Which actor played Frank Costello in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed?

Jack Nicholson played Frank Costello in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed.

Released in 2006, The Departed is a crime thriller set in Boston. Nicholson portrays Costello, a powerful Irish-American crime boss who places a mole inside the Massachusetts State Police. The film follows the parallel efforts of an undercover police officer and Costello’s informant within the police department.

The Departed adapts the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, but it changes the setting, characters, and cultural context. Nicholson’s performance as Costello is notably theatrical and unpredictable, giving the crime boss an unsettling public persona and a volatile private side.

The role is sometimes confused with Nicholson’s earlier gangster performances, or with Robert De Niro’s frequent collaborations with Scorsese. De Niro does not appear in The Departed; the principal cast also includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, and Martin Sheen.