
Sandra Knight is a retired American actress and the ex-wife of legendary actor Jack Nicholson. Sandra Knight’s ex-husband also retired has received numerous accolades throughout his five-decade-spanning career. Nicholson has won three Academy Awards, for Best Actor for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and As Good as It Gets, and for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment. He was Oscar-nominated for Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Detail, Chinatown, Reds, Prizzi’s Honor, Ironweed, A Few Good Men, and About Schmidt. Who is Jack Nicholson’s Ex-wife?
Sandra Knight: Bio Summary
Full Name | Sandra D. Knight |
famous as | *Actress *ex-wife of Jack Nicholson |
Age | 84 years old as of 2023 |
Date of Birth | September 2, 1939 |
Place of Birth | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
Zodiac sign | Virgo |
Nationality | American |
Ethnicity | Caucasian |
children | Jennifer Nicholson |
spouse | Jack Nicholson (m. 1962–1968), John Stephenson |
How old is Sandra Knight?
Sandra Knight was born on September 2, 1939, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2023, she is 84 years old. Though she was born in Philadelphia, she was brought up in Los Angeles, and from an early age, Sandra Knight took an interest in performing- singing, dancing, acting, and modeling. She had one of her first professional performances as the lead singer in her group, called, the “String Busters” playing Ukulele, with her backup on guitar and steel guitar when she was 9 years old.
Jack Nicholson’s first wife was an actress
After high school, Sandra Knight continued to perform while attending Santa Monica City College. A representative from Hollywood was amazed after he heard Sandra performing “The Last Time I Saw Paris” during a talent competition. She was quickly signed, and a few months later she was playing the comedy “The Moon is Blue’s” lead star in a Hollywood theater.
A casting agent recognized her talents from that play and recommended her for the lead part opposite Robert Mitchum in his 1958 independent picture Thunder Road. In a significant casting call, she was given the role after Mitchum had spoken with almost 300 young women. Mitchum, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, and Columbia Studios all offered Sandra contracts for the role.

She went on to star in 5 feature films, and over 35 featured and starring roles on Television. Knight acted in low-budget films of the 1950s and 1960s, such as Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958) in which she played the titular role, The Terror starring Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson, where she plays an evil spirit, and Tower of London with Vincent Price. Aside from acting, she is also a painter and a writer.
How did Jack Nicholson and his first wife Sandra Knight meet?
Narrating how they meet Sandra Knight revealed- “I met Jack when I was 14 when my father worked for MGM. I worked for a summer as a messenger girl and he was a messenger boy,” the Frankenstein’s Daughter actress said in a June 2010 interview with Alan Mercer. “He and his friends were a little older, and they were always laughing and having fun, so I thought they were really cool. Then, I met Jack five years later at Martin Landau’s acting class. We rehearsed a scene from Tennessee Williams’ play Summer and Smoke, and the fire began.”
Jack Nicholson and Sandra Knight walked down the aisle in 1962. Their union was blessed with a daughter Jennifer Nicholson. Like her parents, Jennifer also pursued acting, landing minor roles in films like Hoff and Inevitable Grace. She later followed her passion for clothing design.
After being together for four years the couple called their marriage a quit in 1968 though they separated in 1966. The reason behind their divorce was not made known to the public. When Sandra Knight and Jack Nicholson’s marriage ended, the actress moved to Hawaii with her daughter.
ALSO, READ; Jennifer Nicholson: Inside the Life of Jack Nicholson’s Daughter
Though her marriage to the Academy Award winner did not work out, Sandra still valued the time they spent together per Closer Weekly. “The real Jack is a loving, caring, giving person,” she told Closer exclusively in June 2016. “We had a very beautiful, sweet marriage.”
Where is Sandra Knight now?
After her marriage to Nicholson came to an end, Sandra left acting to focus on being a mom. She took classes at the Otis Art Institute and developed an interest in painting. Eventually, Jack Nicholson’s ex-wife took classes to become a life coach, which led her to the arms of her second husband, John Stephenson.
ALSO, READ; Jack Nicholson Children: Here’s The 5 Children Of Jack Nicholson
“We met at a spiritual seminar,” she told Closer Weekly. “John is a writer and an artist and is a teacher of spiritual principles and gives seminars all around the world. We travel a lot to Australia, New Zealand, and all around Europe and England.”
The couple also formed their own production company called Synergy Production. Sandra Knight who is now a grandmother served on the Board of Directors of the Hawaii International Film Festival and wrote several screenplays per her IMDb page. She has been instrumental in bringing talent and contributors from Hollywood and New York to participate in the Hawaii International Film Festival
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