born February 8, 1941)[2] is an American actor, producer, author, and former model. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1991 film The Prince of Tides. He went on to receive Academy Award nominations for Affliction (1998) and Warrior (2011). His other film appearances include The Deep (1977), Who'll Stop The Rain (1978), North Dallas Forty (1979), 48 Hrs. (1982),Teachers (1984) Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Another 48 Hrs. (1990), Everybody Wins (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Lorenzo's Oil (1992), The Thin Red Line (1998), The Good Thief (2002), Hulk (2003), Hotel Rwanda (2004), Tropic Thunder (2008), and A Walk in the Woods (2015). He was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy for his role in the TV series Graves.
Contents [hide]
1
Early life
2
Career
2.1
Modeling
2.2
Acting
3
Legal troubles
4
Personal life
5
Filmography
5.1
Film
5.2
Television
6
Accolades
6.1
Other honors
7
References
8
External links
Early life[edit]
Nolte was born February 8, 1941, in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, Franklin Arthur Nolte (1904–1978), was a farmer's son who ran away from home, nearly dropped out of high school and was a three-time letter winner in football at Iowa State University (1929–1931).[3] His mother, Helen (née King; 1914–2000), was a department store buyer and then became an expert Antique Dealer co-owning a prestigious and successful Antique Shop despite having no formal education in this area. His ancestry includes German, English, Scots-Irish, Scottish and Swiss-German.[4][1] Nolte's maternal grandfather, Matthew Leander King, invented the hollow-tile silo and was prominent in early aviation. His maternal grandmother ran the student union at Iowa State University. He has an older sister, Nancy, who was an executive for the Red Cross.
Nolte attended Kingsley Elementary School in Waterloo, Iowa.[1] He studied at Westside High School in Omaha, where he was the kicker on the football team. He also attended Benson High School, but was expelled for hiding beer before practice and being caught drinking it during a practice session.[5] Following his high school graduation in 1959, he attended Pasadena City College in Southern California, Arizona State University in Tempe (on a football scholarship), Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher and Phoenix College in Phoenix. At Eastern Arizona, Nolte lettered in football as a tight end and defensive end in basketball with forward, and as a catcher on the baseball team. Poor grades eventually ended his studies, at which point his career in theatre began in earnest. While in college, Nolte worked for the Falstaff Brewery in Omaha.
After stints at the Pasadena Playhouse and the Stella Adler Academy in Los Angeles, Nolte spent several years traveling the country and working in regional theaters, including the Old Log Theater in Minnesota for three years.
Career[edit]
Modeling[edit]
Nolte was a model in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In a national magazine advertisement in 1972, he appeared in jeans and an open jean shirt for Clairol's "Summer Blonde" hair lightener sitting on a log next to a blonde Chris O'Connor;[6] and they appeared on the packaging. In 1992, Nolte was named the Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine.
Acting[edit]
Nolte as Tom Jordache in Rich Man, Poor Man
Nolte first starred in the television miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man, based on Irwin Shaw's 1970 best-selling novel. Later he appeared in over forty films, playing a wide variety of characters. Diversity of character, trademark athleticism, and gravelly voice are signatures of his career. In 1973, he guest-starred in the Griff episode, "Who Framed Billy the Kid?", as Billy Randolph, a football player accused of murder. He co-starred with Andy Griffith in Winter Kill, a television film made as the pilot of a possible television series, and another one, Adams of Eagle Lake, but neither was picked up.[citation needed]
Nolte starred in The Deep (1977), Who'll Stop the Rain (1978), North Dallas Forty (1979) which is based on Peter Gent's novel, and starred in 48 Hrs. (1982) with Eddie Murphy. During the 1980s, he starred in Under Fire (1983), Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Extreme Prejudice (1987) and New York Stories (1989). Nolte starred with Katharine Hepburn in her last leading film role in Grace Quigley (1985). Nolte and Murphy starred again in the sequel Another 48 Hrs.. In 1991, Nolte starred in The Prince of Tides and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Later, he starred in Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear with Robert De Niro and Jessica Lange. Nolte also starred in Lorenzo's Oil (1992), Jefferson in Paris (1995), Mulholland Falls (1996) and Afterglow (1997). He received his second Academy Award nomination the same year for Affliction. Nolte starred with Sean Penn in three films, including Terrence Malick's war epic The Thin Red Line, U Turn and Gangster Squad.
Nolte continued to work in the 2000s, taking smaller parts in Clean and Hotel Rwanda, both performances receiving positive reviews. He also played supporting roles in the 2006 drama Peaceful Warrior and the 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder. In 2011, Nolte played recovering alcoholic Paddy Conlon in Warrior, and was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Beginning in 2011, Nolte starred with Dustin Hoffman in the HBO series Luck. At the start of production of the second season, however, HBO ended the series after the death of three horses during filming.[7]
In 2015, Nolte starred in the biopic comedy-drama A Walk in the Woods and in the revenge thriller Return to Sender.
Since 2016, Nolte has starred in Graves on Epix TV about a volatile, hard-drinking former U.S. President who has been retired for 25 years and who has a political epiphany to right the wrongs of his past administration in very public and unpredictable ways. (Lee Cowan (October 9, 2016). CBS Sunday Morning.)
For Nolte, acting is not a career but something he needs to do, he says, "a need in the sense that I can't find anything as complex and interesting to do, but I need it in a story," and "I don't want to do reality because reality never runs smooth." (Cowan (October 9, 2016) He likes to vanish into a role "if the story reaches up to where the great actor is, the great actor disappears, and the story becomes number one, that's as real as it gets." (Cowan (October 9, 2016)[8]
Legal troubles[edit]
In 1965, Nolte was arrested for selling counterfeit documents and was given a 45-year prison sentence and a $75,000 fine; however, the sentence was suspended.[9] [10] This felony conviction did, however, erase his military-joining eligibility – at the time, he felt obligated to serve in the Vietnam War. As a result, Nolte says he felt incomplete as a young man for not going to Vietnam.[11]
On September 11, 2002, Nolte was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in Malibu, California. Three days later, he checked himself into Silver Hill Hospital in Connecticut for counseling.[12] Tests later showed that he was under the influence of GHB. Nolte responded that he has "been taking it for four years and I've never been raped."[13] On December 12, 2002, he pleaded no contest to charges of driving under the influence. He was given three years' probation, with orders to undergo alcohol and drug counseling with random testing required.
