As Nick Nolte Celebrates His 73rd Birthday, Snakkle Looks Back at His Top Ten Roles

Nick Nolte grew up in the Midwest, following what looked like the path to sports stardom. He was an acclaimed high school football player and then went to several colleges where he played defensive end and tight end. However, Nolte was a terrible student and his failing grades ended his college sports career. Without sports to fall back on, Nick started anew pursuing acting and theater. And what a ride it has been! So, let's take a look at Nolte's 10 most Oscar-worthy performances through the years.

Nick plays Doc, a WWI-era marine biologist living in the then-depressed Monterey, California. He falls for Winger’s local bordello worker, and magic happens.

Nick Nolte plays Jerry Baskin, a bum living on the outskirts of Beverly Hills who gets “adopted” by the wealthy Whitemans (played by Richard Dreyfuss and Bette Midler). Jerry upends the family’s gilded life with his gritty reality in this remake of a French comedy. He even steals the affections of their dog, Matisse!

In Weeds, Nick plays an inmate with no hope for parole who gets drawn into the cathartic process of writing plays. His work gets notice by theater critics, so he creates a prisoner theater company to perform his works. Nolte earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor.

In the adaptation of Pat Conroy’s book, Nick plays Tom Wingo, a man haunted by his terrible childhood who travels to New York City to help his sister after her latest suicide attempt. He meets and falls in love with his sister's psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein (Streisand), in this absorbing drama about family secrets. The role earned him Best Actor nominations for both the Golden Globe and Academy Awards.

Nolte and Susan Sarandon play the real-life couple of Augusto and Michaela Odone, who created a special oil to help treat their son’s rare disease, adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD). Nolte lights up the screen with his heavy accent and fiercely dedicated mission to save the boy.

Nolte plays Howard W. Campbell Jr., an American playwright who emigrates to Germany pre-WWII. He’s recruited to become a spy for the Americans and works his way into a high-ranking position in Joseph Goebbels' propaganda organization.

In one of his most lauded roles, Nolte plays small-town cop Wade Whitehouse, a disenfranchised man who becomes terrifyingly obsessed with determining the outcome of a fatal hunting accident.

In Malick’s stunning film about war, Nolte plays Lieutenant Colonel Tall, a snubbed WWII commander looking for one last chance to command men in a victorious mission. Tall narrates some of the film, and Nolte earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Nolte earned critical praise for his role as a concerned grandfather in this internationally produced drama also starring James Johnston of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Maggie Cheung.

Nolte rips up the screen as the born-again, recovering alcoholic father of Tommy and Brendan Conlon (played by Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton) in Warrior. Nolte was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.