Nicholson was born on April 22, 1937 in Neptune, New Jersey. He was raised believing that his grandmother was his mother, and that his mother, June Frances Nicholson, a showgirl, was his older sister. He discovered the truth in 1975 from a Time magazine journalist who was researching a profile on him.he 1980s kicked off with another career-defining role for Nicholson as Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick 's adaptation of Stephen King 's novel The Shining (1980).