Personal life[edit]
Nolte has been in relationships with Debra Winger and Vicki Lewis.[14][15] He has two children, Brawley (b. 1986) (who has had a few acting roles himself) and Sophie (b. 2007).[16]
Filmography[edit]
Film[edit]
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1972
Dirty Little Billy
Town Gang Leader
Uncredited
1973
Electra Glide in Blue
Hippie Kid
Uncredited
1974
Death Sentence
John Healy
1975
Return to Macon County
Bo Hollinger
1976
Northville Cemetery Massacre
Chris (voice)
Uncredited
1977
The Deep
David Sanders
1978
Who'll Stop the Rain
Ray Hicks
1979
North Dallas Forty
Phillip Elliott
1980
Heart Beat
Neal Cassady
1982
Cannery Row
Doc
1982
48 Hrs.
Jack Cates
1983
Under Fire
Russell Price
1984
Grace Quigley
Seymour Flint
1984
Teachers
Alex Jurel
1986
Down and Out in Beverly Hills
Jerry Baskin
1987
Extreme Prejudice
Texas Ranger Jack Benteen
1987
Weeds
Lee Umstetter
1989
Three Fugitives
Lucas
1989
Farewell to the King
Learoyd
1989
New York Stories
Lionel Dobie
Segment: "Life Lessons"
1990
Everybody Wins
Tom O'Toole
1990
Q&A
Captain Michael Brennan
1990
Another 48 Hrs.
Jack Cates
1991
Cape Fear
Sam Bowden
1991
The Prince of Tides
Tom Wingo
1992
Lorenzo's Oil
Augusto Odone
1992
The Player
Himself
Cameo
1994
I'll Do Anything
Matt Hobbs
1994
Blue Chips
Pete Bell
1994
I Love Trouble
Peter Brackett
1995
Jefferson in Paris
Thomas Jefferson
1996
Mulholland Falls
Max Hoover
1996
Mother Night
Howard Campbell
1997
Nightwatch
Inspector Thomas Cray
1997
Afterglow
Lucky Mann
1997
U Turn
Jake McKenna
1997
Affliction
Wade Whitehouse
1998
The Thin Red Line
Lt. Col. Gordon Tall
1999
Breakfast of Champions
Harry Le Sabre
1999
Simpatico
Vincent Webb
2000
The Golden Bowl
Adam Verver
2000
Trixie
Senator Drumond Avery
2001
Investigating Sex
Faldo
2002
The Good Thief
Bob Montagnet
2003
Northfork
Father Harlan
2003
Hulk
Dr. David Banner / The Father
2004
The Beautiful Country
Steve
2004
Clean
Albrecht Hauser
2004
Hotel Rwanda
Colonel Oliver
2005
Neverwas
T.L. Pierson
2006
Over the Hedge
Vincent (voice)
2006
Paris, je t'aime
Vincent (segment "Parc Monceau")
2006
Peaceful Warrior
Socrates
2006
Quelques jours en septembre
Elliott
2006
Off the Black
Ray Cook
2007
Chicago 10
Thomas Horan (voice)
Documentary
2008
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
Joe Bechstein
2008
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Mulgarath
2008
Nick Nolte: No Exit
Himself
Documentary
2008
Tropic Thunder
John "Four Leaf" Tayback
2010
My Own Love Song
Caldwell
2010
Huxley on Huxley
Himself
Documentary
2010
Arcadia Lost
Benerji
2010
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
Butch (voice)
2011
Arthur
Burt Johnson
2011
Zookeeper
Bernie The Gorilla (voice)
2011
Warrior
Paddy Conlon
2012
A puerta fría
Battleworth
2012
The Company You Keep
Donal
2013
Gangster Squad
Bill Parker
2013
Parker
Hurley
2013
Hateship, Loveship
Mr. McCauley
2013
The Trials of Cate McCall
Bridges
2014
Noah
Samyaza (voice)
2014
Asthma
Werewolf (voice)
2015
A Walk in the Woods
Katz
2015
Run All Night
Eddie Conlon
Uncredited
2015
Return to Sender
Mitchell Wells
2015
The Ridiculous 6
Frank Stockburn
2018
The Padre
Nemes
2018
Angel Has Fallen
[17]
Television[edit]
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1969
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
Episode: "The Feather Farm"
1973
Griff
Billy Randolph
Episode: "The Framing of Billy the Kid"
1973
Cannon
Ron Johnson
Episode: "Arena of Fear"
1973–1974
Medical Center
Tank / Lou
2 episodes
1974
The Streets of San Francisco
Captain Alan Melder
Episode: "Crossfire"
1974
Emergency!
