Jack Torrance is the struggling writer and recovering alcoholic at the center of Stephen King’s 1977 novel The Shining, who takes a job as winter caretaker of the isolated Overlook Hotel and slowly turns on his own family. Jack Nicholson’s performance in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film, from the typewriter to the axe to “Heeere’s Johnny!”, made him one of the most quoted villains in movie history. He is also one of horror’s most debated characters, because King’s tragic, sympathetic Jack and Kubrick’s colder version are very different men.
At a glance
| Franchise | The Shining (Stephen King); sequel Doctor Sleep |
| First appearance | Novel The Shining (1977); film The Shining (1980) |
| Creator | Stephen King. The 1980 film was directed by Stanley Kubrick, who co-wrote it with Diane Johnson. |
| Portrayed by | Jack Nicholson (The Shining, 1980) Steven Weber (The Shining miniseries, 1997) Henry Thomas (Doctor Sleep, 2019) Brian Mulligan (The Shining opera, Minnesota Opera) |
| Weapon of choice | A fire axe (1980 film); a roque mallet (novel) |
Origin story and backstory
In King’s novel, Jack is a former prep-school teacher and aspiring playwright whose drinking and temper have cost him almost everything. He lost his job at Stovington Preparatory School after assaulting a student, and he once broke his young son Danny’s arm in a drunken rage. Sober and desperate for a fresh start, he accepts a job looking after the Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies through the snowbound winter, bringing his wife Wendy and Danny with him. The novel also reveals that Jack’s own father was a violent alcoholic.
The hotel is haunted, and it wants Danny, a boy with a powerful psychic gift called “the shining.” As the snow cuts the family off, the Overlook works on Jack’s weaknesses: his resentment, his failure as a writer and his thirst for a drink. Ghosts of former staff and guests convince him that he belongs to the hotel and must “correct” his family.
Book vs. film
King’s Jack is a decent man losing a battle with his demons. At the climax he briefly fights off the hotel’s control and tells Danny to run, and the Overlook is destroyed when its neglected boiler explodes. Kubrick’s film cuts most of Jack’s backstory, keeps his decline ambiguous and ends in a frozen hedge maze, followed by a final shot of a 1921 photograph with Jack in it. King disliked the change, and in particular felt Nicholson seemed unstable from the first scene, leaving the character “no arc.” King’s own 1997 miniseries, starring Steven Weber, restores the sympathetic version.
Kubrick’s cast surrounds Nicholson with Shelley Duvall as Wendy, Danny Lloyd as Danny and Scatman Crothers as Dick Hallorann, the hotel cook who shares Danny’s gift. Where King’s Jack is a playwright, Kubrick’s is an aspiring novelist, and his writer’s block becomes one of the film’s quiet sources of menace.
Iconic moments
- “All work and no play” (1980): Wendy looks at Jack’s manuscript and finds page after page of the same sentence, typed in endless patterns.
- The Gold Room (1980): Jack orders a drink from Lloyd, the ghostly bartender, in a ballroom that suddenly fills with 1920s partygoers.
- Grady (1980): In a blood-red bathroom, the former caretaker Delbert Grady politely urges Jack to deal with his wife and son.
- “Heeere’s Johnny!” (1980): Jack breaks through the bathroom door with an axe and pushes his face through the gap. Nicholson improvised the line.
- The stairs (1980): Wendy backs up the staircase swinging a baseball bat as Jack advances, mocking her.
- The maze (1980): Jack chases Danny into the snow-covered hedge maze, and the hunter becomes lost.
- “Run” (1977): In the novel’s climax, the real Jack surfaces for a moment to tell Danny he loves him and to get away.
Appearances
Novels, films and TV in order
- The Shining (novel, 1977)
- The Shining (film, 1980)
- The Shining (ABC miniseries, 1997)
- Doctor Sleep (novel, 2013), in which Jack’s ghost returns at the climax
- Doctor Sleep (film, 2019), directed by Mike Flanagan, with Henry Thomas as Jack in flashbacks and as a guise of the hotel
Stage and what’s next
Stage: Minnesota Opera premiered an opera of The Shining by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, based closely on the novel and approved by King. In development: A West End stage version directed by Ivo van Hove and written by Simon Stephens was reported in 2017, with Ben Stiller reportedly in talks to play Jack. As of 2025 no casting had been confirmed, and we could not confirm any newer update.
Trivia and behind-the-scenes facts
- King has said the Overlook was inspired by a 1974 stay at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, and the novel draws on his own struggle with alcohol.
- In the novel, Danny is drawn to Room 217. Timberline Lodge in Oregon, used for the film’s exterior shots, asked Kubrick not to use that number, so the film uses the nonexistent Room 237.
- The door Jack chops through was real. Kubrick first used a breakaway door, but Nicholson, who had worked as a volunteer fire marshal, tore through it too quickly.
- “Heeere’s Johnny!” comes from Ed McMahon’s introduction on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Kubrick, who lived in England, did not know the reference and nearly used a different take.
- For foreign-language releases, Kubrick reshot the typewriter pages using local proverbs in place of “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
- The staircase scene is often cited for its 127 takes, but film historian Lee Unkrich has disputed that figure.
- Kubrick considered other actors, including Robert De Niro, Robin Williams and Harrison Ford. King would have preferred an “everyman” such as Jon Voight or Michael Moriarty.
- The Shining was one of the first films to use the newly invented Steadicam, and inventor Garrett Brown worked on the production. The famous low tracking shots that follow Danny’s Big Wheel tricycle through the hotel corridors come from that partnership.
- To cast Danny, Kubrick’s team interviewed some 5,000 boys in Chicago, Denver and Cincinnati over six months.
- The film opened in the U.S. on May 23, 1980, to mixed reviews, and Kubrick even received a Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Director. It was selected for the National Film Registry in 2018.
- The American Film Institute ranked Jack the 25th greatest film villain, and “Here’s Johnny!” was ranked No. 68 on its list of movie quotes.