Five Easy Pieces Easy Pieces" was released as a stand-alone DVD and Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection. Five Easy Pieces Five Easy Pieces is a 1970 American drama film written by Carole Eastman (as Adrien Joyce) and Bob Rafelson, and directed by Rafelson. The film stars Jack Nicholson, with Karen Black, Susan Anspach, Ralph Waite, and Sally Struthers in supporting roles. The film tells the story of surly oil rig worker Bobby Dupea, whose rootless blue-collar existence belies his privileged youth as a piano prodigy. When Bobby learns that his father is dying, he goes home to see him, taking along his waitress
William Challee the 1970 film "Five Easy Pieces", whose illness brings "son" Jack Nicholson home to the family estate. In 1984 he married his long-time partner Joan Wheeler Ankrum. Together, in 1960, they opened the Ankrum Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles. Challee was buried in Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto. William Challee William John Challee (April 6, 1904 – March 11, 1989) was an American actor. William Challee appeared on Broadway by 1926 and by 1931 in early Group Theatre productions. He married actress Ruth Nelson in 1931; they later divorced. The two appeared in the 1947