American television, stage and film director, writer, and producer, born November 6, 1931 in Berlin, Germany and died November 19, 2014 in New York City, New York, USA.
Back in Berlin, Germany, Mikes father was part of a young intellectual circle that included Russian immigrants such as Vladimir Nabokov s sister and Boris Pasternak s parents.
Fled from Berlin, Nazi Germany with his family in 1939.
One of the Directors Guild of Americas annual Honorees in 2000.
Is one of the only 12 people who are an EGOT, which means that he won at least one of all of the four major entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. The other ones in chronological order are Richard Rodgers , Barbra Streisand , Helen Hayes , Rita Moreno , Liza Minnelli , John Gielgud , Audrey Hepburn , Marvin Hamlisch , Jonathan Tunick , Mel Brooks and Whoopi Goldberg. Barbra Streisand, however, won a Special Tony Award, not a competitive one, and Liza Minnelli won a Special Grammy.
One of 5 recipients of the 2003 Kennedy Center Honors; other recipients were James Brown , Carol Burnett , Loretta Lynn and Itzhak Perlman.
Lost much of his body hair in his early teen years due to a bad batch of whooping cough vaccine.
Biography in: John Wakeman , editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 704-710. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
Directed Postcards from the Edge , which was written by Carrie Fisher and based on her relationship with her real-life mother, Debbie Reynolds. He later directed Closer , with featured Fishers on-screen Star Wars mother, Natalie Portman.
Directed 17 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances:Elizabeth Taylor , Sandy Dennis ,Richard Burton , George Segal ,Dustin Hoffman , Anne Bancroft ,Katharine Ross , Ann-Margret , Meryl Streep ,Cher , Melanie Griffith , Sigourney Weaver ,Joan Cusack , Kathy Bates , Natalie Portman , Clive Owen , and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Taylor and Dennis won Oscars for their performances in Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? .
According to Jack Nicholson s April 1972 Playboy Magazine interview, Nichols asked Nicholson and other cast members not to smoke marijuana while filming Carnal Knowledge on location in Vancouver, British Columbia, where cannabis was easily available. Nichols thought that it dulled an actors performance.
Worked at the Howard Johnsons restaurant in New Yorks Times Square when he was 17 years old.
Father of Daisy Nichols , Max Nichols (born in 1974) and Jenny Nichols (born in 1977).
From the early 1960s until his death, he was a well-known figure among Arabian Horse fans - as a breeder of over 400 registered Arabians, including owning and breeding many US National Champion horses.
Received the first straight $1,000,000 directors salary for Catch-22 . When percentages were figured in, Nichols was the first director to earn $1,000,000, combination salary and percentage of net or gross, from a single film, for The Graduate .
He was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 2001 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.
Two of his films are on the American Film Institutes 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All time. They are Working Girl at #87 and Silkwood at #66.
Was interested in directing First Blood with Dustin Hoffman as John Rambo.
Attended the University of Chicago where he became close friends with fellow student Susan Sontag (then Susan Rosenblatt).
Became a naturalized US citizen in 1944.
Formed a comedy team with Elaine May , appearing in nightclubs, on radio and television and most notably at President Jimmy Carter s inauguration gala.
Teaches occasionally at The New Actors Workship in New York City.
Son, Max Nichols , is married to ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols.
When he won his Oscar as Best Director for The Graduate , the statuette was presented to him by actress Leslie Caron.
Recovering from heart bypass surgery in New York hospital [July 17, 2008].
Was the last person to have won a best director Oscar prior to 1972 still living as of January 2009.
In April 2009, Nichols told The New York Times that when he came to the U.S. from Germany (in 1939, at age 7), he could speak only two English sentences, which were, "I do not speak English" and "Please, do not kiss me.".
He is one of 9 directors to have won the Golden Globe, Directors Guild, BAFTA, and Oscar for the same movie, all for The Graduate . The other directors to have achieved this are Milos Forman for One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest , Richard Attenborough for Gandhi , Oliver Stone for Platoon , Steven Spielberg for Schindlers List , Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain , Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire , Alfonso Cuarn for Gravity , and Alejandro G. Irritu for The Revenant .
