Mike Nichols (born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theatre director. He worked across a range of genres and had an aptitude for getting the best out of actors regardless of their experience. He is one of 19 people to have won all four of the major American entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT), along with Mel Brooks, Viola Davis, John Gielgud, Whoopi Goldberg, Marvin Hamlisch, Helen Hayes, Audrey Hepburn, Jennifer Hudson, Elton John, John Legend, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Robert Lopez, Alan Menken, Rita Moreno, Tim Rice, Richard Rodgers, Scott Rudin, and Jonathan Tunick.
Nichols began his career in the 1950s with the comedy improvisational troupe The Compass Players, predecessor of The Second City, in Chicago. He then teamed up with his improv partner, Elaine May, to form the comedy duo Nichols and May. Their live improv act was a hit on Broadway, and each of their three albums was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album; their second album, An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, won the award in 1962. After they disbanded, he began directing plays, and quickly became known for his innovative theatre productions, where he would win 8 Tony’s over his career.
He received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Director for his debut film Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis. He won for his second feature, The Graduate (1967), with Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katherine Ross, William Daniels, Murray Hamilton, and Elizabeth Wilson.
Films in the 1970s include Catch-22 (1970), with Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Olimpia Carlisi, Marcel Dalio, Art Garfunkel, Jack Gilford, Charles Grodin, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins, Austin Pendleton, Paula Prentiss, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, and Orson Welles; Carnal Knowledge (1971), with Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, Rita Moreno, and Cynthia O’Neal; The Day of the Dolphin (1973), with George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Paul Sorvino, and Edward Hermann; and The Fortune (1975), with Warren Beatty, Nicholson, Stockard Channing, Florence Stanley, Richard B. Shull, Tom Newman, John Fiedler, and Scatman Crothers.
He received two more Best Director nominations for Silkwood (1983), with Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher, Craig T. Nelson, Fred Ward, Diana Scarwid, Ron Silver, Bruce McGill, David Strathairn, and M. Emmett Walsh; snd and Working Girl (1988), with Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Melanie Griffith, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, Oliver Platt, and Olympia Dukakis. Other films in the 1980s include the concert documentary Gilda Live (1980), with Gilda Radner; Heartburn (1986), with Streep, Nicholson, Channing, Jeff Daniels, Miloš Forman, Steven Hill, and Catherine O’Hara; and Biloxi Blues (1988), with Matthew Broderick and Christopher Walken.
Films in the 1990s include Postcards from the Edge (1990), with Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Reiner, Mary Wickes, Conrad Bain, Annette Bening, Simon Callow, and C.C.H. Pounder; Regarding Henry (1991), with Ford, Bening, Mikki Allen, Bill Nunn, Rebecca Miller, Bruce Altman and Elizabeth Wilson; Wolf (1994), with Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, Kate Nelligan, Richard Jenkins, Christopher Plummer, Eileen Atkins, David Hyde Pierce, and Om Puri; The Birdcage (1996), with Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Hackman, Diane Wiest, Dan Futterman, Calista Flockhart, Hank Azaria, and Christine Baranski; and Primary Colors (1998), with John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates, Maura Tierney, Larry Hagman, and Adrian Lester.
He also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture as a producer on James Ivory’s The Remains of the Days (1993), with Anthony Hopkins, Thompson, James Fox, Christopher Reeve, Peter Vaughn, Hugh Grant, Tim Pigott-Smith, Ben Chaplin, and Lena Headey; and acted in the film The Designated Mourner (1996), with Miranda Richardson and David de Keyser.
Films in the 2000s include What Planet Are You From? (2000), with Gary Shandling, Bening, Greg Kinnear, Ben Kingsley, Linda Fiorentino, and John Goodman; Closer (2004), with Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, and Clive Owen; and Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), with Tom Hanks, Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Ned Beatty, and Emily Blunt.
He won Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or Television Movie and Outstanding Made first Television Movie for Wit (2001), with Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, Audra McDonald, Eileen Atkins, Jonathan M. Woodward, and Harold Pinter; and Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or Television Movie and Outstanding Made first Television Movie and Outstanding Miniseries for Angels in America (2003), with Al Pacino, Streep, Patrick Wilson, Mary-Louise Parker, Thompson, Justin Kirk, Jeffrey Wright, Ben Shenkman, Brian Markinson, James Cromwell, Michael Gambon, Callow, and Robin Weigert.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
- The Graduate (1967)
- Teach Me (1968) – short
- Catch-22 (1970)
- Carnal Knowledge (1971)
- The Day of the Dolphin (1973)
- The Fortune (1975)
- Gilda Live (1980) – documentary
- Silkwood (1983)
- The Longshot (1986) – directed by Paul Bartel – executive producer
- Heartburn (1986)
- Biloxi Blues (1988)
- Working Girl (1988)
- Postcards from the Edge (1990)
- Regarding Henry (1991)
- The Remains of the Day (1993) – directed by James Ivory – producer
- Wolf (1994)
- The Birdcage (1996)
- The Designated Mourner (1997) -directed by David Hare – actor
- Primary Colors (1998)
- What Planet Are You From? (2000)
- Wit (2001) – TV movie
- Angels in America (2003) – miniseries
- Closer (2004)
- Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
- Friends with Kids (2011) – directed by Jennifer Westfeldt – executive producer
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