1: NICHOLSON is a basketball nut, and is said to pay for his own courtside seats to support his beloved LA Lakers. He enjoys hounding the opposition and the referee, and was arguing with officials so much during a 2001 Lakers playoff game that he was assessed as a technical foul. His refusal to miss a home game means that directors need to schedule filming around the Lakers' home fixtures.

2: HE OWNS an impressive collection of fine art, which includes works by Tamara de Lempicka and Pablo Picasso. One of the Picassos hangs in his toilet.

4: IN A TOP 100 poll of celebrity golfers from the world of cinema and television, published in Golf Digest magazine, the 12-handicap Nicholson came in 38th - just behind Sylvester Stallone and slightly ahead of Clint Eastwood. Dennis Quaid topped the poll, with a handicap of 1.1.

5: MULHOLLAND Drive in Beverly Hills, where Nicholson lives, is nicknamed "Bad Boy Drive" because its former residents have included one-time lothario Warren Beatty and the late Marlon Brando.

7: HE WAS abandoned by his father as a child, and grew up believing that his mother was a much older sister and his grandmother was his mother. The truth was discovered and revealed to him in adulthood by a journalist who was researching his background for a story.

10: AFTER Marlon Brando's death almost three years ago, Nicholson acquired his late friend's bungalow for £3.4 million, and promptly had it demolished. This was done, he said, out of respect to Brando's legacy. He is reportedly planning to turn the site into a giant flowerbed.

11: ONE of his most impressive on-screen threats was as Colonel Jessep in 1992's A Few Good Men: "I'm gonna rip the eyes out of your head and piss in your dead skull! You f***ed with the wrong marine!"

16: WHEN asked by a photographer to remove his sunglasses for a photo, Nicholson, who rarely is seen in public without a pair of shades, replied: "You're new here, aren't you?"

22: WHEN he first came to Hollywood, he worked as a runner for the legendary animation house Hanna-Barbera. Seeing his talent as an artist, they offered him a position as an animator. However, citing his desire to become an actor, he declined.

26: FOR his role as The Joker in the 1989 film Batman, Nicholson earned around $60 million in total. He negotiated a deal that gave him royalties on all merchandise, which remains the biggest single-movie pay cheque for any actor.

31: HE APOLOGISED to Nicole Kidman after chatting her up at an awards night - in front of her partner Keith Urban. He said: "I didn't know Nicole was engaged, or that she was standing with her fiancé."

37: HE PLEDGED his support to striking French actors when they interrupted a film shoot in Paris recently, telling them, in broken French: "The struggle continues!"

42: HE LOVES jokes at his own expense so much that he shows up at every Academy Awards ceremony hosted by Billy Crystal, who in turn incorporates Nicholson into his gags.

43: HE WAS neither credited nor paid for his role in 1987's Broadcast News at his own request, as he didn't want to distract attention from the leads.

46: FOR the scene in The Shining where Jack breaks down the bathroom door, the props department built a door that could be easily broken. However, Nicholson, who once worked as a volunteer fire marshal, tore it apart easily so the props department were forced to build a stronger door.

48: IN ONE Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the script called for Nicholson to leap on a guard and kiss him. During filming, director Milos Forman decided that the guard's reaction wasn't strong enough and told Nicholson to jump on the other guard instead. This surprised the second actor so much that, in some versions of the film, he can be seen punching Nicholson.

50: AT THE 1976 Academy Awards receiving the Best Actor award for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, he quipped: "I guess this proves there are just as many nuts in the Academy as anywhere else."

51: HIS line "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!" from A Few Good Men was 29th in the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest movie quotes. "Here's Johnny!" was 68th.

58: IN FIVE Easy Pieces, when a waitress asks if he wants her to "hold the chicken" on his sandwich, he replies: "I want you to hold it between your knees."

66: HIS next role is with Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List, a film in which they play two terminally ill men who escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wishlist of things to do before they die. Nicholson shaved off his famously wayward hair for the role.

67"WHY can't we work out our differences? Why can't we work things out? Little people, why can't we all just get along?" As the US president to Martians in Mars Attacks!

68"LITTLE pigs, little pigs, let me in. Not by the hair of your chinny-chin-chin? Well then I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in!" Before attacking the bathroom door with an axe in The Shining.

69: HE was married once, in 1962, to actress Sandra Knight. His longest relationship was for 17 years with actress Anjelica Huston, the daughter of film director John Huston. The relationship ended when it was reported that actress Rebecca Broussard had become pregnant with his child.

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