Long time pal HARRY DEAN STANTON dishes on jaded JACK’s lonely reclusion – the “Endless Party” now having passed him by – disheveled and alone.
Jack Nicholson was a legendary partyboy and womanizer, but The National ENQUIRER has learned the aged actor is now a lonely and disheveled shut-in behind the walls of his Hollywood mansion.
In a bombshell exclusive interview with The ENQUIRER, Jack’s longtime party pal Harry Dean Stanton revealed that his old friend has become “pretty reclusive” after a life of Los Angeles Lakers basketball games, drug-fueled boozy parties and posing for paparazzi on the arms of beautiful starlets.
The 88-year-old Harry – who made several films with Jack and served as best man at his wedding to Sandra Knight – confessed that Jack has settled down at the age of 77, preferring a dreary routine of afternoon naps, drinking milk and sedate new hobbies like painting.
“Both of us are pretty much retired,” revealed the “Alien” actor – noting that he and his “loyal” friend “don’t hang out much,” despite living less than half a mile apart.
“He calls me once in a while. We just keep in touch, say hello, that’s it,” said Harry, who considers himself lucky if he sees his pal “on maybe a birthday or some holidays, maybe New Year’s.”
The three-time Oscar winner hasn’t been in front of the cameras since filming the 2010 box office bomb, “How Do You Know.”
Jack had earned nine other Oscar nominations and an estimated $400 million fortune, but reportedly scuttled his career because he could no longer remember his lines.
So instead of starring in movies, Jack, who has a world-class collection of paintings, now sits at home and creates pictures of his own. “I saw some of it a few years ago, it’s nice,” said Harry. “I would imagine it’s relaxing for him.”
And it’s been years since the formerly robust Jack had the stamina to carouse his way through Hollywood.
“I don’t think he smokes anymore either,” said Harry, adding that Jack has traded in countless cocktails in clubs for an occasional glass of wine at home.
As The ENQUIRER has reported, Jack’s sad last days are nothing like his previous life, which often included wild orgies hosted by Harry in the 1960s.
Jack also spent decades excessively indulging a drug habit that included marijuana and cocaine. Author Marc Eliot claimed in “Nicholson: A Biography” that Jack experienced “castration fantasies” and “homoerotic fear fantasies” while tripping on LSD.
The physical toll of Jack’s wild decades is now brutally evident in recent photos of the weathered star – taken on the rare occasions that Jack emerges from his Mulholland Drive mansion.
Harry revealed to The ENQUIRER that Jack now relies on “four or five” live-in workers to help him survive behind closed doors.
Affording those employees will never be a problem – “He’s well taken care of,” said Harry – but Jack’s extreme wealth will never be able to buy back his decadent glory days.
