Ray Nicholson Says Injury Led Him From Football to Acting

Ray Nicholson had expected to play football at Boston College, but a severe infection in his arm changed his plans. Speaking in an interview with his sister, Lorraine Nicholson, he said the infection developed into MRSA and doctors warned that amputation could be necessary if it spread further.

After the injury, Nicholson said he realized he wanted to act. He was nervous about telling his father, actor Jack Nicholson, but later studied filmmaking at the University of Southern California. He said the education helped him see his father as one person in the film industry, rather than as its defining figure.

Nicholson said he hopes to make his father proud, while also describing acting as a way to discover his own identity. He said sports remain an important connection between them: although they struggle to discuss some subjects, they can talk at length about the Los Angeles Lakers.

Nicholson, 34, plays football player Tony Butkovich in The Mosquito Bowl, a Netflix film directed by Peter Berg. The story follows four collegiate football athletes who join the Marines during World War II. Butkovich, a former college star, enlisted rather than joining the Cleveland Rams after being selected in the 1944 NFL draft.

In an earlier interview, Nicholson said acting had taken his father away from home while he was growing up, and that this shaped his mixed feelings about the profession. Jack Nicholson, 89, has largely been out of public view in recent years. Actor Michael Douglas has said he is well and no longer working.