Jack Nicholson: The Early Years

Sally Struthers

83 sally struthers Though she was on the screen for less than five minutes in Five Easy Pieces, we felt that Sally Struthers would be able to give us an interesting point of view about Jack Nicholson. She did not know him prior to the film, and only worked with him for what amounted to about a week. In that short period, however, she was able to make some definite observations about the man. Struthers is probably best known for her portrayal of Gloria Stivik, Archie Bunker’s daughter, on television’s miracle show All in the Family. Before that she was seen as the Tim Conway dancer on The New Tim Conway Show. She also appeared on The Smothers Brothers Show. As far as motion pictures are concerned, Sally went on from Five Easy Pieces to turn in a fine and really different performance as Fran in Sam Peckinpah’s The Getaway, which starred Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw. Arrangements to interview Struthers were made through her publicist , Rose Pichinson, and we agreed to meet Sally at CBS Television City, where she was rehearsing for the week’s taping of All in the Family. Sally greeted us like old friends, and after chatting for a few minutes in the commissary , we found our way into an unoccupied dressing room. Unlike her garrulous and excitable character Gloria, Sally Struthers was thoughtful and composed. She liked to talk, but enjoyed listening as well, and after a few minutes we were all very relaxed, and the interview was under way. Question: How did you get the part in Five Easy Pieces? Sally Struthers: I don’t know. There’s a man by the name of Fred Roos, a casting man. I’m sure he’s done a lot of things, and apparently from a session, or a scene, or a time in my life that I don’t remember, because I, like a lot of other actors, block out an interview that you want that you don’t get, and apparently I read for something, or did a scene once at a studio, and Fred Roos saw me. Well, nothing ever came of it, so I never remembered meeting Fred Roos. But one day, three years JACK NICHOLSON: THE EARLY YEARS 84 ago, a phone call came when I was living with this lady and her daughter , and working as a secretary, and this man said, “I’m Fred Roos, and I saw you audition a year ago, and we’re doing a movie over here at Columbia called Five Easy Pieces, and can you come read for it?” And I said, “I’ll be there in five minutes.” So I went over there, and I read it, and he liked it, and he said he’d let me know, and he called me a few days later. Then they brought another girl in, and I hate to say it, but I have blocked out her name, and I have blocked out her name for two reasons. Number one, because I didn’t get to know her that well. And number two, because since then she has killed herself. But we both read for the two parts of the bowling-alley girls, and we got them. But I never did understand the part, because the part in the script was called “Pygmy,” but when I introduced myself in the movie to Jack I said, “My name’s Shirley, but my friends call me Betty.” But the script said “Pygmy,” and I never understood it, but I played it. A few weeks later we all left on a bus for up north, and I did my part, which was just my bowling-alley scene with Jack, where I had to pat him on the head and flirt with him and pretend like I thought he was wearing a wig. And the other scene where we were sitting around in our underwear telling funny stories, and then I left location. It was like four or five days’ work. I got back into town, and I got a phone call to get right back up to location. And I said, “For what?” “Well, for the love scene between you and Jack.” And I said, “No, no, no, no, no. That’s the scene between Twinkie and Bobby, and I’m Pygmy.” And they go, “We know. You’re doing it.” And I didn’t have an agent, so I had nobody to call and say...