Nick Nolte got a late start in the movies, making his mark at age 35 in the 1976 TV mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man. He had a box office hit in 1982 opposite Eddie Murphy in 48 Hours, but his turbulent off-screen life seemed to occupy his energies. In spite of a spotty filmography, Nolte is considered a talented character actor and leading man, known especially for his raspy voice and brute masculinity. He's earned Oscar nominations for The Prince of Tides ( 1991, with Barbra Streisand) and Affliction (1997, with James Coburn) and has worked steadily in films for three decades. His other films include: Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986, starring Bette Midler); Cape Fear (1991, starring Robert DeNiro); The Thin Red Line (1998, with Jim Caviezel); and The Hulk (2003, starring Eric Bana). He's also done voice work for the children's films Over the Hedge (2006) and The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008).
Career Highlights: Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Who'll Stop the Rain?, The Prince of Tides
First Major Screen Credit: Death Sentence (1972)
Biography
With ruggedly handsome looks and a lengthy screen career, actor-producer Nick Nolte has established himself as a major industry figure. His enviable standing as one of Hollywood's most distinctive leading men was further cemented with a 1998 Best Actor Oscar nomination for his role in Affliction.
A native of Omaha, NE, Nolte was born February 8, 1941. While a student at Arizona State University, he revealed talent as a football player, but whatever promise he may have had on the field was aborted by his expulsion from the school for bad grades. A subsequent move to California convinced Nolte to try acting instead. He studied at the Pasadena Playhouse, then at Stella Adler's Academy in Los Angeles under Bryan O'Byrne, while he held down a job as an iron worker. After his training, Nolte spent 14 years traveling the country and working in regional theater, occasionally landing parts in B-movies and television films. Debuting onscreen with a small role in Dirty Little Billy (1972), Nolte was 34 when he finally got his break in the acclaimed television miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man (1976). His portrayal of Tom Jordache earned him an Emmy nomination and led to a starring role opposite Jacqueline Bisset in The Deep (1977). In addition to starring in the football exposé North Dallas Forty (1979), Nolte contributed to its screenplay, written by Peter Gent.
Showing a marked preference for unusual and difficult films, it was not long before Nolte became known as a well-rounded actor who brought realism, depth, and spirit to even his most offbeat or even unsympathetic roles. Some of those parts include Beat author Neal Cassady in Heart Beat (1980), a homeless bum who helps a dysfunctional rich family in the hit comedy Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), a family man attempting to come to grips with his family's traumatic past while falling in love with his therapist in The Prince of Tides (1991), a midwestern basketball coach in Blue Chips, and a world-weary detective in Mulholland Falls (1996).
For a grim period in the late '80s, Nolte's career was threatened by his unrestrained drug and alcohol use, but a subsequent rehabilitation strengthened his career, paving the way for roles such as Jake McKenna in Oliver Stone's neo-noir thriller U-Turn (1997) and his Oscar-nominated turn as Sheriff Wade Whitehouse in Paul Schrader's Affliction (1997), a picture Nolte also executive produced. Following this triumph, Nolte further re-established his reputation as a major Hollywood player with his role in Terrence Malick's 1998 adaptation of James Jones' The Thin Red Line, headlining a cast including George Clooney, Sean Penn, and John Travolta. If the subsequent adaptation of author Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s acclaimed novel Breakfast of Champions failed to capture the essence of the written word, Nolte still managed to offer an impressive performance in the following year's The Golden Bowl.
At this point in his career Nolte could certainly be counted on to turn in compelling performances regardless of the project, which made the return of his former demons more tragic than ever. On the heels of a mesmerizing lead performance as an aging gambler in director Neil Jordan's The Good Thief (a remake of the Jean-Pierre Melville classic Bob le Flambeur), Nolte's arrest for driving under the influence in September of 2002 made headlines when it was discovered that he was under the influence of GHB. The disheveled mugshot that followed made him the butt of many a joke; Nolte would later credit the arrest for helping him to clean up his act and get back on track with his onscreen career. A late-night jam that found neighbors phoning police made headlines the following year, and the Hulk came and went with disappointing results.
In the subsequent period, Nolte remained in good form, with idiosyncratic and fascinating roles. He triumphed in the spectacular late 2004 drama Hotel Rwanda, as the politically impotent Col. Oliver during the Rwandan genocide.
Neophyte director Hans Petter Moland then tapped Nolte for a pivotal characterization in his drama The Beautiful Country, released in July 2005. That same year, Nolte also triumphed on the festival circuit with his delicate work in Olivier Assayas's harrowing dysfunctional family drama Clean. In 2006, he voiced Vincent in the hit animated feature Over the Hedge, and claimed a seldom-seen but pivotal role in the thriller A Few Days in September, as an American spy desperate to reconnect with his children. Next up was Mysteries of Pittsburgh, an adaptation of Michael Chabon's debut coming-of-age novel. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Nolte was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Helen (née King), a department store buyer, and Franklin A. Nolte, a farmer's son who worked in irrigation pump sales[1][2] and was an All-American candidate at Iowa State in 1934. Nolte's father was of German descent.[3] 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 was a model in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In one 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 Sigourney Weaver.[citation needed] The pair also appeared on the packaging.
Acting career
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Nolte first gained national attention and critical acclaim for his performance in Rich Man, Poor Man, the 1976 television miniseries based on Irwin Shaw's 1970 best-selling novel. Since then he has had a successful career playing a wide variety of characters in more than 40 films. Diversity of character is the signature of Nolte's film career. He is known for his trademark athleticism and graveled-voice characters. In 1973, he appeared in Lorne Greene's ABCcrime dramaGriff in the episode "Who Framed Billy the Kid?", in the role of Billy Randolph, a football player accused of murder.
Nolte's first major film role was in 1977's The Deep starring opposite Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Shaw. This was followed by Who'll Stop the Rain in 1978 and North Dallas Forty, based on the Peter Gent novel, in 1979. The buddy cop/convict film 48 Hrs. (1982) would strongly bolster his film career and make his co-star Eddie Murphy a box-office sensation.
Nolte has been married and divorced three times. His ex-wives are Sheila Page, Sharyn Haddad and Rebecca Linger, with whom he has a son named Brawley Nolte (born June 20, 1986). Nolte's son is also an actor, having been prominently featured as Mel Gibson's kidnapped son in the 1996 film Ransom. He was also involved with Debra Winger and Vicki Lewis.[clarification needed] On October 3, 2007, Nolte's longtime partner Clytie Lane gave birth to their daughter, Sophie Lane Nolte.
Nolte resides in Malibu, California. On October 6, 2008, a fire starting from a computer printer burned a section of his residence. Nolte escaped, but there was a reported $1.5 million in damages to the house.
Legal Troubles
In September 2002, he checked himself into Silver Hill Hospital in Connecticut for counselling after he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in Malibu, CA a few days earlier. Tests later showed that he was under the influence of GHB, the "date rape" drug. 12 December 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 counselling with random testing required.