Fred
Episode: "The Hard Hours"
1974
The Rookies
Tommy
Episode: "The Teacher"
1974
Toma
Wally
Episode: "Friends of Danny Beecher"
1974
Chopper One
Bob
Episode: "The Hijacking"
1974
Gunsmoke
Barney Austin
Episode: "The Tarnished Badge"
1974
Winter Kill
Dave Michaels
Movie
1974
The California Kid
Buzz Stafford
Movie
1974–1975
Barnaby Jones
Mark Rainey, Paul Barringer
2 episodes
1975
Adams of Eagle Lake
Officer Jerry Troy
2 episodes
1976
Rich Man, Poor Man
Tom Jordache
Miniseries
2011
Ultimate Rush
Narrator (voice)
2011–2012
Luck
Walter James Smith
10 episodes
2014
Gracepoint
Jack Reinhold
Miniseries
2016–2017
Graves
President Richard Graves
20 episodes
Accolades[edit]
Nolte at 2000 Cannes Film Festival
Awards and nominations
Year
Association
Category
Nominated work
Result
1976
Rich Man, Poor Man
Primetime Emmy Awards
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated
1977
Golden Globe Awards
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama
Nominated
1979
Who'll Stop the Rain
National Society of Film Critics Awards
Best Actor
3rd place
North Dallas Forty
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
Best Actor
3rd place
1980
National Society of Film Critics Awards
Best Actor
3rd place
1988
Weeds
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated
1991
The Prince of Tides
Boston Society of Film Critics
Best Actor
Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association
Best Actor
Won
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Nominated
1992
Academy Awards
Best Actor
Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association
Best Actor
Nominated
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Won
National Society of Film Critics Awards
Best Actor
3rd place
1997
Affliction
Valladolid International Film Festival
Best Actor
Won
1998
New York Film Critics Circle
Best Actor
Won
1999
Academy Awards
Best Actor
Nominated
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated
Independent Spirit Awards
Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead
Nominated
National Society of Film Critics
Best Actor
Won
Sant Jordi Awards
Best Foreign Actor
Won
Satellite Awards
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated
The Thin Red Line
Chicago Film Critics Association
Best Supporting Actor
Nominated
2011
Warrior
Chicago Film Critics Association
Best Supporting Actor
Nominated
Denver Film Critics Society
Best Supporting Actor
Nominated
San Diego Film Critics
Best Supporting Actor
Won
Satellite Awards
Best Supporting Actor
Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Best Supporting Actor
Nominated
2012
Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actor
Nominated
Broadcast Film Critics Association
Best Supporting Actor
Nominated
Online Film Critics Society
Best Supporting Actor
Nominated
2017
Graves
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy
Nominated
Other honors[edit]
1992 – People Magazine: Sexiest Man Alive
November 20, 2017 10:00AM PT
Nick Nolte Reflects on What Acting’s Meant for Him Ahead of Walk of Fame Honor
By Malina Saval @MalinaSaval
Malina Saval
Associate Editor, Features
@MalinaSaval
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CREDIT: Victoria Will/Invision/AP
Nick Nolte lives in a treehouse in Malibu. It’s an actual house. In a tree. A tree runs through the bedroom. He built it on the property he owns, a rustic 2.5-acre lot on which there are several small houses and an organic fruit and vegetable garden and dogs and cats running around. And every morning the first thing Nolte does when he wakes up is reach out and put his hand on the tree. And he feels the tree’s pulse. And he says to himself, “This is so cool. It’s alive.”
Nolte, who is receiving a star Nov. 20 on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, bought the property, within faint earshot of the Pacific Ocean, about 40 years ago, 10 years after he moved to L.A. to become a star. The semi-remote location (Kevin Dillon is a neighbor) is something that Nolte relishes; the fresh smell of dirt and grass, the cool shade from the trees. He walks around the grounds in casual shorts and crumpled Hawaiian shirt, sporting a woven brimmed hat and full, bristly beard. At one point during our interview, one of Nolte’s dogs, a rambunctious Labrador puppy named Charlie, bites on Nolte’s sleeve, ripping it apart, and the actor responds with his signature laugh — gruff yet jovial.
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His is the home of a wildly creative person, with unfinished DIY projects at every turn, including a library, filled with books, all alphabetized according to author (Kurt Vonnegut is a favorite). There’s a large rock and chisel on one table — “I’m working on carving that stone, but I’m not sure what I’ll make of it yet,” he says — and a glass blowing studio located by the main house, a single story, two-bedroom structure made of pale-colored stones in which Nolte loves to pass the hours making original works of art.
“It’s just enough away from the noise,” he says of the eclectic estate, plucking a ripened raspberry off its thorny vine and popping one in his mouth. “They have to fall right into your hands. Taste it, there are no bugs on it. That’s some whacked-out sugar.”
While globally renowned as one of the most accomplished actors on the planet, noted for playing moody, tortured souls, and earning Oscar noms for his roles in “The Prince of Tides,” “Affliction” and “Warrior,” stardom came relatively late to Nolte.
Born in Omaha, Neb., and not much interested in academic pursuits despite hailing from a long line of college professors, Nolte’s early aspirations were to become a professional football player.
“From a little kid up I was an athlete,” says Nolte, who was a punter and kicker for a series of community colleges, including Phoenix College and Pasadena City College, but never made it to class. “You couldn’t get me to sit in a classroom. I just wanted to play football.”
When his parents moved to Hollywood — “They were living off Gower Street,” he says — Nolte followed. A couple of his friends were theater actors and they introduced Nolte to the works of such playwrights as William Inge and Tennessee Williams. Nolte, in his early 20s at the time, was hooked.
“Acting became a sort of replacement for everything,” he says. “Now I had to start reading and writing. That was a metamorphosis, and it took about five months. I was 220 pounds when I first walked into [the theater] for the first time, and I had a sort of mini-breakdown going from an athlete to an actor. I didn’t necessarily do it — decide to become an actor — something did it to me.”
When his parents moved to Phoenix, Nolte, without a job or money, moved with them, honing his craft on the local stage. He was about 35 years old when he was cast as a rebellious, working-class boxer in the 1976 TV miniseries “Rich Man, Poor Man,” based on the bestselling novel by Irwin Shaw. It was one of Nolte’s breakout roles — along with Richard Compton’s “Return to Macon County,” released the year before — officially planting him on Hollywood’s map.
Nolte would spend the next decade turning in sharp, memorable performances in such movies as “Who’ll Stop the Rain?” “48 Hours,” “Teachers” and Paul Mazursky’s satirical comedy “Down and Out in Beverly Hills.” In the Golden Globe-winning film, Nolte plays a philosopher-vagrant who upends the lives of a wealthy bourgeois couple (Bette Midler and Richard Dreyfuss) and their two self-absorbed adult-age kids. If Nolte’s commitment to acting were ever in doubt, consider this: he really ate dog food during the now-famous scene in which he coaxes the family’s anorexic dog, Matisse, to end its three-day hunger strike.
