Nichols, Mike, 1931–2014, American actor and director, b. Berlin, Germany, as Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky. His family immigrated to the United States in 1939, and he studied (1950–53) at the Univ. of Chicago. A founder of The Second City, the comedic and improvisational group, he and fellow member Elaine May formed a satiric duo (1957–61) and together scored a Broadway hit in 1960. Nichols debuted as a director with the Broadway production of Barefoot in the Park (1963) and subsequently he was a successful stage and screen director, noted for his intelligence and his ability to draw the best from his actors. His early work concentrated on light comedies, often written by Neil Simon. Nichols won Tony awards for Barefoot and for Luv (1964), The Odd Couple (1965), Plaza Suite (1968), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971), and The Real Thing (1984). Later Broadway directorial credits included Hurlyburly (1984), Death and the Maiden (1992), and the musical Spamalot (2005). His films frequently portray dramatic human relationships and often cast a wry or sardonic cinematic eye on the tensions of modern American society. He began his movie career directing Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and won an Academy Award for his next film, The Graduate (1967). Subsequent films included Catch-22 (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971), Silkwood (1983), Working Girl (1988), The Birdcage (1996), Primary Colors (1998), Closer (2004), and Charlie Wilson's War (2007). Nichols, who had occasional acting roles, was also an Emmy-winning television director and a successful screenwriter and producer.
See A. Carter and S. Kashner, Life Isn't Everything (2019), M. Harris, Mike Nichols: A Life (2021).
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