Mike Nichols Biography (2)

Mike Nichols is a legend in the entertainment industry, honored for his contributions to both stage and screen, in front of and behind the camera. He was recently honored by the Directors Guild of America with its annual Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his contributions to the film medium over the past four decades. In September he received a Best Director Emmy for the HBO production Angels in America, which won a record 11 Emmys.

Nichols was born in Berlin, Germany in 1931 to a Russian father and German mother. His family immigrated to the United States when he was seven and he was brought up in New York City. He attended the University of Chicago where, together with Elaine May and Paul Sills, he founded the comedy group The Compass, later renamed Second City.

In 1957, the now legendary team of Nichols and May was formed. Starting at the Blue Angel in New York, they performed in nightclubs all over the country. Nichols and May created numerous television specials and appeared as guests on Omnibus, The Dinah Shore Show and The Jack Paar Show. In 1960, they brought An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May to Broadway, where it ran for a year. The show was still selling out when the team decided to end the run and pursue separate careers.

Nichols turned to directing, winning the first of seven Tony Awards for Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park. He went on to helm an unprecedented string of Broadway hits including The Knack, Luv (Best Director Tony), The Odd Couple (Best Director Tony), The Apple Tree, Plaza Suite (Best Director Tony), Prisoner of Second Avenue (Best Director Tony), The Gin Game (1978 Pulitzer Prize) and Streamers (New York Drama Critics Award). He directed successful revivals of The Little Foxes and Uncle Vanya and the U.S. productions of Comedians, as well as The Real Thing (Best Director Tony), Hurlyburly, Social Security, Waiting for Godot and Death and the Maiden.

As a theatrical producer, he presented Whoopi Goldberg on Broadway and won the Tony for his blockbuster show Annie. In 1987, Nichols received the George Abbott Award and in 1990 was honored by the American Museum of the Moving Image for his contribution to the film industry.

Nichols directed his first film, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in 1966, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director, and for which Elizabeth Taylor won a Best Actress Academy Award. In 1967, he directed The Graduate, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director, the Directors Guild Award and the New York Film Critics Award. His subsequent films include Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge, Silkwood (Best Director Academy Award nomination), Working Girl (Best Director Academy Award nomination), Biloxi Blues, Postcards from the Edge, Regarding Henry and Wolf. He shared a nomination for Best Picture for James Ivory's Remains of the Day, on which he served as producer.

In recent years, he has reunited with former performance collaborator Elaine May who wrote the screenplays for Nichols' The Birdcage and Primary Colors.

Nichols directed Emma Thompson in the HBO Films production of Wit, which won him the 2001 Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special, as well as the Emmy for Outstanding Made for Television Movie. Nichols and Thompson also received the 2001 Humanitas Award for Best Screenplay for Wit.

His most recent triumph was the HBO two-part presentation of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic Angels in America, with Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson leading an ensemble cast, which won him a DGA Award for his directing and received 21 Emmy nominations (winning 11 including one for Nichols as Best Director). The production also received five Golden Globe awards.

Nichols will next direct a musical stage version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail entitled Spamalot.

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