But it was on the set of Sidney Lumet’s crime drama “Q&A” that Barbra Streisand came calling, casting Nolte in the role that would land him his first Oscar nom.
“She approached me in such a unique way,” he remembers. “Our first AD said, ‘Have you read Pat Conroy’s ‘The Prince of Tides?’ And I said, ‘No. I have not.’ He said, ‘Here’s the book, you should read it.’ So I read the book and got hooked right away and said, ‘Is there a reason you gave me this book?’ And he said, ‘There’s a script.’ So I read the script — there was no author on it — and the script was very good. And I said, ‘Is there someone I’m supposed to talk to a bout this?’ And he said, ‘Yes, you’re supposed to talk to Barbra Streisand.’ So I went to her apartment and she gave me a glass of wine and I drank it standing up, and she was nervous the entire time — her apartment was all white and she thought I was going to spill the wine.”
Streisand was a gifted, hard-working, highly competent director, says Nolte, but there were moments of stark creative differences.
“One day we had worked so hard, we had done all our main work,and she said, ‘Let’s just rehearse tomorrow’s scene,’ ” he says. “And then she decided, ‘Well, why don’t we just shoot the scene now?’ And we all just went, ‘Oh, man.’ And she thought that was men pushing their will over women by rebelling. So she called me late and said, ‘Nick, you guys intimidated me. Tomorrow you’re going to have to apologize to the whole crew.’”
Granted, Nolte would cultivate a reputation for doing far more destructive things — of which drug addiction and alcoholism were the primary causes.
“This is a place where you have to get sober,” he says of the entertainment industry. “You get carried away. That’s what happens. Same thing with rock and roll. That’s the problem a bit with art in general, even painting: you want to celebrate the painting so you go from bar to bar. And then you get into a fight.”
But today, Nolte, who admits that “real life is what’s difficult for me,” seems to have settled into a relative peace. He is nothing if not authentic, more concerned with the books on his shelves than the material trappings of Hollywood. But the desire to act still burns hot. He’s finished production on Jonathan Sobol’s “The Padre” and is starring in season two of the Epix TV series “Graves,” playing Richard Graves, a repentant ex-president who sets out to correct the mistakes he made during his White House tenure. Perhaps not intentionally, there is a definite symmetry between Graves and Nolte, both successful, powerful men whose contrition leads to soul-searching and positive internal change.
“He’s never left the presidency, frankly, and he feels he’s committed sins,” says Nolte of Graves, who, he says was partially modeled on Lyndon B. Johnson. “And now he’s facing the final frontier. So there’s this exaggerated behavior to him, but it’s really beautiful because he wants so badly so exorcise his faults.”
Nick Nolte looks like a mess
By Francesca Bacardi
February 12, 2018 | 10:34am
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Nick Nolte
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Someone get this guy some shears and a new Sunday’s best.
Nick Nolte, 77, stepped out for some grocery shopping in Malibu on Sunday, seemingly forgetting that he’d be out in public.
People’s one-time Sexiest Man Alive made his way to the supermarket in plaid pajama pants and a mismatched plaid button-down shirt. He topped off the messy look with wild hair and an overgrown, Santa Claus-like beard.
Nolte’s life has been full of ups and downs, but he hit rock bottom in 2002 when he was arrested for reckless driving along the Pacific Coast Highway. He later admitted that his now-infamous mugshot was the result of ingesting GHB.
Afterward, the “Hotel Rwanda” actor checked himself into a psychiatric institution known for its addiction programs. He now lives a healthy and clean life, raising his 10-year-old daughter with wife Clytie Lane.
Nick Nolte is practically unrecognizable these days
By Cindy Adams
March 13, 2018 | 6:10pm
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Nick Nolte. People magazine once labeled the Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee who made over 40 movies Sexiest Man Alive.
This movie star, who early on married three women, was now at the 92nd Street Y hustling his autobio “Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines.”
And, oy, he looks different. A mirror wouldn’t recognize him. Forget so gorgeous you wanted to crawl into his bones. Think instead David Letterman.
Huge white beard. Fluffy snow-white hair. Oversize cap that overlapped over-thick eyebrows. He ambulated gingerly.
His addiction, his famous mug shot from his 2002 arrest for driving while drugged, his rehabilitation, his wish to rejuice his career, all fueled the man’s need to write a tell-all. Boring, it’s not. It starts with “my testicle tuck.”
Interesting yesteryear tales drop names like Robert Mitchum, George C. Scott, Ben Gazzara. Bits like: “Don’t get into a fight with director Billy Friedkin. He can clean your clock.” And director Ang Lee’s “great. He liked my thoughts of creating different colors for different thoughts.”
His acting technique: “I had dyslexia and wrote down dialogue of my characters in longhand. Slowed it down so you got the poetry of the words.”
Unorthodox life? “I like to create puzzles that can’t be solved.”
Moviemaking? “I never liked Hollywood’s formula. I’d reform a whole script. Put in my own commentary. Break the script into beats. I’d speak my lines in my bathtub until they became my own words.”
Well-known mug shot and arrest? “California Highway Patrol dispatched a couple of cars to herd mine to the side of the road before I killed anyone. I needed help. I was a mess. They said I was drooling.”
Nolte talks of being “selfish,” of “surviving,” of “raging,” of “standing in the face of fear.” And now of “scrubbing my old identity.”
Language of moviemaking
The newest version of that 1976 Air France hijacking, “7 Days in Entebbe,” stars a blonde now brunette Rosamund Pike. Co-star German/Spanish actor Daniel Brühl says: “She thrills me. Entering a room, she creates electrifying tension.”
Rosamund, a Brit, wanted to play their scenes in German.
“Normally,” he says, “It’s the other way around, and I must speak in English. By Day 2, I felt I’m working with a German actress.” Ja. Danke schön.
Ocean’s dry?
The all-gal Met heist film — Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett — is it hitting clinkers?
