Mike Nichols (born 6 November 1931) is an American television, stage and film director, writer, and producer. Nichols is one of only twelve people to have won an EGOT, all the major American entertainment awards: an Oscar, Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award.

[edit] Early years

Nichols was born Michael Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin, Germany, the son of Brigitte Landauer (his maternal grandparents are Gustav Landauer and Hedwig Lachmann) and Igor Nicholaievitch Peschkowsky, a physician.^[1] He and his German-Russian Jewish family moved to the United States to flee the Nazis in 1939 ^[2]. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1944. While attending the University of Chicago in the 1950s, he began work in improvisational comedy with the Compass Players, a precursor to The Second City, and later started the long-running Midnight Special folk music program on radio station WFMT.

[edit] Career

Nichols formed a comedy team with Elaine May, with whom he appeared in nightclubs, on radio, released best-selling records, made guest appearances on several television programs and had their own show on Broadway, directed by Arthur Penn. They were accompanied by Chicago pianist Marty Rubenstein, host of the television show Marty's Place. Personal idiosyncrasies and tensions (the latter culminating in the out-of-town closing of A Matter of Position, a play written by May and starring Nichols) eventually drove the duo apart to pursue other projects in 1961. They later reconciled and worked together many times, with May scripting his films The Birdcage and Primary Colors. They appeared together at President Jimmy Carter's inaugural gala and in a 1980 New Haven stage revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Swoosie Kurtz and James Naughton.^[3]

Nichols was chosen to direct Neil Simon's Barefoot In The Park in 1963. He realized almost at once that directing was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Nichols's production of Simon's play was a blockbuster hit, running for 1530 performances. He went on to direct (and occasionally produce) many other Broadway hits, including several more by Simon. He has won numerous theatre awards, including the Tony Award for Best Direction for seven different productions.

Nichols' career as a film director began with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966 for which he received an Oscar nomination, and The Graduate--the biggest hit film released in 1967—for which he won the Best Director Oscar. He's also won Emmy Awards for his direction of Wit (2001) and Angels in America (2003).^[4]

Nichols is a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. He's also a co-founder of The New Actors Workshop in New York City, where he occasionally teaches.^[5]

Nichols went on with making movies, many of them would deal with people and the faulty, confused world they live in. In the films The Graduate and Working Girl, he talked about those individuals who want to turn their lives around for the better. Another theme in Nichols' films is the faults in people that lead them to live imperfect lives: he would make this the subject of his dramatic films and his comedies.

Nichols' other films include The Fortune, Wolf, Silkwood, Regarding Henry, Catch 22, Working Girl, Closer, and the true story film, Charlie Wilson's War. Of the movie stars he worked with, Nichols would do four films with Meryl Streep, two films with Julia Roberts, and four films with three time Academy Award Winner Jack Nicholson. Two films that Nichols and Nicholson did were Wolf and Carnal Knowledge.

[edit] Personal life

Nichols has been married four times. His first wife was Patricia Scott; they were married from 1957 to 1960. He then married Margo Callas in 1963, and they had a daughter, Daisy Nichols. His marriage to Callas ended in 1974. Annabel Davis-Goff, with whom he has two children, Max Nichols and Jenny Nichols, was his third wife. They were divorced in 1986. He has been married to his fourth and current wife, ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer, since April 29, 1988.

[edit] Work

[edit] Stage productions

• Barefoot in the Park (1963)
• Luv (1964)
• The Odd Couple (1965)
• The Apple Tree (1966)
• The Little Foxes (1967)
• Plaza Suite (1968)
• The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971)
• Uncle Vanya (1973)
• Streamers (1976)
• Comedians (1976)
• Fools (1981)
• The Real Thing (1984)
• Hurlyburly (1984)
• Whoopi Goldberg (1984)
• Social Security (1986)
• Death and the Maiden (1992)
• The Seagull (2001)
• Spamalot (2005)
• Country Girl (2008)

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mike Nichols at the Internet Broadway Database
• Mike Nichols at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Mike Nichols at the Internet Movie Database