Through the television series "Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates Jr." , he learned that he was a distant relative of actor Meryl Streep. A few years later on a different Gates show, "Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr." , he also found out that he was related to Albert Einstein.
Mike Nichols was the original choice to direct the 1976 film The Last Tycoon . He left the project because of creative differences with actor Robert De Niro.
Is a member of the Democratic Party.
Was at one point going to direct Follow Me! . See the trivia page for the film for more information.
Recipient of the Producers Guild of Americas Visionary Award.
While paying tribute to Nichols during his 2003 Kennedy Center Honors, Meryl Streep and Candace Bergen read Nichols "Five Rules for Filmmaking": 1: The careful application of terror is an important form of communication. 2: Anything worth fighting for is worth fighting dirty for. 3: Theres absolutely no substitute for genuine lack of preparation. 4: If you think theres good in everybody, you havent met everybody. 5: Friends may come and go, but enemies will certainly become studio heads.
Won more Tony Awards for Best Direction of a Play than any other individual. His won for "Barefoot in the Park" ; "Luv and The Odd Couple" ; "Plaza Suite" ; "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" ; "The Real Thing" ; and "Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman". He also won best direction of a musical for "Monty Pythons Spamalot" ; and as producer for "Annie" and "The Real Thing".
Like Steve Martin , Paul Simon , and Lorne Michaels , Nichols has had his portrait painted by Eric Fischl.
(February 2005) Director of hit Broadway musical Monty Pythons Spamalot ("lovingly ripped off from Monty Python and the Holy Grail .")
(June 2005) Won a Tony Award for directing.
Was told as a child that he was a cousin of Albert Einstein , and although he never quite believed it, he repeated it to friends as he was growing up. While doing "Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr." he found out that it was true. They would have been 3rd or 4th cousins several times removed.
Six of his nine Tony Awards were for Best Direction of a Play, a record. He won for "Barefoot in the Park" ; "Luv and The Odd Couple" ; "Plaza Suite" ; "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" ; "The Real Thing" ; and "Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman" . He also won once for Best Direction of a Musical, "Monty Pythons Spamalot" ; and twice for producing, "Annie" and "The Real Thing". He was also nominated seven additional times for Direction of a Play or Direction of a Musical: musical "The Apple Tree" ; "Uncle Vanya" ; "Comedians" ; "Streamers" ; "The Gin Game" (1978, also as producer); and further as producer of "The Play What I Wrote" and "Whoopi, The 20th Anniversary Show (2005, Special Theatrical Events).
He considered Diane Sawyer to be the love of his life.
In an interview conducted shortly before his death, he admitted that he considered his adaptation of "Angels in America" to be the crowning achievement of his career.
His favorite films included George Stevenss "A Place In The Sun", Ingmar Bergmans "Persona" and Federico Fellinis "8 1/2".
He was nominated for a 1977 Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for Best Director of a Play for "Streamers" on Broadway in New York City.
He was nominated for a 1978 Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for Best Director of a Play for "The Gin Game" on Broadway in New York City.
Presented both Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep their AFI Life Achievement Awards.
The key is that I make it safe for them to open the vein.
[on coming to New York as a child] American society to me and my brother,was thrilling because, first of all, the food made noise. We were so,excited about Rice Krispies and Coca-Cola. We had only silent food in,our country, and we loved listening to our lunch and breakfast.
The comic has a very special relationship with the audience.
You can always tell gifted and highly intelligent people as they always turn to the past. Any young person who knows anything that happened before 1980, or 1990, or 2000 for that matter, is immediately someone who is intelligent, probably creative, maybe a writer. Nobody who is drawn to the past and learning about the past is not gifted.
I am drawn to the mystery of marriage. You can never know what the contract is between two people, and that is a very strong subject. I think it may be my subject.