Or is mayhap producer George Clooney just doing a pivotal scene?
Rush casting calls went out titled “Ocean’s 8 Reshoots” for extras to play Met security. Scheduled for a June 8 release. If I knew more, I’d hit high-C to tell it.
In bloom
What I do know is the movie “Flower,” with Zoey Deutch, opens Friday.
It’s about a firecracker, age 17, living with her single mom in San Fernando Valley, and there’s some unbalanced son fresh from rehab and anger and perilous things and teenage kicks and dark comedy, etc.
Director is Max Winkler, the son of Henry Winkler a k a the Fonz.
I also know movieville’s hot new young’uns all have hot new young names.
Gone is Stanley and Rosalie and Irving and Betty. One’s named Bailee Madison. Another is Raegan (not Reagan like Ronald the President) but Raegan Revord.
This kid’s about 10. Wouldn’t it be nifty if their studio were 8th Century Fox?
On 14th Street, this Brooklynite found a fake curly bun hairpiece. It cost $9.
A hairdresser came to the house to teach her how to put it on. The hairdresser charged her $200.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.
Nick Nolte tells all: He did heroin for eight weeks for a role, slept with Jacqueline Bisset, dislikes Edward Norton and turned DOWN the role of Superman
Nick Nolte, 77, has taken a look back on his movie roles, drug use and mug shots in his new memoir
His autobiography traces the rise of the headstrong Nolte who went on to become a three-time Oscar nominee
He recounts his amazing appetite for drugs, including the time he took real heroin during the eight-week shoot of The Good Thief
Nolte also spoke of his infamous 2002 mugshot, saying it resembled 'an asylum inmate out for a lark'
By Associated Press
Published: 15:26 BST, 12 April 2018 | Updated: 21:38 BST, 12 April 2018
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You might remember Nick Nolte's infamous mug shot from 2002, the one where the three-time Oscar nominee wears his hair wild and his shirt Hawaiian. But did you know he has another one from many years before that arrest?
In 1961 Nolte was busted for selling fake draft cards, fined $75,000 and sentenced to 75 years in prison, later suspended. In that booking photo, a pre-famous Nolte wears his hair short and a button-down shirt.
Both embarrassing incidents are heartily discussed in his new memoir, Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines.
Nolte, 77, is now ready to tell his story - warts and all. The arrests act almost like bookends to a sometimes crazy life.
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Three-time Oscar nominee Nick Nolte, 77, has taken a look back on his movie roles, drug use and mug shots in his new memoir, Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines
'I've had two mug shots in my lifetime. It's hard to get those. And if you get them, you better make sure you examine the circumstances that you got them,' Nolte said.
'The best way to deal with the biggest mistakes in your life is to discuss them. With everybody, including God.'
Nolte also spoke of his infamous 2002 mugshot (pictured above), saying it resembled 'an asylum inmate out for a lark'
The autobiography traces the rise of the headstrong Nolte - literally, because he had the bizarre habit of head-butting parked cars.
He was a Midwestern boy, a natural jock, who found fame later in life when he traded in performing on the stage to movies.
'Acting always appealed to me a lot because it's risk taking. And it's something I don't do naturally. I mean when I'm standing backstage and that curtain is about to open I say, 'Why would you do this to yourself? Are you really that much of an idiot to just expose yourself to a thousand people?'' he said.
'And then the curtain opens and, if it goes all right, you don't remember opening night - there's too much adrenaline. Actors are risk takers. And they're taking the risks for their own sanity.'
Nolte, whose hits include The Prince of Tides, Cape Fear, Lorenzo's Oil, The Good Thief, The Thin Red Line and 48 Hrs., said he self-medicated to quell his inner demons.
'A little chaos around keeps me sane,' he writes.
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Nolte admitted to sleeping with co-star Jacqueline Bisset during filming of The Deep but it was short-lived and over before they finished shooting after Bisset accused him of sleeping with every girl on Peter Island
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Nolte revealed he ate real dog food in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, and he took real heroin during the eight-week shoot of The Good Thief to better portray a heroin addict
Nick Nolte receives Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
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The book recounts his amazing appetite for drugs - including coke, LSD, HGH and GHB - and the time he single-handedly saved the movie Under Fire by smuggling the film canisters out of Mexico - one step ahead of the law.
He also revealed he ate real dog food in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, and he took real heroin during the eight-week shoot of The Good Thief to better portray a heroin addict.
Nolte admitted to sleeping with co-star Jacqueline Bisset during filming of The Deep but it was short-lived and over before they finished shooting after Bisset accused him of sleeping with every girl on Peter Island.
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He revealed that his inability to skate lost him a part in Slap Shot and that he was offered Superman but saw nothing super about the role.
He has nice things to say about co-stars Eddie Murphy, Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand. But he has less than nice things to say about Debra Winger ('hellfire') and Edward Norton (Nolte vowed to 'slit his throat').
In his book, he also recounts a spectacular prank pulled by Woody Harrelson on Sean Penn in Australia that involved real cops and gunshots.
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Nick Nolte also dishes on how Barbra Streisand fell in love with him and begged him to move in while filming The Prince of Tides (above)
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Nolte poses with wife British actress Clytie Lane (left) and their family when was honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2017
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May Chen, his editor at HarperCollins, said Nolte wrote some of the book by telling his stories out loud. Those anecdotes were later stitched together, alongside journal entries and his own longhand writings. She called him a 'very self-aware' author who was not afraid to delve into his own darkness.
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In 1961 Nolte was busted for selling fake draft cards, fined $75,000 and sentenced to 75 years in prison, later suspended. In that booking photo, a pre-famous Nolte wears his hair short and a button-down shirt
'He's not embarrassed about it. This is his life. Obviously, I sure he's regretful of some of these things but he's not embarrassed by it. He owns up to it,' she said.
'Now with hindsight, all these decades later, he can look back and I think he realizes how often things could have really gone wrong for him.'
