Randle Patrick McMurphy

Randle Patrick McMurphy
Jack Nicholson as Randle Patrick "Mac" McMurphy in the Academy Award winning film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman 1975).
First appearance	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (novel)
Last appearance	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)
Created by	Ken Kesey
Portrayed by	Jack Nicholson
Information
Nickname(s)	Mac
Occupation	Veteran, criminal
Nationality	American

Randle Patrick "Mac" McMurphy known as R.P. McMurphy, is the protagonist of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962). He appears in the stage and film adaptations of the novel as well. Jack Nicholson portrayed Randle Patrick McMurphy in the film adaption, earning him an Academy Award for Best Actor. He was nominated on the "Heroes" list of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains, but did not make the final list. He was ranked by film magazine Empire as the 61st Greatest Movie Character of All Time.

McMurphy is an Irish-American brawler found guilty of battery, gambling and statutory rape. He is a Korean War veteran who was a POW during the war and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for leading a breakout from a Chinese camp, but was dishonorably discharged for insubordination. He is sentenced to a fairly short prison term and decides to have himself declared insane in order to be transferred to a mental institution, where he expects to serve the rest of his time in comparative comfort and luxury.

McMurphy's ward in the mental institution is run by the tyrannical Nurse Ratched, who has cowed the patients into submission. McMurphy makes it his mission to flout Ratched's regime of rules and punishment and to liberate the other patients from her grip.

During his short stay at the hospital, McMurphy forms deep friendships with two of his fellow patients: Billy Bibbit, a stuttering manchild whom Ratched has dominated into a suicidal mess; and Chief Bromden, a selectively mute Native American. In the former, McMurphy sees a younger brother figure whom he wants to teach to have fun, while the latter is his only real confidant.