Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols was a German-born American director who worked across theatre, film and television and became one of a small number of performers to win all four major American entertainment awards, the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. He began as half of the comedy duo Nichols and May with Elaine May before turning to directing, making his Broadway debut with Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park in 1963 and going on to direct more than twenty-five Broadway productions. His film debut, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, arrived in 1966, followed the next year by The Graduate, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director. Later films included Catch-22, Silkwood, Working Girl, The Birdcage and Closer, and he also directed acclaimed television work such as Wit and Angels in America. He received the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts and the AFI Life Achievement Award, and died in 2014 at age 83.