Nolte describes his own #MeToo moment when, at 21, a Hollywood agent invited him to his Bel Air home for dinner. After the man excused himself, he returned wearing only a silk dressing gown and announced: 'Hello, cuddle bunny.' Nolte was out the door quick. 'That would be a casting couch. But I was not an actor at that time at all,' he said.
Nolte also has a dim view of Harvey Weinstein, the one-time Miramax company head who had a reputation as a ruthless film editor. Nolte recounts how his film The Golden Bowl was 'reduced to shreds' by Weinstein's cut before it was sold back to the filmmakers.
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Nolte, above with Eddie Murphy in 48 Hours, has nice things to say about co-stars like Murphy in his book. But he has less than nice things to say about Debra Winger and Edward Norton
Nolte said Weinstein tried to 'bully me into a couple of roles' - including Copland - and was 'manipulative' during awards season.
'I never had much admiration for Miramax or Harvey primarily because I had friends who made movies that were shelved,' he said.
And, of course, there's the story of his infamous arrest on September 11, 2002. That day he'd gone to the gym for a GHB-enhanced workout but felt too messed up. So he headed toward an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting but didn't go in, instead weaving down the Pacific Coast Highway.
'I needed help,' he wrote.
He says his booking photo resembles 'an asylum inmate out for a lark in his flower-print Hawaiian shirt.'
Now sober, Nolte can chuckle: 'I take full responsibility for that one'.
What I've Learned: Nick Nolte
The Prince of Tides actor, 77, shares some words of wisdom
By Paul Wilson
21/03/2018
Getty Images
Malibu is quite boring. After you live here for about 10 years, you start to miss the seasons. I’ve seen one frost in my 50 years here. That doesn’t mean I want to spend a winter in the North of England or Waterloo, Iowa. You can have enough of snow.
I like to grow my own food. I made a smart decision about 30, 40 years ago to build waist-high planters on the property. You don’t have to bend over.
When I wake up in the morning now, I am quite often reminded of overdoing things the day before. Literally, a rude awakening. They say old age creeps up on you, but it moves quicker than that.
On the set of The Deep, the great English director Karel Reisz came to watch me work. We were filming a stunt I wasn’t needed for, so I got into a little foam game, letting off fire extinguishers with the prop guys. Karel wanted me for his next film, but I didn’t know him, and when we were introduced later, I realised I’d pissed away the day in front of this phenomenal director. Karel said, “Do you mind if I give you a little critique? When you work, I don’t think it’s good to spend so much time entertaining the crew.” From that day, I used my energy on set for acting, not goofing off.
People talk about “taking risks”. They’re not really talking about risks. If you live in the moment, it’s not a risk at all, you’re just living in the moment. It takes all the weight out of the decision. Once you can do that, things don’t become so heavy on you.
When I was selling fake draft cards I don’t think it was an intentional criminal act. It was stupidity. I was driving a hearse at the time; the engine gave out and we rolled it off a cliff. It landed on the ninth green of the country club golf course, and the pack of 1,000 fake IDs I’d left in there fell out. That’s how I was caught. The judge sentenced me [in 1961] to 45 years, suspended. It was fate. All meant to happen.
It is only through failure that you learn. Failure really puts bite to a task, and you will examine all the elements that contribute to failure. Nothing is examined when you succeed, so you try to repeat the success with no idea of what really made it happen.
What do women see in me? Not much, I think. My mother was a strong, liberated woman before women’s lib. She stressed the importance of the individual, and a person’s creativity, so I saw that from a young age. I never had a “type” when it came to women.
I have a 10-year-old daughter and it’s a blessing. For her, it’s rather difficult. She calls me Grandad, because all her friends’ dads are about 30 years younger than me. It’s the right time for me, though. I have the time and the patience for her. It’s a precious gift.
"Retirement doesn’t seem to be in my vocabulary. What would I retire from? Myself?"
On the subject of drugs, I told my son that he can experiment, but not to go past the experimental phase. It hasn’t come up with my daughter yet. When my son was a teenager, some of his friends from Malibu High were living with us. There was an editorial in the The Malibu Times about a “surf mafia father” and “drug kingpin” taking care of these kids. It really upset me. All rumours. We just had parties there because that’s where all the kids were. And I never surfed! Where are those kids now? They all went to college. A couple are doctors, one works at Apple. My son is nearly through med school.
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The possibility of war is smacking humanity in the face right now, but it is much harder for a world war to break out than it once was. But, given the sorts of presidents we can elect, I don’t know how foolish they can be.
We all have biases we do not admit to. They lay in there, even if you’ve worked hard on them, and you’ve got to flush them out. My mother told us we would have a black person living with us. So we did. As a fashion buyer, she had young female assistants, almost always black, and they would live with us.
I just started a paleo diet. No carbohydrates, no sugar, no alcohol. Smoking’s gone, too. The weight just dropped off. Cut it back to eating out of your own garden, basically. Wild meat: buffalo — no beef. No antibiotics. I’m not in terrific shape quite yet, but I will be.
A double-bill of my best work would be Affliction and Down and Out in Beverly Hills. No, wait, maybe Who’ll Stop the Rain and The Prince of Tides. The first thing I did, Rich Man, Poor Man, I played [a character who ages] from 16 to 44. That was pretty good. I’ve done a lot.
I like to read every day, and not to escape. I’m reading a great book, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M Sapolsky. It’s about the brain, and unlearning all you think you know about it. You have to learn a little terminology, but I don’t mind that. I subscribe to New Scientist. Have done for years. It’s so much better than Scientific American. It touches on everything going on.
I don’t watch films or go to the theatre any more. What gets my artistic passions up is working with marble. My sister started doing it. It took her seven years to carve this 12-by-12-by-six-inch-thick piece. You get a piece of marble, from America or Italy, and you get the kit with the hammer and the carving tools, then just have at it. The stone chips out right along the line you want. You have to screw up good to make a mistake. You might not know exactly what you’re carving. It’s that old concept: if you don’t know where to begin, just start.
