Mike Nichols facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mike Nichols
Nichols c. 1960s
Born	Michael Igor Peschkowsky (1931-11-06)November 6, 1931 Berlin, Germany
Died	November 19, 2014(2014-11-19) (aged 83) New York City, U.S.
Resting place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Citizenship	Germany (1931–1935) United States (from 1944)
Alma mater	University of Chicago
Occupation	Film director theatre director film producer actor comedian
Years active	1955–2014
Spouse(s)	Patricia Scot ​ ​ (m. 1957; div. 1960)​ Margot Callas ​ ​ (m. 1963; div. 1974)​ Annabel Davis-Goff ​ ​ (m. 1975; div. 1986)​ Diane Sawyer ​ (m. 1988)​
Children	3
Relatives	Rachel Nichols (daughter-in-law)
Signature

Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was a famous American director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was known for being great at directing both movies and plays. He could work on many different types of stories and always helped actors perform their very best.

Mike Nichols is one of only 18 people to win all four major American entertainment awards. These are the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards, often called an EGOT. He also won three BAFTA Awards and received other special honors. His films earned 42 nominations for the Academy Awards (Oscars), winning 7 of them.

Nichols started his career in the 1950s with a comedy group called The Compass Players in Chicago. This group was a early version of the famous The Second City. He then formed a comedy team with his friend, Elaine May. They were called Nichols and May. Their live comedy shows were a big hit on Broadway. Their second album, An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 1962.

After Nichols and May stopped performing together in 1961, Mike Nichols began directing plays. He quickly became known for his new ideas and for getting amazing performances from actors. His first play on Broadway was Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park in 1963. He won Tony Awards for other plays like Luv (1964) and The Odd Couple (1965). In 2012, he won his sixth Tony Award for directing Death of a Salesman. Mike Nichols directed or produced over 25 Broadway plays.

In 1966, Warner Brothers asked Nichols to direct his first movie, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. It starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The movie won five Academy Awards and was the highest-earning film of 1966. His next movie, The Graduate (1967), starred a new actor named Dustin Hoffman. This film was also a big success and earned Nichols the Academy Award for Best Director.

Some other famous movies Nichols directed include Silkwood (1983), Working Girl (1988), The Birdcage (1996), and Charlie Wilson's War (2007). He also directed popular TV shows for HBO, like Wit (2001) and Angels in America (2003).

Early Life and Moving to America

Mike Nichols was born Michael Igor Peschkowsky on November 6, 1931, in Berlin, Germany. His parents were Brigitte and Pavel Peschkowsky. His father was a doctor from a Russian-Jewish family. His mother's family were German Jews. His grandparents were Gustav Landauer, a writer, and Hedwig Lachmann. Mike Nichols was also a distant cousin of the famous scientist Albert Einstein.

In April 1939, when he was seven, Michael and his three-year-old brother Robert were sent alone to the United States. This was because the Nazis were arresting Jewish people in Berlin. Their father had already left Germany months before. Their mother joined them in 1940. The family moved to New York City. Michael's father changed their last name to Nichols.

When he was four, Mike Nichols lost all his hair because of a medical shot. He wore wigs and fake eyebrows for the rest of his life. He became a U.S. citizen in 1944. He went to public school in New York City and later studied at the University of Chicago. He loved college and said he finally made friends there.

In 1953, while in Chicago, Nichols worked at a classical music radio station called WFMT. He started a folk music show called The Midnight Special. He hosted it for two years. The show is still on the air today!

Comedy Career: Nichols and May

Nichols and May, around 1960.

Mike Nichols first met Elaine May when he was acting in a play in Chicago. They quickly became friends and started doing comedy together. Nichols later said, "Elaine was very important to me from the moment I saw her."

In 1955, Nichols joined a comedy group in Chicago called Compass Players. This group was known for improvisational comedy, where performers make things up on the spot. He started doing improv routines with Elaine May. In 1958, they officially formed their comedy duo, Nichols and May.

A theater program from 1961 for Nichols and May.

They performed live comedy shows that were very funny and smart. They also released three comedy albums that sold very well. They appeared in nightclubs and on radio and TV. Their manager, Jack Rollins, was very impressed. He said their work was "so startling, so new, as fresh as could be."

In 1960, Nichols and May had a successful Broadway show called An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May. The album of this show won a Grammy Award in 1962. The duo decided to stop performing together in 1961 to work on other projects.

Even after they stopped working together full-time, Nichols and May remained friends and worked together many times. They performed for President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Elaine May also wrote the screenplays for Nichols's movies The Birdcage (1996) and Primary Colors (1998).

Career as a Director

Early Stage Success

After his comedy duo ended, Nichols started directing plays. In 1963, he directed Neil Simon's play Barefoot in the Park. He immediately knew that directing was what he was meant to do. Barefoot in the Park was a huge hit and ran for 1530 shows. Nichols won a Tony Award for his directing.

This was the start of many successful plays on Broadway for Nichols. He directed Luv in 1964, winning another Tony Award. In 1965, he directed another Neil Simon play, The Odd Couple. This play also ran for a long time and won Tony Awards for Nichols, Simon, and actor Walter Matthau. Overall, Nichols won nine Tony Awards in his career.

