Born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky November 6, 1931 to wealthy Russian-Jewish parents in Berlin, Germany, the future Mike Nichols lost his hair at the age of four due to a bad reaction to an allergic reaction to a Whooping Cough inoculation and wore wigs and false eyebrows in adulthood to hide his baldness.
At the age of seven, he and his three-year brother escaped the Nazis by joining their father, now known as Nichols, in New York where his father had escaped to a month earlier. His mother joined them a year later, having escaped through Italy.
Nichols became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1944 and enrolled in the pre-med program of the University of Chicago in 1950 where he became involved in folk music and farce. In 1953, he went to New York to study acting under Lee Strasberg. He came back to Chicago in 1955 where he was part of the group that formed the Second City improv group. He and fellow group member Elaine May formed the comedy team of Nichols & May in 1957, winning a Grammy for Best Comedy Album in 1962.
The comedian then turned to directing. After early successes off-Broadway, he directed Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park on Broadway in 1963 for which he received the first of 19 Tony nominations through 2012, and the first of 9 wins. Expanding his career to film, his first was 1966’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, for which he received the first of five Oscar nominations. He won for the following year’s The Graduate starring Anne Bancroft and newcomer Dustin Hoffman.
Nichols became the first director to earn $1,000,000 for a film with his third, 1970’s Catch-22 starring Alan Arkin with an all-star supporting cast, a moderate box-office success, but a critical dud. He rebounded with 1971’s Carnal Knowledge starring Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel for which Ann-Margret received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Modest successes, The Day of the Dolphin (1973), The Fortune (1975), and Gilda Live (1980) followed while he also kept busy with Broadway and TV successes. He returned to prominence as a film director with 1983’s Silkwood starring Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, and Cher for which he received his third Oscar nomination for Best Director. 1986’s Heartburn starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep was a modest success.
In 1988, Nichols married his fourth wife, TV journalist Diane Sawyer, and directed two successful films, Biloxi Blues starring Matthew Broderick and the runaway hit, Working Girl starring Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, and Sigourney Weaver for which he received his fourth Oscar nomination for Best Director.
1990’s Postcards from the Edge starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine was a thinly disguised examination of the relationship between actress-writer Carrie Fisher and her mother, actress Debbie Reynolds. 1991’s Regarding Henry starring Harriosn Ford and 1992’s Wolf starring Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer were modest successes. 1993’s Remains of the Day starring Anthony Hopins and Emma Thompson, which he produced but didn’t direct, earned him a fifth Oscar nomination, his first for Best Picture.
1996’s The Birdcage starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane and 1998’s Primary Colors starring John Travolta and Emma Thompson were huge successes. 2003’s TV production of Angels in America starring Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson earned him DGA and Emmy awards. 2004’s Closer starring Natalie Portman, Jude Law, and Clive Owen and 2007’s Charlie Wilson’s War starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts were also well-received.
Mike Nichols died November 19, 2014 at 83.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966)
Nominated for 13 Oscars and winner of 5, Nichols made an extraordinary film debut as director of this acclaimed film version of the controversial Broadway play. Bette Davis and Henry Fonda were considered early front-runners for the roles of Martha and George that went instead to Hollywood’s reigning power couple of the day, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who were joined by George Segal and Sandy Dennis as the only other two actors in the film. As a result, Nichols became the first director to have his entire cast nominated for Oscars. Taylor and Dennis won. Burton, Segal, and Nichols lost.
THE GRADUATE (1967)
Nominated for 7 Oscars and winner of 1 for Nichols’ direction, this box-office smash was only the third film to rake in more than $1,000,000 at the box office behind Gone with the Wind and The Sound of Music. Everything about it clicked from Nichols’ choice of Simon and Garfunkel’s music to the casting of newcomer Dustin Hoffman as the classic underdog, Anne Bancroft as the seductive older woman, and Katharine Ross as her innocent daughter who the boy she seduces really loves. All three received Oscar nominations for their performances. Nichols cast Hoffman over Robert Redford who had starred for Nichols in Broadway’s Barefoot in the Park.
WORKING GIRL (1988)
Nominated for 6 Oscars and winner of 1 for the song, “Let the River Run”, the film was advertised with a photo in which star Melanie Griffith is seen trying to peak out from behind Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver. The film’s other five Oscar nominations included those for Best Picture, Griffith for Best Actress, Weaver for Best Supporting Actress, and Nichols for Best Director. Weaver, who had also been nominated for Best Actress for Gorillas in the Mist was the frontrunner for Supporting Actress but lost to Geena Davis in The Accidental Tourist. Griffith and Weaver lost Best Actress to Jodie Foster in The Accused.
THE BIRDCAGE (1996)
Nominated for just one Oscar for Art Direction-Set Decoration, this update of La Cage aux Folles fared better at the Golden Globes where it was nominated for Best Picture – Comedy or Musical and Best Actor Comedy or Musical for Nathan Lane. Based on the 1978 French farce which was the basis for Jerry Herman’s 1983 Broadway musical, the filmmakers reverted to the original and not the musical for their version of the celebrated gay romance which was to have starred Steve Martin and Robin Williams but when Martin dropped out, Williams switched to his role as the proprietor of club giving the more flamboyant role of the drag queen to Lane.
ANGELS IN AMERICA (2003)
Nominated for 21 Emmys and winner of 11, this mammoth miniseries about the AIDS epidemic based on Tony Kushner’s Broadway play won for Nichols’ direction as well as the performances of Al Pacino as Roy Cohn, Meryl Streep as Ethel Rosenberg and several other characters, Jeffrey Wright also in multiple roles, and Mary-Louise Parker as an hallucinating wife, with acting nominations also going to Emma Tompson, Patrick Wilson, Justin Kirk, and Ben Shenkman. They are all outstanding as is just about everything else connected with this once-in-a-lifetime production. Nichols considered this work his greatest achievement.
MIKE NICHOLS AND OSCAR
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) – nominated – Best Director
The Graduate (1967) – Oscar – Best Director
Silkwood (1983) – Nominated – Best Director
Working Girl (1988) – Nominated – Best Director
Remains of the Day (1993) – Nominated – Best Picture
