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For "The Phantom Editor" who re-cut George Lucas' Episode I of Star Wars, see Mike J. Nichols.

Mike Nichols (born November 6, 1931 in Berlin as Michael Igor Peschkowsky) is an Emmy Award, Academy Award, Grammy Award, and Tony Award-winning film and stage director who is best known for having directed The Graduate and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Collaboration with Elaine May 3 Private life 4 Awards 5 See also 6 External links

Nichols was born to a German-Russian Jewish family in Berlin, Germany. In 1939, his father fled the Nazis, moving the family to the U.S. While attending the University of Chicago in the 1950s, he began work in improvisational comedy with the Compass Players troupe (a precursor to The Second City), and later started the long-running Midnight Special folk music program on radio station WFMT.

He teamed up to form a comedy team with Elaine May, with whom he appeared in nightclubs, on radio, released best-selling records, guested on several television programs and had their own show on Broadway (directed by Arthur Penn). They were accompanied by Chicago pianist Marty Rubenstein, host of the TV show "Marty's Place." Personal idiosyncrasies and tensions (the latter culminating in the out-of-town closing of A Matter of Position, a new play written by May and starring Nichols) eventually drove this great comic duo apart to pursue other projects in 1961. Happily, they later reconciled and worked together many times, including May's doctoring of more than one script of a Nichols film (such as Wolf; "she saved my ass on that one," he has said) and, eventually, her providing the scripts for his movies The Birdcage and Primary Colors. (There was also talk of their collaborating on a new version of Kind Hearts and Coronets, starring Robin Williams.) They also appeared together at President Carter's inaugural gala and in a 1980 New Haven stage revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (with a supporting cast of Swoosie Kurtz and James Naughton).

Nichols has been married four times, most notably to TV journalist Diane Sawyer, whom he wed on April 29, 1988. He has three children, Daisy (born circa 1964), Max (born 1974) and Jenny (born 1977). His daughter-in-law is ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols.

He is a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. Nichols is also a teacher and founder of The New Actor's Workshop in New York City.

Nichols is one of the few people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award.

Nichols was a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors in 2003. He has also received the following Academy Awards and nominations:

• 1994 Nominated Best Picture The Remains of the Day (with John Calley and Ismail Merchant)
• 1989 Nominated Best Director Working Girl
• 1984 Nominated Best Director Silkwood
• 1968 Won Best Director The Graduate
• 1967 Nominated Best Director Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

He has also received the following Emmy Awards and nominations:

• 2004 Won Outstanding Directing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Dramatic Special Angels in America
• 2004 Won Outstanding Miniseries Angels in America
• 2001 Won Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special Wit
• 2001 Won Outstanding Made for Television Movie Wit
• 2001 Nominated Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Movie Wit
• 1977 Nominated Outstanding Drama Series Family

Nichols and May won the Grammy Award in 1961 for Best Comedy Performance.

He won a Tony for best director for the broadway play Spamalot in 2005. He has won nine Tony Awards.

Awards
Preceded by Fred Zinnemann for A Man for All Seasons	Academy Award for Best Director 1967 for The Graduate	Succeeded by Carol Reed for Oliver!

• List of people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award

• Mike Nichols at the Internet Movie Database
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database