Jack Nicholson was chronic drug user says new candid biography

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

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Allegations: A new biography alleges Jack Nicholson 'used drugs' in the early stages of his career

Jack Nicholson was a 'chronic drug user in the early years of his career' it is being alleged.

A new biography claims that the actor, now 76-years-old, began his drug use 'with LSD in the early 1960s.' 

Exerpts published in The National Enquirer and  Radar, from the forthcoming tome Nicholson, by Marc Eliot alleges Nicholson also 'took cocaine and marijuana.'

He alleges: 'Jack’s experiences with the drug were life-changing. He believed after taking it the first time that he had seen the face of God.'

Eliot also claims Nicholson wrote the screenplay for the cult 1967 film The Trip while 'on acid' and
'regularly got stoned and dropped acid' while writing The Monkees psychedelic adventure comedy film Head the following year. 

And Nicholson is alleged to have met potential investors for the cult Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper film Easy Rider 'with a joint'. 

In fact, drugs were a constant presence on the Easy Rider set, according to a slew of reports and subsequent comments by the actors themselves. 

Nicholson is said to have later admitted: 'Being stoned has helped me creatively [with] writing… it’s easier to entertain yourself mentally.'

The actress Susan Anspach, Nicholson's ex-girlfriend, once even alleged he took cocaine to get though a crying scene in 1970 drama Five Easy Pieces.

Real drug use: Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda in the hit 1967 movie Easy Rider

Tough scene: Nicholson is alleged to 'have used illegal substances during the filming of Five Easy Pieces

New tome: The biography, by Marc Eliot is to be released next month

Nicholson and a friend is also alleged to have 'chain smoked joints' while shooting 1973 film The Last Detail 'to keep warm and stay high, which he was most of the time,' according to Elliot. 

Controversially, Nicholson famously told People magazine that drugs 'ain’t no big thing' in a 1980 interview.

'I still love to get high, I'd say, about four days a week. I think that's about average for an American,' he said. 'Last year on a raft trip I had a little flavour of the season - peach mescaline - but it was not like the hallucinatory state of the '60s. This was just kind of sunny. 

'I don't advocate anything for anybody. But I choose always to be candid because I don't like the closet atmosphere of drugging. In other words, it ain't no big thing. You can wreck yourself with it, but Christ, you can wreck yourself with anything.'

Eliot writes that the legendary hellraiser began to curtail his excesses after the death of several close friends, physical problems and realising  'his drug use was taking a toll on his career.' Apparently Nicholson lost out on the role of Rooster Hannigan in Annie because Carol Burnett, who played Mrs Hannigan, was a stringent anti-drug crusader. 

Jack Nicolson playing George Hanson in 1969 hit Easy Rider

‘One of the toughest parts of ageing is losing your friends,' Nicholson told The Daily Mail back in 2011.  'At first it starts quietly, then pretty soon it’s every month, and you can’t help but think, “When is that bell going to go off for me?” And on top of that you feel this constant loss. 

'At this time of life, you feel just a sword’s point from death. It’s frightening – who wants to face God and the clear white light? I know I definitely don’t. Yet.’