When acclaimed director Mike Nichols, 83, died Wednesday, the entertainment world lost a rare director who was equally respected for his artistic achievements and for his ability to create timeless crowd-pleasers (occasionally simultaneously).
A multi-talented and witty presence whose work cuts across media (hes one of a dozen or so people to have won the coveted EGOT-Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), Nichols leaves a legacy that would probably stand on the strength of The Graduate alone. He achieved an almost nonstop list of hits (with the very occasional dud) that spans four decades and a multitude of genres.
If there is any comfort in his passing, it's that younger generations will be able to discover and appreciate his work in the coming weeks as retrospectives and memorials fill the airwaves. Nichols leaves behind a vast and rewarding body of work.
Photo Gallery: Mike Nichols' Decade-Spanning Legacy in Entertainment
Born in Berlin as Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky, Nichols fled Germany in 1938 (alone, at age seven, with his three-year-old brother in tow), settling with his father who set up practice as a doctor in Manhattan.
During his early days, Mike Nichols moved between New York City and Chicago, starting a folk radio program that is still on the air today. He joined a sketch comedy team (The Compass Players, a predecessor to the famed Second City), where he would meet Elaine May and create an off-and-on writing and comedy partnership that would last for the remainder of his life. Their comedy show was one of the first great improv teams to take pop culture by storm.
In 1962, Nichols moved to theater direction, a passion that was probably even more important to him than film. He directed the early Neil Simon plays, including Barefoot in the Park, that would come to represent the comedy style of the 1960s and be hugely influential in the development of sitcoms.
By the mid-60s, Nichols incredible success as a theater director led Warner Brothers to come calling for the film version of Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The success of this film allowed Nichols to make The Graduate, including giving him the muscle to insist on a short, Jewish leading man over the studio pressure for Robert Redford, who Nichols considered too self-assured to be the nervous Benjamin. The film became the highest grossing film of 1966, won Nichols the Oscar for Best Direction, and became #7 on the AFIs list of Greatest American Movies of All Time (In the 2007 revision, it dropped to #17).
In the 1970s Nichols did have a few flops with his valiant but ultimately failed adaptation of Catch-22,the strangeThe Day of the Dolphin, and the aimlessThe Fortune. His 1971 film Carnal Knowledge, though, was a bit of a landmark; the film hasnt aged terribly well, but in the maelstrom of the sexual revolution, it was something of a scandal. Also, Art Garfunkel plays one of the two main characters, for absolutely no good reason.
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Following his middling track record in the 70s, Nichols again retreated to the theater, where he directed the original theatrical run of Annie, which ran for six years (2,377 performances) and never really left the publics imagination.
During the 80s, when many of his contemporaries faltered, Nichols came roaring back to the cinema in style. His true-to-life whistleblower drama Silkwood (written by frequent collaborator Nora Ephron) was praised as the most serious work he had ever done; it further cemented Meryl Streep as the greatest actress of her generation and discovered the actress within Cher.
His winning streak continued through the 80s, with Ephrons semi-autobiographical Heartburn, the low-key but charming Neil Simon adaptation, Biloxi Blues, and the smash hit, Working Girl. It is worth noting, particularly with the masculine-centric nature of so much of the work of his contemporaries, how often women were front and center in Nichols work, both in front of the camera and as collaborators.
In this vein, his adaptation of Postcards from the Edgerescued Carrie Fisher from an eternity as Princess Leia and began her rehabilitation (both career-wise and personally) as one of the go-to script doctors in Hollywood before she decided to re-don the famous hair buns.
Nichols did have a couple of flops in the 1990s with the painfully boring and mawkish Regarding Henry and the incoherent Wolf. But The Birdcage putt him right back on top. Twenty years of advances in gay rights might have blunted the effect of the film, but it is fairly extraordinary that he was able to make that kind of statement with some of the most beloved actors of the time in the mid 90s.
His adaptation of Primary Colors was more memorable for its casting and its obvious relation to our real president (and First Lady) at the time. His final two films, Closer (2004) and Charlie Wilsons War (2007), were both decently reviewed but little seen. It was his work on television and his beloved theater that would be his final contributions to pop culture.
His adaptation of Tony Kushners Angels in America was widely praised for sharing an understanding of gay rights. He also got what will probably be the last good performance out of Al Pacino.
On the stage, the surviving members of the legendary Monty Python troop recruited him to direct the stage adaption of their 70s classic,Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Spamalot ended up becoming a giant success that still runs to this day and was integral to Broadways recent revival.
He won his final honor, a Tony, for his revival of Death of a Salesman in 2012 (starring the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman). He will be missed by generations to come.
Click here for Photo Gallery: Mike Nichols' Decade-Spanning Legacy in Entertainment
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Source: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2014/11/20/Multifaceted-Mike-Nichols-Changed-Face-Entertainment
