“Forgotten Hollywood”- The Death of an Iconic Director…
Manny P. here…
Mike Nichols was a television, stage, and film director, writer, producer, and comedian. In 1968, he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate. His other films include Catch-22, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Carnal Knowledge, Silkwood, Working Girl, The Birdcage, Charlie Wilson’s War (his last picture). He staged original theatrical productions of Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, and Spamalot.
The Berlin-born Nichols lost his hair at age 4 from a reaction to an inoculation for whooping cough, and wore wigs for the rest of his life. In April 1939, when the Nazis were arresting Jews, seven-year-old Mikhail and his three-year-old brother Robert were sent alone to America to meet up with their father, who had fled months earlier. His mother eventually joined the family, escaping through Italy in 1940. Nichols became a naturalized citizen of the US in 1944.
In 1954, Nichols dropped out of the University of Chicago and moved back to New York City, where he was accepted into the Actors Studio and studied under Lee Strasberg. He began his career in the 1950s with the improvisational troupe, the Compass Players, predecessor of the Second City in Chicago, and as one half of the comedy duo Mike Nichols and Elaine May.
Nichols was one of a small group who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. Other honors include the Lincoln Center Gala Tribute, the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the AFI Life Achievement Award. He married ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer in 1988.
The amazing Mike Nichols was 83.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2014 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