If I had one trip in a time machine, I would go to the future. The changes the future holds! How are we going to deal with gene editing? That’s just one scratch in the amount of new knowledge coming.
Retirement doesn’t seem to be in my vocabulary. What would I retire from? Myself? If I had to work every day, it might be an issue. A three-month run isn’t a difficult thing. A three-month run of no work is kind of hard to do. You’ve got to fill your days.
‘Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines’ by Nick Nolte is published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, £20
Nolte, Nick: REBEL
Kirkus Reviews. (Jan. 15, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Nolte, Nick REBEL Morrow/HarperCollins (Adult Nonfiction) $28.99 1, 23 ISBN: 978-0-06-221957-2
The noted film actor and notorious bad boy hunkers down and tells a few tales of his life, some of which just may be true.
"Let me tell you about my testicle tuck," writes Nolte by way of an opening gambit. There are plenty of other bodily points of interest, as well: for one thing, the author had a well-developed habit of smacking his head against hard objects, like the sides of cars, "to relieve a little stress." Fortunately, he survived, having finally learned that "running my head into cars was signaling...I needed help." As his memoir unwinds, it's clear where some of the stress and self-destruction came from. Back in Iowa, life presented its own hardships in the form of a war-scarred father and a mother who fed Dexedrine to young Nick, who recalls that the so-called vitamin "would have me bouncing off the walls in no time, eager as hell to get to school and wreak whatever havoc I could." Havoc is a useful keyword, for there are plenty of opportunities to watch it in play as Nolte stumbles into an acting career and finds that he's good at it, even if his early work was dismissed as lunk-headed and wooden. Things got better with Karel Reisz's Who'll Stop the Rain (1978), the film version of Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers, "an important film for me because I was able to display some depth as an actor and a complexity far beyond what The Deep revealed." Nolte casts a gimlet eye on his performances and the circumstances surrounding them, performances that have included such brilliant work as the cynical football hero of North Dallas Forty but have lately centered on a character he calls the "designated old guy." Long since on the wagon and an obviously thoughtful man, Nolte seems to share the reader's surprise that he lived long enough to take that role.
Better than the usual run of actor memoirs and plenty of fun to boot.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Nolte, Nick: REBEL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A522643130/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b5a56dee. Accessed 14 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A522643130
Book World: How weird is Nick Nolte? Actor bares his soul in memoir
Sibbie O'Sullivan
The Washington Post. (Feb. 19, 2018): News:
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Full Text:
Byline: Sibbie O'Sullivan
Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines
By Nick Nolte
Morrow. 256 pp. $28.99
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Actor Nick Nolte's memoir, "Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines," would make a good movie, but only if he starred in it. "Nick the weirdo," as he calls himself, has the blond good looks, the distinctive voice, the acting chops and, as "Rebel" makes clear, the willingness to go deep inside his character.
How weird is Nick Nolte? Weird enough that on a 1991 "Good Morning America" segment he announced that he had scheduled a "testicle tuck." This lie cut short his interview, but Nolte chose to repeat it in the first sentence of "Rebel." "I've tried not to fudge," he writes, attributing his lying to shyness and the "false high" of fame. Or, "maybe I just rebel with a little lie."
Whatever the reason, Nolte has our attention, and he wants very much to tell his story.
Postwar America was full of lies. For example, World War II was the "good" war, a lie Nolte's father demolished when he returned from the Pacific theater "a shell of a man" damaged by "the horrors of what humankind is capable of." It's a transformation that's haunted Nolte all his life. Nolte's independent and imaginative mother rebelled against the lie of the happy housewife by working as a buyer for department stores. But at home she raged against the sexism she suffered. She also drank and took pills and didn't hesitate to give her young son "a vitamin" that was actually the upper Dexedrine on those mornings when he didn't want to go to school. This might help explain Nolte's later trouble with drugs and alcohol. Nolte's mother fed his rebelliousness, and his father's deep silences and secluding habits formed a real-life model for many of the male characters Nolte would later play in films.
Nolte loved his parents, but life in Nebraska stifled his craving for "every kind of experience." By 1962 he was playing college football at Pasadena City College, but that didn't last long. Though he considered himself an athlete, Nolte preferred hanging with musicians, painters and druggies. He flunked out of college, then, while working construction, was discovered in true Hollywood fashion by agent Henry Willson, later notorious for interviewing the handsome men he had discovered while "wearing only a silk dressing gown." When this happened to Nolte, he "awkwardly excused" himself and put aside his movie-star dreams. Nolte, though, had discovered acting, and after years of working in summer stock and regional theater, his big break came in 1976 when he starred in the ABC miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man." After that, Hollywood.
"Rebel's" tone is clean, inviting and forthright; the memoir is cumulative instead of meditative. Nolte likes facts, and likes to work; if he's not doing a film, he's reading, or gardening or lining up another film. We learn a lot along the way. Though known for his excesses, Nolte likes to be in control, but he also comes across as modest and generous.
The book is full of thank-yous, beginning with Nolte's appreciation for his first acting teacher, Bryan O'Byrne. He's grateful for the directors he worked with in regional theater who made him read the entire canon of noted American playwrights. To learn his lines and understand his character, Nolte would transcribe entire plays in longhand, which helped with his dyslexia. While with Phoenix's Little Theatre, he enrolled in Phoenix College to study photography with Allen Dutton, who taught him not to "dismiss anyone or any idea." Nolte loves the women in his life, even after divorcing them, and he knows no greater love than that of his children, son Brawley and daughter Sophie. He even thanks his gardener, Gerardo Resendiz, who for 40 years has been his "Rock of Gibraltar, and dear and steadfast friend." Such consideration for others is touching.
But when someone angers Nolte, he doesn't hold back. When a teacher wanted to put Brawley on Ritalin, for instance, Nolte drew on the lesson of his own youthful Dexedrine days and decided to pull his son from school and hire private tutors. He also rages at the "aggressive" Harvey Weinstein, who he says had "a long-standing reputation as a producer who would ruthlessly edit films directors and editors had worked painstakingly to create." As executive producer of "The Golden Bowl," Nolte writes, Weinstein reduced the film "to shreds" in his ruthless post-production editing before it was salvaged by director Merchant Ivory, who bought back the film.
