Nick Nolte is an American actor, model, producer and writer. It is best known to the wide audience thanks to the roles in the film "48 Hours" and its sequel, the melodrama "Lord of the Tides" and the thriller "Cape of Fear". Three-time Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe Award winner. In 1992, recognized by People magazine as the sexiest man in the world.
Childhood and youth
Nick Nolty was born on February 8, 1941 in Omaha, Nebraska. Real name is Nicholas King Nolty. At school, the future actor was a promising athlete, played the role of a kicker in a football team, but was expelled from the team and expelled from school after he was caught drinking beer before training.
After graduating from high school, Nick Nolty attended four different colleges for sports scholarships, at various times was a member of the football, baseball and basketball teams, but because of low grades, he could not graduate and get a diploma. At the same time, he became interested in theater and decided to become an actor.
Carier start
In the sixties, Nick Nolty traveled around the country, playing in small local theaters. He spent three years in Minnesota. At the same time, the young actor began to look for jobs as a model and even appeared on the cover of one of the glossy magazines. In 1965, he was arrested for selling fake documents and sentenced to 45 years in prison, but the judge replaced the sentence with a probationary period. Because of this, Nolty was not called up for war in Vietnam.
In the early seventies, Nolty offered small roles in television series and films. Soon he began to get major roles in feature films, playing in the adventure film Peter Yates "Abyss" and in the drama "Who Will Stop the Rain." For the second film, Nick was nominated for several awards, receiving third place in the vote of the National Council of Film Critics in the nomination "Best Actor".
Most Notable Roles
In 1982, the actor got the main role in the comedy action movie Walter Hill "48 Hours", where his partner was the budding comedian Eddie Murphy, for whom this film was the debut. In the movie, Nick Nolty is also a breakthrough work, the film proved to be excellent at the box office, made the leading actors real Hollywood stars and, as it is believed, laid the foundation for the baddy cop genre of films.
Over the next few years, Nolty starred in the military drama Under Fire, the satirical comedy Teachers, Western All Precautions, the crime drama Questions and Answers, the action movie The Other 48 Hours, and the thriller Cape of Fear.
In 1991, the romantic drama “The Lord of the Tides” was released, where the main roles were played by Barbara Streisand and Nick Nolte. The actor for this work was nominated for an Oscar for the first time in his career and received the Golden Globe in the nomination for Best Actor in a Drama. The following year, Nolty starred in the successful drama Lorenzo Oil.
In 1997, Nick Nolty appeared in the lead role in the crime drama "Tribulation," for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for the second time. Many critics considered him to be the main contender for the victory, however, the Italian unexpectedly left Roberto Benigni for the military tragicomedy Life is Beautiful.
In 1998, the actor played one of the roles in the military epic of Terrence Malik's “Thin Red Thread”. In subsequent years, his career began to decline, he began to appear less often in large projects. You can highlight the crime drama "The Good Thief" and the superhero blockbuster "Hulk".
Recent work
In 2008, Nick Nolty appeared in Ben Stiller's comedy comedy Soldiers of Failure. In 2011, he played one of the main roles in the sports drama "Warrior", for which he received a third Oscar nomination. This role is considered by many to be the return of Nick Nolte after many years of fighting alcoholism.
After that, the actor began to appear more often in large projects, playing small roles in the action movies Parker and Gangster Hunters. In 2016, the comedy series Graves was released with Nick Nolty in the lead role. He was nominated for Golden Globe as the best actor in a comedy series, but the project was closed after the second season.
In 2017, Nolty received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Missed roles
In the creative biography of Nick Nolte, one can notice a lot of missed roles in films, which later became box-office hits and cult classics. For example, he was one of the candidates for the role of Han Solo in the movie "Star Wars" along with Al Pacino and Christopher Walken, however, the director chose the relatively unknown then Harrison Ford.
In 1978, Nick Nolte was offered the lead role in Richard Donner 's Superman, but he abandoned the project. According to legend, the actor wanted to play Clark Kent as a schizophrenic, which, of course, did not like the producers and the director.
Also, at different times he was considered the roles of John Rambo, Indiana Jones, John McClain and Snake Pliskin, and also could get the main roles in the films "Something" and "Apocalypse Today".
Personal life
The personal life of Nick Nolte for many years has been the subject of close attention of the media. The actor was married four times, in his third marriage a daughter was born. He also had relationships with famous actresses Vicki Lewis and Debra Winger. At the age of 66, he became a father for the second time.
For many years, Nolti was one of the most famous alcoholics in Hollywood, legends were made up about his drunkenness. In 1990, he decided to get rid of alcoholism, but in 2002 he was detained for drunk driving, illegal drugs were found in his blood. Nolty received a three-year probationary period with compulsory addiction treatment. In 2018, actor’s memoirs appeared on sale.