Mike Nichols

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Mike Nichols (2004)

Mike Nichols (born November 6, 1931 in Berlin as Michail Igor Peschkowsky , † November 19, 2014 in New York ) was an American director , producer and actor . Nichols is one of the few artists to have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards .

Life

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Mike Nichols was born in Berlin to Jewish parents . His father Pavel Nikolaevich Peschkowsky, a doctor, had immigrated from Russia after the October Revolution , his mother Brigitte Landauer was the daughter of Hedwig Lachmann and Gustav Landauer . Between 1938 and 1940 the family gradually emigrated from Germany, and his father opened a practice in Central Park in New York . From then on he called himself Paul Nichols and died in 1943. Mike first studied psychology in Chicago from 1950 , but was also increasingly interested in theater and variety .

With Elaine May , Nichols founded a comedy group in the late 1950s whose humor was shaped by the (im) relationships between men and women and the satirical view of social problems. With their program, they made it to Broadway . In 1962 they separated. However, Nichols remained connected to Broadway as a writer and director and had some audience success with plays such as Barefoot in the Park , Luv and The Odd Couple .

Already made his debut as a film director with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor , Nichols earned an Oscar nomination for Best Director in 1966 . Two years later he was able to win the popular trophy - as the director of the film The Graduation Examination , which also made Dustin Hoffman a star. He has since been hailed by critics as a star director and seen as a co-founder of the New Hollywood era.

In the 1970s, Nichols was unable to build on these successes - films like Catch-22 - The Bad Trick from 1970 (based on the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller ) and The Art of Love from 1971 were only moderately successful at the box office and split the criticism.

Nichols increasingly focused on producing Broadway plays and television series and took less and less seat on the director's chair. One of his successes as a (co-) producer is the television series An American Family .

In the 1980s, Nichols made a number of films that were critically acclaimed but not consistently cashed in at the box office. He directed Meryl Streep in three of these films ( Silkwood , Heartburn and Greetings from Hollywood ). On the other hand, the star-cast comedy Die Waffen der Frauen (The Arms of Women) proved to be a great success . Even in the 1990s, Nichols had varying degrees of luck in choosing his films. While the comedy The Birdcage with Robin Williams and Gene Hackman in the leading roles was a box-office success in 1995, the werewolf film Wolf and the sex dud, Good Vibrations, were sex from the other Star bitter flops .

Nichols is considered to be the discoverer of Whoopi Goldberg , with whom he started his own show on Broadway from October 1984.

After that, Nichols concentrated on the theater again and was finally able to celebrate spectacular successes with two theatrical adaptations: In 2003 the miniseries Angels in America received numerous prizes, including 11 awards (out of 21 nominations) at the Emmy Awards.

Nichols' drama Hautnah was also based on the play of the same name . The play and feature film were controversial because of their drastic dialogues, but reached a large audience.

Mike Nichols was married four times: from 1957 to 1960 with Patricia Scott and from 1963 to 1974 with Margo Callas, with whom he had the daughter Daisy (* around 1964); from 1975 to 1986 he was married to Annabel Davis-Goff (* 1942), with whom he had two further children, Max (* 1974) and Jenny (* 1977); from April 29, 1988 until his death, he was married to the television journalist Diane Sawyer in fourth marriage . He died on November 19, 2014 in Manhattan at the age of 83.

Nichols is one of the few people to have received all four of the major awards in the US entertainment industry ( Oscar , Emmy , Tony , Grammy Award ). In October 2009 he was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award , which he received in summer 2010.

Filmography (direction, selection)

Theater work (direction, selection)

Awards

Web links

Commons : Mike Nichols  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Wassili Zygouris / Editor: Mike Nichols * 1931 . In: film directors . 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-15-010662-4 , pp. 541 .
  2. ^ And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson . In: Der Tagesspiegel of November 21, 2014, p. 21.
  3. ↑ http://www.t-online.de/unterhaltung/kino/id_71889054/whoopi-goldberg-von-trauer-ueberwaeltigt-z Weisebruch-in-live- show.html
  4. ↑ Bruce Weber: Mike Nichols, 83, Acclaimed Director on Broadway and in Hollywood, Dies. In: The New York Times of November 20, 2014 (accessed November 20, 2014).
  5. ↑ See Mike Nichols honored by AFI for lifetime achievement at awardsdaily.com, October 11, 2009 (accessed October 14, 2009).
personal data
SURNAME Nichols, Mike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Michael Igor Peschkowsky (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director, film producer and film actor
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH 19th November 2014
Place of death New York City , United States