Many know Nolte only through his 2002 mug shot after he was arrested for driving under the influence, in this instance not of alcohol but the substance GHB. In 10 years, he had gone from being People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive to looking like king of the dumpster divers. Dwelling on this image is a mistake considering all the great Nolte movies we could be watching: "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," "48 Hours," "Q&A," "Jefferson in Paris," "Who'll Stop the Rain," "The Thin Red Line," and especially "Affliction," in which Nolte plays Wade Whitehouse, a man who, like Nolte, was "afflicted by his father." For that role, Nolte received his second Academy Award nomination for best actor, losing to Roberto Benigni for "Life Is Beautiful."
And now we have "Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines," playing at a bookstore near you. Touching, funny in parts, full of the excesses postwar America readily supplied, and, hopefully, truthful. Pick it up.
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O'Sullivan, a former teacher in the Honors College at the University of Maryland, has recently completed a book of essays on how the Beatles have influenced her life.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
O'Sullivan, Sibbie. "Book World: How weird is Nick Nolte? Actor bares his soul in memoir." Washington Post, 19 Feb. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528116359/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=bb5e2c14. Accessed 14 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A528116359
Nolte, Nick. Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines
Ellen Bates
Xpress Reviews. (Feb. 2, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Full Text:
Nolte, Nick. Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines. Morrow. Jan. 2018. 272p. photos. ISBN 9780062219572. $28.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062219596. FILM
Heartthrob Nolte proves in this memoir that he is not just another Hollywood pretty boy but serious about his craft. Born into a distinguished Iowa engineering family headed by a World War II hero father, Nolte grew up questioning the status quo. His first love was football, but an unfortunate prank closed the doors on a pro career. He became interested in acting and read and studied as much as he could, getting a late start in the business. Nominated for an Academy Award for his part in 1998's The Thin Red Line and Golden Globes for other films, his deep need to immerse himself in the character he was playing and easygoing ability to make friends made his hard-drinking and complicated personality likable to many in the business. Through all the tragedies in his life, he has emerged a strong survivor.
Verdict Should be read by young actors as Nolte the mentor. Recommended for film collections and film buffs.--Ellen Bates, New York
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Bates, Ellen. "Nolte, Nick. Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines." Xpress Reviews, 2 Feb. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528197455/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e95f9a2e. Accessed 14 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A528197455
Hollywood bad-boy Nick Nolte tells all in his memoir, 'Rebel'
Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY Published 11:50 a.m. ET Jan. 22, 2018 | Updated 1:25 p.m. ET Jan. 22, 2018
(Photo: William Morrow)
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One of Hollywood’s enduring bad boys is ready to tell all, on his terms.
Three-time Oscar nominee Nick Nolte first broke through in the 1976 miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man, which catapulted him to the top of the call sheet with hit psychological thrillers and action comedies including The Deep, 48 Hrs., Affliction and Cape Fear.
But as the Nebraska native details in his sprawling, if somewhat stilted, new memoir Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines (William Morrow, ★★½ out of four), his success didn’t come straightaway, with years spent chasing dashed football dreams and honing his craft on community-theater stages. All of which gets ample ink in his authorial debut, as do his varied sordid romances and run-ins with the law.
Much of the book reads like a self-congratulatory Wikipedia page, as Nolte, 76, rattles off box-office receipts and accolades for each of his movies, even quoting many of the critics who praised his performances through the years. While this provides useful context for younger readers who may not be as familiar with his earlier filmography, it can also become quite dry.
Actor Nick Nolte poses with his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame during a ceremony in Hollywood on Nov. 20, 2017. (Photo: Paul Buck, EPA-EFE)
True to the gruff characters he inhabited in later movies such as Tropic Thunder and Warrior, Nolte’s writing style is squarely to the point with no descriptive flourishes. He only adds pops of color when describing the hard-partying young bombshell who would become his second wife (Sharyn Haddad, simply referred to as “Legs”) and his general annoyance working with ex-girlfriend Debra Winger, whose “capricious behavior” on the set of Cannery Row he blames for the film’s so-so turnout.
Like any celebrity memoir, the frequent name-drops and tidbits about behind-the-scenes dirt are often what’s most fascinating about Rebel. Woody Harrelson and Sean Penn, for instance, had something of a sportive one-upmanship on the set of The Thin Red Line, culminating in an elaborate prank that ended at a police station.
Nolte nearly starred in the crime drama Pride and Glory, but was so put off by Edward Norton’s apparently cocky attitude that he quit the project and was replaced by Jon Voight.
Bette Midler was (understandably) disgusted by his extreme method acting while shooting Down and Out in Beverly Hills — for which he didn't shower and ate dog food, to play a vagrant — while he claims that a smitten Barbra Streisand wanted to move in together after wrapping 1991’s The Prince of Tides.
Nick Nolte in a scene from the 1997 movie 'Affliction.' (Photo: Attila Dory, Largo Entertainment)
Nolte readily admits that he’s fond of telling tall tales — a trait he shares with Warrior co-star Tom Hardy — which makes it difficult to parse whether some of his more outrageous anecdotes about youthful rebellion and ex-wives are true or not.
But there are moments that are genuinely poignant, as he recounts his lifelong struggles with alcohol and drug addiction, and how fatherhood and close brushes with death compelled him to break his habits. The most moving and morbidly funny passage is a tribute to his own late dad, whose wooden leg Nolte evidently lost in New Mexico during a week of post-funeral revelry with his mom and sister.
He ends Rebel by reflecting on the prospect of dying, predicting, “I’ve got five years or so before I, too, get to head ‘elsewhere’ to be rebellious and cause more glorious havoc.”
We can only hope that Father Time doesn’t come knocking then, or frankly, any time soon, because this scintillating screen legend clearly has many more yarns to tell.