First Films: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate

In 1966, Mike Nichols was a very famous stage director. Even though he had never made a movie before, Warner Bros. asked him to direct Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. This movie starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The film was praised by critics and was the top-earning movie of 1966. It won five Academy Awards and was nominated for thirteen. Nichols was nominated for Best Director for this film.

His next movie was The Graduate (1967). It starred Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, and Katharine Ross. This film was also a huge success and became the highest-earning movie of 1967. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, and Nichols won the Oscar for Best Director.

Making The Graduate was challenging. Nichols chose Dustin Hoffman, who was not a well-known actor, for the main role. This was a big risk, but it paid off. Hoffman later said Nichols showed "tremendous courage" in casting him. Nichols also carefully chose the music for the film, using songs by Simon and Garfunkel. He even suggested changing a song title to "Mrs. Robinson", which became a number one hit.

After these film successes, Nichols continued to direct plays on Broadway. He directed Plaza Suite in 1968, winning another Tony Award.

Later Films and TV Work

In the 1970s, Nichols directed films like Catch-22 (1970) and Carnal Knowledge (1971). He also directed more Broadway plays, including The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971), which won him another Tony.

After a few less successful films in the mid-1970s, Nichols returned to Broadway. He produced the very popular musical Annie in 1977, which won a Tony Award for Best Musical.

In 1983, Nichols made a big comeback in Hollywood with the movie Silkwood. It starred Meryl Streep, Cher, and Kurt Russell. This film was a success and earned Nichols another Oscar nomination for Best Director. He also directed the Broadway play The Real Thing in 1984, winning another Tony Award.

In the late 1980s, Nichols directed the hit movie Working Girl (1988), starring Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, and Sigourney Weaver. This film was nominated for six Academy Awards and won one for its song "Let the River Run".

In the 1990s, Nichols directed more successful films. These included Postcards from the Edge (1990) with Meryl Streep, and The Birdcage (1996) with Robin Williams. Both The Birdcage and Primary Colors (1998) were written by Elaine May, his old comedy partner.

In the 2000s, Nichols directed films like Closer (2004) and Charlie Wilson's War (2007). He also directed two highly praised TV movies for HBO, Wit (2001) and Angels in America (2003). He won Emmy Awards for both of these. In 2005, he won another Tony Award for directing the musical Spamalot.

In 2012, Nichols won his last Tony Award for directing a new version of Death of a Salesman. His final directing project was a Broadway play called Betrayal in 2013.

Directing Style

Mike Nichols was known for working very closely with his actors and writers. He often used the same talented people in different projects. Many actors said he had a special gift for helping them give their best performances.

For his first movie, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, all four main actors were nominated for an Oscar. Two of them, Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis, won. Richard Burton said Nichols helped him learn about comedy. Elizabeth Taylor chose Nichols to direct because she admired how he worked hard to pay for his education.

Nichols used this same style for The Graduate. He helped Dustin Hoffman, who was new to movies, along with Anne Bancroft and Katharine Ross, give amazing performances. This ability to work well with actors stayed with him throughout his career.

Actors like Jeremy Irons and Ann-Margret also praised Nichols. They said he created a safe and supportive environment. He made actors feel like their ideas were their own, even when they were actually his suggestions.

Personal Life

Mike Nichols was married four times. His last marriage was to the famous TV news anchor Diane Sawyer, whom he married in 1988. He had three children. His son Max married journalist Rachel Nichols.

Nichols loved Arabian horses his whole life. He owned a farm in Connecticut for many years and was known for breeding horses. He even brought high-quality Arabian horses from Poland.

Death and Legacy

Mike Nichols passed away from a heart attack on November 19, 2014, in New York City. He was 83 years old. Many famous people, including Whoopi Goldberg, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks, shared their sadness and paid tribute to him.

In 2017, actresses like Amy Adams and Natalie Portman spoke about how much Nichols had influenced their lives and careers. In 2020, Woody Allen called Nichols "maybe the best comedy director ever on the stage."

Filmography and Theatre Credits

Discography

• Improvisations to Music (1958)
• An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May (1960)
• Mike Nichols & Elaine May Examine Doctors (1961)
• In Retrospect (1962)

Awards and Honors

Mike Nichols is one of the few entertainers who have won an EGOT. This means he won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.

He was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning Best Director for The Graduate (1967). He also received 16 Tony Award nominations, winning eight times for plays like Barefoot in the Park (1964) and Annie (1977). Nichols won Primetime Emmy Awards for directing and producing the HBO TV films Wit (2001) and Angels in America (2003).

In 2003, he received the Kennedy Center Honors, a very special award for artists. In 2010, he was honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award, which celebrates a lifetime of great work in film.

Images for kids

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  Nichols in the 1960s

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  Mike Nichols' signature

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  Nichols and May, around 1960

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  A theater program from 1961 for Nichols and May

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  Nichols in 2010

See also

In Spanish: Mike Nichols para niños

• List of people who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards