He's one of the greatest actors ever to have walked the Earth, he's appeared in some of the most celebrated films of all time and yet over the past eight years we've heard relatively little from Hollywood legend Jack Nicholson.
2017 brought news that the beloved icon would be coming out of his unofficial retirement to star in a Hollywood remake of German drama/comedy Toni Erdmann, but in the months since there has been precious little news on the project.
Sadly, there's a reason Jack hasn't been on our screens nearly enough over the past ten-or-so years which, according to sources close to the actor, is memory loss.
Boasting a staggering 66 films, a record 12 Oscar nominations and three wins (for best actor in 1976's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and 1998's As Good As It Gets, and for best supporting actor in 1984's Terms of Endearment), Nicholson's career leaves most others in the dust. But at 80 years of age, Nicholson's time in front of the cameras appears to have drawn to a close.
"There is a simple reason behind his decision - it's memory loss," a source told Radar in 2013. "Quite frankly, at 76, Jack has memory issues and can no longer remember the lines being asked of him."
The rumours of Nicholson's retirement resurfaced last year after his long-time friend and Easy Rider co-star Peter Fonda told the Independent: "I think he is basically retired. I don't want to speak for him, but he has done a lot of work and he has done very well as a person financially.
"Sometimes people have a reason that you don't know, and it's not for me to ask. I don't call him up and say, 'Johnny', I call him Johnny Hop, 'What are you doing?' I would say, 'How are you, how do you feel?'"
Despite his silence on the subject, Nicholson hasn't been shy in the past about admitting that he planned to retire from acting at some point in his future.
"I'm not going to work until the day I die, that's not why I started this. I mean, I'm not driven," he told the Sun. "You get older, you change. I mean, I'm not a loner, I'm not a recluse, but I don't need all that any more. I don't enjoy it, simple as that."
The veteran actor previously said that going through old age had helped him to make 'improvements in his character'.
He told the Daily Mail: "If men are honest, everything they do and everywhere they go is for a chance to see women. There were points in my life where I felt oddly irresistible to women. I'm not in that state now and that makes me sad.
"But I also believe that a lot of the improvements in my character have come through ageing and the diminishing of powers. It's all a balancing act; you just have to get used to the ride."
Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros.Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity